After the mayhem of New Year we left Thailand for Malaysia on one of the most complicated bus journeys so far. After being escorted to about 5 different terminals we eventually, nearly 3 hours late, got on the correct bus to take us through to George Town, Penang. On the journey down, much to Rachel's amazement, we bumped into her university friend Tom who was also backpacking out here. Unfortunatly for her she was situated in the front with the less than talkative bus driver, while we spent the best part of three hours discussing football, "Heaven". As we arrived in Penang, at a little after 11, we found accommodation for 30rm in a part called Little India. Hungry and dehydrated we grabbed some food with the lads and a Swedish gal we had also met on the journey down.

The next day we switched accommodation due to the fact that you need not use a key to open our room door as it had Cleary been broken in too before. The accommodation we found was a little more but a lot bigger and more secure. After finding our way round we spent the day with the group and went on a historical trek around George Town looking at old architecture and the fort situated on the coast, where we spent time playing on all the war toys, and for once it was Rachel being a bigger kid than me, "well she may disagree." For those of you who would like a history lesson, Penang is a small island situated off the west coast of Malaysia. It was founded by a chap called Francis who was actually born in Woodbridge, Suffolk and was a member of the Ipswich Parliament. His mansion in Penang is called Suffolk House. Very strange when you come half way round the world only to see pictures of little old Suffolk in an old fort. Anyway, after finishing on our trip through time we headed back through Little India bustling with colors and loud bangrea music blaring out at all quarters. We settled for a fresh chicken samosa for lunch before spending a couple of hours on in the accommodation café before spending the evening in a bar watching probably the dullest FA cup tie of the third round.

The next day Tom, Nick and Elle all departed for their next destinations while we headed for the beach as we finally had a bit of sunshine. As we hopped on the local bus the smile on Rachel's face could be seen from the moon. We spent the day on the northern tip of Penang called Batu Ferrminga, a popular resort area with a beach packed full of activities. As the days heat built up the strength of the equator sun soon became apparent, and even Rachel admitted that the sun was a wee bit stronger than were used too. Eventually the tropical rain did come in and we took shelter again before planning what we would do for the next day. We eventually made the decision to head to Kuala Lumpur a bit earlier than planned but after a couple of chilled days in Penang we felt ready to tackle the next city. We got up early the next day and caught the VIP bus to KL. Much to our amazement the bus was on time and could not have been any better, reclining seat, films and air con "Luxury" and we were away.