Goergetown... where all the action is and we are loving it!

After the beach and sun we hopped on a bus to get to the Western coast of the country, Penang island, Goergetown. And that was when it all started. Took a 7-hour night bus to the destination (we thought) but for some weird reason we woke up 5 in the morning to realize that we were not in Goergetown but in the middle of nowhere, 20km outside the city. And it was dark! That's how it goes when you buy bus tickets without knowing the language. Sleepy, pissed off and dead tired we managed to get a cab (at an extremely touristy price) and got in to the city at 6 in the morning...just to realize that everything's closed until at least 9. Strolled the streets full of rats, dogs and lady-boys looking for customers and felt pretty sorry for ourselves. But the the sun came out, the rats and the ladyboys went to hide and we checked in a hostel and went to sleep.

Georgetown is an old Brittish colony and the whole city is UNESCOS world heritage. Everyone speak english, the city is beautiful - filled with old buildings, temples and parks, and the food is the best in Malaysia. Every night the streets get invaded by men and women pushing their mobile kitchens and cooking the most amazing flavours you can imagine. Even Anton stopped insisting on going to McDonalds "because it could be the last one in weeks" and started enjoing the flavours of radioactive-colour dishes.

And it wouldn't be true us if we didn't end up experiencing something totaly weird. This time we went for an evening walk and stumbled into a chinese "the 9 emperor-gods" celabration. Out of the blue the whole street filled up with worshipping people, the drums were sounding, the incenses filling the air with smoke and people hurting themselves badly, to let the gods enter their bodies. No actually, it was an amazing experience: a coulpe of chosen ones cut their tongues or pierced their cheeks and people were praying and seeking godly advice and blessings. And then everyone paraded along the streets playing music and doing religious dances. Gotta love this country!

We now only have 5 days in Malaysia left. We'll spend them on this island, Penang, looking for more weird stuff to stumble upon. And afterwords it's Thailand, baby! We'll be crossing the boarder on the 11-12th October, so bear with us until the next entry from another crazy country.

Kisses and hugs to all of you!