The ferry over from Langkawi took longer than I thought and so we arrived here around 8pm and a local man showed us about hopping on a free shuttle bus to the backpaker area of chinatown. We walked straight to our guesthouse which was ran by the friendliest man in the world called Mr Lee... it actually mentions this guy in the lonely planet saying how friendly he is! That night was our first experience of eating at Malaysian Hawker markets, which is basically a local food court area with lots of little food stalls and stands all around it selling all kinds of cheap Malay food. After dinner the four of us headed to the bottom of our street where we heard that a little local bar sells the cheapest beer around, when we got there we found it was actually a tiny little bottle shop with a few tables and chairs outside in a really dimly lit street full of locals. Basically it looked a little dodgy! But we thought sod it and went in few a few beers, as we came out looking for somewhere to sit a local guy called us to his table to join him, well it wasnt actually a table... it was a bicycle with a big metal box on wheels at the front. We were then joined by locals from all angles wanting to be our friends and join us for a drink, one of the guys who came to join us called himself 'Cyclone' and was a funny character with no teeth, clyclone really went out his way to make us feel welcome and after a few drinks went on to tell us how when he was younger he was a gangster and had killed 2 people back in the 70's! He then was on the run until the poice caught him crossing into Singapore and from there did 8 years in Jail! After his stories he said we must come back to join him for a drink the following night, we all were a little unsure as to what to say but said we would anyway so we didn't offend him! As we weren't planning on staying in Penang for too long, the following day me and Lau decided to spend the day exploring Georgetown on its free shuttle bus... its such a good idea cuz it allowed us to hop on and off as and where we liked. There isnt a great deal to do and see in Georgetown, but one of the most interesting places that we visited was the sea village. This is a wooden jetty that sticks out over the ocean with wooden houses on stilts built on either side, these houses have been here for hundreds of years and are now classed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and was really nice to walk around and see the villagers who still live in these houses going about there day to day lives. That night when leaving to go for dinner we bumped into Cyclone again!!!! Who insited on showing us around some of the area and where was good to eat. We all went to the hawker market again and had Laksa for dinner which is traditional Malay food, its like a noodle soup with fish and veg, I liked it but Lau wasn't so keen. After dinner it was off to the 'Local' for a few drinks with Cyclone... on the way down he told us he was going home to change his clothes and he would meet us there, and sure to his word as we were sitting at our makeshift table again, he returned with his pet s***zu in his arm! Then for the next 2 hours as we drank our beer, Cyclone was knocking back whiskey like it was going out of fashion, the more he drank the more stories he told and the more he slurred his words, it got to the point where he was telling us if we did'nt like anyone here he would kill them!! lol It was at this point the four of us decided to leave and Cyclone came to as we were walking past his house on the way to our hotel... it was so funny watching him stumble up the street, when we left him we even went back and hid round the corner to watch him walk to his house cuz he was so drunk! In the end we made it back safe n sound and no-one got murdered!! Haha That night after we go back to the guesthouse I stayed up until 4am watching Man United get beaten by Munich with Mr Lee as he's a massive United fan too, and then it was up and out the next day as we were off to catch the ferry to the mainland to travel up into the mountains of the Cameron Highlands. x