Arrived in Penang after a long bus journey, finishing with a drive across the "longest road bridge in south-east asia", which was over 15km so quite impressive. It is so much hotter down here after being up in the hills for so long. It hit us like a blast, when we got off the air conditioned bus! We are staying in Georgetown which is the capital...

Penang is known as the Pearl of the Orient and is one of Malaysia's most visited sites. It's well known for it's lively chinese culture (the majority of the island is chinese rather than malay-islam), its colonial architecture, and it's diverse food - especially its street food. Georgetown was the initial settlement on this island (it was basica...

We arrived on the island of Pengang to discover it was really very very hot.....incredibly hot!! We found our guest house owned by someone that reminded me not of scotland but of my old Chemistry teacher Mr Kernley!! We quickly discovered where all the nearest chocolate outlets were and were very pleased that in Malaysia (unlike the rest of Asia...

We loved Georgetown, it was absolutely beautiful. It's on an island called Pinang and we almost didn't go there because of the rubbish things the lonely plantet said about it. Apparently it's impossible to walk around due to the sheer amount of traffic and open drains. We didn't find it that bad at all and they didn't say that about Bangkok whic...

*** Side note-- the sporadic nature of my postings has been a function of my access to internet and the amount of time I have to post... I am determined to post my journal entries chronologically so there is often a gap. I apologize. At 4:30am I had my first squat toilet experience. Half asleep, on the moving train and as a result of KFC; it was...

Jeannie here. I have some more pictures and a few little things to add about Singapore before I get into Malaysia. We really enjoyed the zoo and the night safari. We went to the zoo first and took some pictures of the animals. We didn't get a good one of the polar bears, but we did get a great view of them swimming through the tank and pushing o...

It is with much angst that we left the Parenthian Islands and decided to once again cross the Malay peninsula and head to Georgetown, a city on the Island of Penang on the West coast of Malasia. To do this we had to take a bus from the town of Kota Bharu. Unfortunatly, we got there at 10 am and there are only two buses, one that leaves at 9:30 a...

ITALIANO A FONDO PAGINA: We are in Malaysia! Penang is hot and busy but sooo interesting. Founded at the end of the 18th century by the British (who else...) as an open trading post, as stopover on the silk & spice route in between China and India. Chinese traders flooded in, and Indians as well and the city today is fascinationg mix of thre...

Here we are on the lovely island of Penang, which the British named "The Pearl of the Orient", our first day in Southeast Asia where we haven't seen rain! After travelling for the whole day, from Taman Negara back down to Kuala Lumpur, then up to Penang, we were wrecked! Our taxi driver from Jerantut had told us it was going to be a hectic few d...

Imagine a hot, sticky climate. You sweat profusely as soon as you walk 25m down the road. You wish the sun would stay behind that cloud just a little longer. Now how would walking into an airconditioned room feel? Fantastic, indeed! So, after I had enjoyed a supposedly airconditioned, but boiling one hour taxi ride with three students from Bruss...