Tuesday 7th August

We woke up late and checked out for 12, we had an hour wait before our taxi pick up which was naturally late! We arrived at the pier where we quickly grabbed some lunch before boarding the boat which was on time leaving at 2:30pm! It was a three hour ride to Penang; luckily the water was calm today!

We made one stop to pick up more passengers before heading to our final destination, Georgetown.

We arrived and grabbed a taxi, as we had no idea where we were, which ironically wasn't too far, but too far to walk! We arrived out our hostel Reggae hostel which is in what I could call China town. But then again there is a lot of Chinese influence here so who knows! We arrived here at 6pm and had to find an ATM which wasn't too far away, next mission was dinner. We stumbled upon a few street stalls selling some samosa and noddle soups. The samosas were good! I also had a corn on the cob and some pineapple juice, take away style (I.e. in a plastic bag with a makeshift handle and a straw!) it was damn tasty too!

We only have one day in Georgetown so made plans on what we were going to see and hopefully book the first bus leaving on the 9th!

Wednesday 8th August

We had an early wake up and had our free breakfast at the hostel before making our way to the bus station to book a bus to Cameron Highlands and the hostel price was too high from what else was on offer. We found the bus station and booked our tickets for the 9th, very early in the morning! We headed to find a bus to the Penang war museum, but I wasn't feeling too good so we decided to give it a miss and stick closer to the hostel.

We went off on my makeshift walking tour; these have become quite a tradition now! We first headed to the sea front to look at the town hall. This used to be the previous social venue for Penang's elite back in the 1880s. Next door was the city hall, which was built in 1903 and is the headquarters of the Penang Island Municipal Council. We also had a look at the WWI monument nearby.

We strolled along the Esplanade looking out to sea where all the freight ships dock; it's still a main freight stop to South East Asia, the main reason why the British owned Penang!

We stopped off at Fort Cornwallis which built when Captain Francis Light first landed on Penang. We knew Malaysia was part of the British Colonial but we learnt what purpose it served. Francis Light was born in 1740 in Suffolk, apparently he was an illegitimate son to Mary Light (how scandalous!) but he was adopted into the family of a local gentleman. Francis was put through grammar school and in 1759 joined the Royal Navy. In 1765 Francis as well as hundreds of other Naval Officers were stood down, this is when Francis decided to try his luck in India.

The history of modern Penang, originally part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah, began when the island was leased to Captain Francis Light, an English trader-adventurer working for the East India Company, in exchange for military protection from Siamese and Burmese armies who were threatening Kedah. For Light, Penang was a convenient magazine for trade and an ideal location to curtail French expansion in Indochina and Dutch foothold in Sumatra. On the 11 August 1786, Francis Light landed on Penang at what is later called Fort Cornwallis and took formal possession of the island in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III and the Honorable East India Company.

Unfortunately for the Sultan, the EAC's new governor-general Charles Cornwallis made it clear that he could not be party to the Sultan's disputes with the other Malay princes, or promise to protect him from the Siamese or Burmese. Unbeknownst to Sultan Abdullah, Light had decided to conceal the facts of the agreement from both parties. When Light reneged on his promise of protection, the Sultan tried unsuccessfully to recapture the island in 1790, and the Sultan was forced to cede the island to the company for an honorarium of 6,000 Spanish dollars per annum. Light established Penang as a free port to entice traders away from nearby Dutch trading posts.

During the First World War, in the Battle of Penang, the German cruiser SMS Emden surreptitiously sailed to Penang and sank two Allied warships off its coast - the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the North Channel, and as it was leaving the island, the French torpedo boat, Mosquet 10 miles off Muka Head. During World War II, Penang, then a British island garrison, suffered devastating aerial bombardments and finally fell to invading Japanese forces on 17 December 1941 as the British withdrew to Singapore after declaring George Town an open city. Penang under Japanese occupation was marked by widespread fear, hunger, and massacres which targeted the local Chinese populace.

The fort also had original cannons that were later used by the Japanese; they still have the mark of the East India Company.

We walked on from the fort towards the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower, the clock tower is 60-feet, and each foot represents a year in the Queen's reign. It was built in 1897 and commemorates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

We carried on down the road and soon found ourselves in Little India which I imagine what India is like. Busy, noisy, chaotic and full of smells (food smells!). There is a big Indian population in Penang, and the rest of Malaysia. The Indians were brought over as slave labour due to cheap labour; most have settled and made their lively hoods in Malaysia since they share the same religious beliefs.

We escaped the madness and had a quick peep in Teochew Temple which was nearby. This temple was built in 1855 and moved to its present site in 1870 (I have no idea why or how it was moved). Since 2006 it received the award of merit UNESCO Asia-Pacific for culture heritage conservation. There was a definite Chinese influence here with similar paintings to what we have seen in China.

We carried on and went part the Kapitan Keling Mosque, we tried to go inside but due to the festival season it was closed to public. The mosque is the largest historic mosque in Georgetown, founded in 1801. It was impressive to look at, big white tower with beautiful domes.

We went to another temple She Tek Tong Cheah Kongsi (try and say that three times!) which is a clan temple with classic Chinese architecture with some additions of British lion heads on the temple. The lions symbolise the Straits Chinese loyalty to the British colonial powers. The Cheah clan is one of the oldest clans in Penang. It felt like we were back in China here and the themed carried on as we went to our next destination.

Khoo Kongsi temple which belongs to the Khoo Kongsi clan, it was bigger than the previous temple but still featured the classic Chinese art work. It was a pretty big temple all hidden away behind the houses in front! There were some pretty impressive carvings on the wall and pillars.

We then went down the smallest street in Penang (apparently!) it was a mission to get two cars to pass down a five foot road! This was around the corner from our hostel.

After our long day we returned to the hostel and had a shower after the long walking tour in the heat!

We stayed in and had a pizza; it was tasty before getting ourselves ready to leave early tomorrow morning!