Evergreen Laurel Penang Georgetown

... quite amusing actually. The night market was really cool; it was 9pm but the air was still nice and warm, there was a huge variety of eateries of various nationalities all round the sides of the building, and in the centre were lots of tables. Waiters come round and take drinks orders. I got some Japanese food: breaded chicken with chicken curry and some sushi, and it was really cheap and very tasty. At the front of the market was a ...

... good guy. He’d been working on Phi Phi as a dive master for four months, and was just heading to Penang for his visa run. His scowls were caused both by boredom (he’d done this journey a few times before) and by a blazing hangover (as we all know, Thailand divemasters swim around by day and chase tourist girls in bars by night). Having snapped out of my morning moodiness, the company was appreciated and helped pass the time as we went ...

... places I had seen! The landlord was very friendly, and he drew me a map for the next couple of days of good places to visit. His one liner was "happy happy", and he did try a lot to please his guests. I spent the rest of the first day pottering around town, getting trapped in a thunderstorm, and drying off at the hotel later on, watching a DVD. The second day was spent at a temple called Kek Lok Si, which claimed ...

... We took some photos and went for a wander. Our walk took us to a temple and a mosque, and we found hundreds of huge (but not hairy) spiders, hanging from webs above our heads. Lovely. We found another English country house, like in the Cameron Highlands. This one looked straight our of rural England, and had lovely views over the island. We ate tea and scones for an outrageous price, and then to ...

... the heart of Chinatown called 100 Cintra Street. It was built in 1897 by a Siamese lady as a home. Then in 1984 it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1999 to facilitate the use of ...

A snap decision made in the morning leads us to a very quick journey to Penang, Malaysia. A small island(-ish) in the North West of the mainland, its a tropical little outcrop known for its beaches. Making our way up to the North of the island, we hit Battu Ferenghi, worryingly known as 'Foreigners Rock'. In keeping with our snap decision, and our honed travelers instinct, we didn't bother to book a place to stay in advance. Or pay heed to the fact that it is ...