We spent a day getting to Penang. We left Lipe in the morning, going through border control on the beach and being taxied to the ferry in a long boat. The ferry ride across the border to Langkawi, Malaysia was fairly short. However, on getting to Langkawi we decided to head straight to Penang so we could save ourselves some time and money. A boat was setting off 2 hours after we arrived so we decided to board this. It was absolutely freezing on the second ferry and the only entertainment to distract us from the loud noise the engines made was a film played in French. When we arrived in Penang because of the difference in air temperature, humidity and how cold we were from the air conditioning on the boat we could actually feel condensation on our skin. It was clear there was a storm brewing and as soon as the taxi dropped us off in Georgetown sure enough the heavens opened. Wandering the streets in the dark and wet was bad enough on its own, but to add to it every available accommodation that we could afford was disgusting. It was at this point we were trying to think of why we decided to leave Lipe. Eventually we came across Crystal Guesthouse and although we had to step slightly outside our budget it was good!

The following day we decided to dive straight into Georgetown's sights. There are many old buildings here from when the British use to rule. To name a few there was St George's Cathedral, old courthouses and a memorial to Queen Victoria (see picture). After much walking around in the heat we stopped for a coffee in a very western looking café. It had also occurred to us that the average Malaysian speaks better English than what we have experienced so far. Zo has been wearing her engagement ring on her necklace so far because it is too big, so she wanted to try to find somewhere we could have it resized. All the jewellers here would not do it, but one place we went in suggested trying 1st Avenue, a large shopping mall close by. On approaching the shopping mall it really stood out in this old town. It was far bigger and far more modern than any building around it. It also gave us a big slap in the face of Christmas. Up to now we had seen no sign of Christmas, but since Malaysia celebrates Christmas there were some massive displays in the shopping mall. We had a look around but no such luck finding a jeweller that could do it before we left for Kuala Lumpur. We ate here and then headed back to the hostel to have a play with a laptop we brought. The internet bills were really starting to hit our budget and everywhere seems to have free wifi.

Now, whether if it was because we were tired or because we now had a laptop, but we didn't leave to guesthouse all day. We had put off using the internet in Lipe because it was so expensive so we had a lot to catch up on and some phone calls home to make...I had yet to tell the family I was engaged. Our only activity of the day was to go to the cinema in the evening. We watched the new Twilight film; Zo enjoyed it more than me. I think I enjoyed the popcorn more than the film, it was something quite literally worth writing home about. Every single piece covered in caramel! We also had a double sofa seat.

All over the weekend we were in Penang they had a national motorcycle race meet. So we decided to see what this was all about. Basically some of the roads of the town were shut off and riders would race 125cc motorcycles around them. There was a large crowd and it was enjoyable to watch, well at least I thought so, I think Zo got bored after about 5 minutes…and that 5 minutes included a crash. Nothing serious though. We thought we had better take in a bit more culture so we went to the Penang State Museum, which told a story about the history of this little but what turned out to be very significant island. We had heard a lot about the curries in Little India here so we went to see for ourselves. We were not disappointed, easily as good as back home. So bloody delicious I wish we had found it sooner and not on our last night. After mopping up the last bits of my Chicken Tikka Masala, we booked our bus to Kuala Lumpur from our guesthouse.