G Hotel Georgetown

... where the evening's entertainment took place. Several girls were taking it in turns to sing and dance to ridiculous and cheesy songs such as the sodding Venga Boys. Me and Brian found all this hilarious and videoed some of it.

Back at the hostel we both went on the internet and I did some more blogging, before heading off to bed around midnight. We arranged to meet up on Ko Tao, as Brian was arriving there just a day after me.

... constantly being added. Unfortunately, construction work was being done on the massive statue of the goddess Kuan Yin during our visit, and scaffolding blocked our view of the 30 meter goddess who looks out over Georgetown. The climb up to the temple is made via long stretches of enclosed stairways which are ...

... Off the boat and into a cab to some hostel these British girls we met on the boat are staying at. It seems a little topsy turvy and I almost fell down the stairs with my bag on my bag whilst attempting to climb to the top but other than that all is well. We have been offered a room to ourselves for the same price as a dorm (£2.50 per night) as long as we don't mind sharing a bed?!?! No problem there...it's funny when you travel you really bond ...

So we had a nice
relaxing morning today with a bit of a sleep in and some book
reading. Kayla has a bit of a cold so with any luck some rest will be
good for her. We eventually got up and headed off in search of some
breakfast (well it was really lunch by this stage). The chinese cafe
we went to yesterday was still open so in we went for more banana
pancakes and a pretty good big ...

... 8211; Bangkok line, but also a major hub for coaches. Whilst making inquiries, we were overheard by a very pleasant chap who recommended the direct flight from KL to Tioman. We were aware of this option from the planning sessions before leaving England, but had ruled it out, as the east coast route, following the jungle train was, at that time, the prefered option. Direct coach travel from Penang/Butterworth proved not to be possible, whilst we were ...

... immigration and continued to sit in the van until 7 or 8pm.

Arriving in Butterworth, we crossed the channel to Georgetown on the car ferry. A real blast from the past, reminded me of the old days in Hong Kong and the few times we took the car across the harbour on the ferries. Now I think about it, the crossing and the view itself wasn’t all that different to Hong Kong either, although the night skyline is obviously rather more lowrise and ...

... be the largest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia, which it quite possibly was. There was a lot of land and buildings on this hillside site. There was a temple which reminded me of the 10,000 Buddha's temple in Hong Kong, as the walls were lined with rows of miniature Buddha's. A pagoda was 193 steps was another main attraction at the site, which had great views of the city, and there was also a giant statue of ...

... off the Englishness, it started to rain. We headed down to the city again, which took ages due to rush hour traffic. By the time we arrived it was dark and we went for dinner at some stalls on the pavement (the best food and the lowest prices). We were going to stay an extra day to explore the city of Georgetown, but felt we had seen enough from the bus and so we booked ourselves on a bus back to Thailand.

... materials from other buildings being destroyed in Penang. It reopened as a cultural shopping centre but due to declining business it was decided to convert the first floor into a hostel ...

... Christmas holiday season. Or pay heed to the fact that it is one of the biggest holiday periods in Malaysia. When all the Malaysians head to the beach, and this beach in particular. The proliferation of 1000 room hotels were either booked up, or had rooms free for exorbitant prices. We spent an hour and a half trapsing through hotel after hotel gradually losing heart. Eventually we found just about the only non-Presidential room in town. The Padua Guesthouse ...