George Town, Penang - Malaysia

We have entered our sixth country on our world tour.  Not really that impressive when one day driving in Europe we went through three countries in about five hours of driving. However, we're not in Europe so to hit three countries in one day would involve a lot of flying.

Our 8:30am pick up in the mini bus was all good, but the arrival time of 5:00pm in Penang blew out to 8:40pm and resulted in us spending about ten hours in a mini bus, and two hours waiting in a grotty mini bus office in Hat Yai for the final connection to Penang.  Not my favourite day. Upon arrival in George Town (the capital of Penang) we went to get some dinner. Nathan really wanted to come to Penang for the street food so I had to oblige.  We found a neat set up at the end of our road and had Wan Ton Mee (wanton with pork and noodles).  We also tried some pieces of food from the lok lok stall.  They make kebab sticks and you can choose meat, or veges, or in my case spring rolls. Then if your stick is raw you cook it in the vat of boiling water until it's cooked, and then you get the most delicious satay sauce to pour over everything.  The kebab sticks are colour coded to match the price list. So simple. 

Old George Town is a UNESCO heritage town so we spent the day walking around the old town, checking out the buildings, the pier, and the street art.  It's was so hot - real feel 41 degrees! We visited an old Chinese house that even had its own temple.  Very flash.  

That night we went to the street food markets on the other side of town. By luck we walked past a restaurant on our way that happened to be playing the Kiwis league match so we had a beer while watching the league. 

The street food was so yum. We started with meat sticks and satay sauce, followed with a noodle dish (seemed a bit like pad thai) and an egg/omelet dish with prawns.  

The next morning we couldn't be bothered to get up to do too much.  We were a bit gutted as we had planned to go to the Perhentian Islands but had just found out that morning they have closed for the monsoon season (even though lonely planet said mid November). We cut our time in a Thailand short to get to the Perhentians and now it wasn't going to happen.  We spent some time that morning coming up with a new plan (which is why I am writing this from Langawi & why we have ended up back tracking a little on ourselves!).  We could have avoided the awful mini bus ride to Penang and gone to Langakwi from Koh Lanta had we known the Perhentian Islands had closed early. 

After replanning our trip we headed out to Penang Hill to take the funicular up to the top for a view of the Island. Many moons ago the British use to come up here to escape the heat. Very much a disappointment.  We went for the view but largely the view was obstructed by trees, buildings and smog/fog/haze. There were many tourist activities at the top - like having photos with poor animals, an Owl museum, restaurants and souvenir ships.  Not what I signed up for.  Nathan and I even refused to have our photo taken before getting on the funicular because we knew they would then try to sell it to us as a mug, plate or tacky fridge magnet.  Due to the bus ride taking an hour each way and the queues for tickets and then the que for the funicular this activity took up the whole day and upon return to our hostel it was dinner time and bed time. We had to be up early for our ferry the next morning to Langkawi. Again, not one of my favourite days on tour.