After being dropped off in Penang we go and find 75 Guesthouse which is run by a rather crazy but very helpful old man. We then wander around for a little while and get something to eat before heading to bed, which is kind of pointless as it's so hot we spend most of the night awake anyway. The enxt morning we catch a bus to Penang hill where we...

So here I am in Georgetown on the island of Penang, just off the coast of NW Malaysia. And... its not very exciting. Its a nice enough place but its essentially a city with a few temples, mosques etc, adn in this heat and humidity town sightseeing is not really my thing! Saying that, todays been ok, one of the guys i met in the cameron highlands...

After another English breakfast at the hostel Dan and I got our stuff together and headed to the 2-6 bus stop which we took to the Kek Lok Si Temple. It was, to say the least, very impressive. From the bus you could see a bronze statue overlooking the temple which was our first indication that we were in for a treat. Once off the bus we headed u...

On the island of Penang, a nice little intro to Malaysia

Staying at "The White House Hotel" tonight 8/26 (picture Washington - NOT!), and moving across the street to the Oriental Hotel on 8/27 http://www.oriental.com.my Penang is an old town, settled mostly by the Chinese Malaysians. They seem to have resisted the type of modernization we saw happening in KL. During the day, we struggled with the heat...

Our visit to the island of Penang, specifically its capital, Georgetown, was brief as the Captain was determined to make sure everything went right for our next port of call, Myanmar. We decided not to take an official tour, but opted to venture out on our own. The ship had a shuttle bus from the pier to the very old and British E&O Hotel, w...

From Songkhla we took a bus to Hat Yai where we had to arrange a minibus to take us over the border into Malaysia. Somehow David and I managed to find ourselves in a minibus with 5 Buddhist monks also en route to Penang. This should have made for a peaceful journey were it not for the constant bleeping of text messages on their mobile phones and...