Malaysia - Penang

We have been staying in Georgetown on Penang Island just of the west coast of Malaysia for the last few days. Our guesthouse is in Chinatown. It is really good. Its owned by a really helpful guy, there is a cafe downstairs and movies every night at the back of the cafe. Upstairs there is about 7 rooms. Ours is really big and air con and a great price.

On our first afternoon here we looked around Georgetown. There are lots of temples here, we have been to a couple but don't want to overdo it with Thailand coming up. The next day we went down to the waterfront which is a colonial district. There were some pretty cool old buildings. We went to Fort Cornwallis which is on the coast there. It dates back from 1700's and there were lots of old cannons and we could go into some buildings. There was also a Minor bird there which was talking to us in different languages, and different voices. It was very cool and amazing that they can mimic so well!

We have done a little shopping here. Yesterday we took a bus out to Batu Ferringi, a beach resort town. It was packed with 5 star hotels and watersports - parasailing and jet skiing all looked very fun and the hotels and pools looked very inviting... but we are more than happy staying where we are. It looked like most of the tourists who come to Penang stay out there - there were many hotels there and we haven't seen all that many tourists here in Georgetown.
We went for a bit of a swim but the water wasn't so great there which we had been warned about. It was really sunny and we had a nice time reading in the sun and drinking cold beer at a cafe. There was a night market which was fun too. It was really good to drive out there, it was about a half hour or longer trip so we got to see quite a bit of the island.

Over the last week or so we have been buying really delicious mangos. We have had the best Indian food here in restaurants and from street vendors. It is delicious. We are going to get Indian again tonight for our final meal in Malaysia. Not sure if there will be much Indian in Thailand. Little India is really cool - there is a lot of music, smells, colours. Its a fun atmosphere.
We got a trishaw the other night and had a little tour around. The streets here are funny but at times a bit frustrating - the footpaths are covered in businesses and many scooters and motorbikes so you have to walk on the road - which can get frustrating because you have to be aware of the traffic all the time.

We are catching a very early bus tomorrow to Thailand. Going straight to Krabi for a night and then to Ko Phi Phi island.