Travelling in a carpeted sofa-esc seated bus, the journey to Penang was possibly the smoothest we have had. So much room, space and air-con, coupled with the experiences of being offered Jam sandwiches by Monks and hearing a Muslim girls ring tone blast out 'Hey sexy lady' made for quite a morning.
Once we arrived we took a short ferry to Georgetown before walking the streets to easily find a place to stay at New Banana's GH. Set on one of Penang's main streets this cute and cosy venue provided us with a nice double room, pool table, Internet, a sufficient bar and an abundance of nice and friendly staff.
After a brief conversation with the owner whilst checking in, we were soon swept up in a yearly, month long festival called the 'Hungry Ghost'. Being made feel very welcome here we saw a great parade of Chinese folk and watched on in awe as their ceremony lasted for the next few hours.
Once the fireworks and excitement had died down we went in search for dinner at a tandoori house stating they did the best biriyani's and Naan's in the whole of Penang. They weren't wrong! Delicious in fact! Moving on with a full stomach, the evening plumeted as we watched Arsenal falter against Manchester City with that scumbag Adebayor their main architect. The less said about the remainder of that evening the better, however i must say most of my dialogue during and after the game could be excused as bad french!
Over the next few days we participated in undertaking a plethora of activities and sights with main attractions including Fort Cornwalis, Penang Hill & Railway (where I got chased by a monkey), Falling down a flight of stairs at the very impressive Kek Lok Si Temple (OUCH!), going to a chocolate factory where they even did chocolate chili??!!, Burmese & Chinese temples and also taking in an interesting yet confusing walk to Gurney Drive and Plaza.
Even with so much to do here, our times once again revolved around food. And my god was there some amazing food on offer! Possibly the best available all trip so far as we ate like pigs, first trying pretty much everything on offer at Chowrasta Market where Jo even tried Moon cake for the first and probably last time. We then found out once more how bad durian flavoured food tastes, had some awesome Punjabi cuisine, had some great ice-cream waffles and stuffed even more Chinese, Malay, Nonya and Indian delicacies down our necks!
We were a little let down on a day trip to Batu ferringhi beach as it was nowhere near as good as other Malay beaches. We also missed out on the biggest toy museum in the world as the bus driver didn't know the way and dropped us of in the middle of nowhere. On the whole despite a few attempts of trying to explain hilariously what cider was to locals in search for a drink for Jo, it was one of the best overall experiences of our trip so far. It really was an amazing cultural must for anyone travelling to Malaysia.
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