Hello again from Georgetown on the island of Penang. As I mentioned the other day, we are only really in this part of Malaysia because it was a place my Grandad mentioned. A place much nicer than the hussle and bussle of the big KL. Well thank you Grandad, because we have really enjoyed our last couple of days.

Sadly we haven’t really got the time to visit more of the island as we would like. But our time in Georgetown has been a real added bonus to our trip. I suppose you can see this city as the Chiang Mai of Malaysia. The calmer, more relaxed city that accommodates all those who visit. Of course all this is before we even visit Kuala Lumpur. It may be that the whole country is like this. But covering such a small space, we feel Georgetown is going to be very different than anything else we experience here.

When we arrived to check in we were told breakfast was included and that it would be served until 10am. Perfect. Although the place was a little more expensive than our usual stops, at least it had a meal included. And it didn’t finish until 10. We could easily catch up on the hours of sleep we missed traveling to the airport and get some food in us before exploring the city.

I suppose you can probably understand our annoyance when at 11:20 we were woken up by a loud banging at our door. So much for breakfast. The noise was coming from one of the hostel staff asking if we were going to extend our stay or, basically, get the hell out. What this abruptly rude woman hadn’t checked was that we had already agreed to stay another night. So, without being too rude, I told her to go back to her desk and look at her computer screen again. This time in a way that didn’t involve being a miserable bitch.

I suppose her abrupt knocking was for the best. Although we both like our sleep, we also hate letting a day pass us by. Especially when we are only in a place for a very limited amount of time. So we quickly got dressed and headed out for some exploring.

This city is tiny. You can get anywhere by either walking, hiring a bicycle or by hopping on the free shuttle bus. We decided to have a slow stroll along the sea front, following a map we picked up at the airport. The first place we stumbled across was Fort Cornwallis. A small star shaped fort built about 300 years ago with a load of cannons pointing out to sea. Oh and a lighthouse. Nice little place to visit if your passing, but I wouldn’t seek it out if your not.

From there we walked down Beach Street. A busy road full of banks, coffee shops and bars. I’m pretty sure I may have mentioned this on previous days, but yesterday was pretty much the hottest day since hot days began. So hot my bottle of water evaporated all its contents before it could reach my mouth. Just like that. Gone. So anyway, we needed a break from the heat and an air conditioned juice bar was ticking all the boxes.

We really aren’t a million miles from Thailand. And in some cases it shows. With their food stalls, religious shrines and phenomenal number of 7/11 stores. But when an Asian waitress starts talking to you in perfect English, you know your somewhere else. Everyone here seems to speak better English than most of the people you meet on Tonbridge High Street each day. Then they go back to talking in their native tongue effortlessly. They just seem to accommodate us Brits so well here that you can feel comfortable immediately.

After a little refreshment we headed on towards the very centre of the city. A place called Little India where, as I’m sure you can imagine, is full of Indians. And Bollywood movies stores. And spice shops. All playing ridiculously loud music from huge speakers in the road. Not stuff you would find me searching for on Spotify, but they obviously loved it. Of course being half Indian there is a picture somewhere with Soph under the sign post. She hates it and doesn’t want it on here though. I’ll have to wait until she’s asleep before posting that separately. Sometimes she needs to understand you have to give the fans what they want.

We spent the rest if the day chilling out before heading to a little bar for a couple of drinks. With last week in Phuket with Hartfield being so expensive, together with the fact we don’t seem to fancy the local dishes available here, it was pot noodles for dinner. It’s alright though. They are local pot noodles. So we are still experiencing the culture of Malaysia, just in our own way. Plus you can fill your pot up with boiling water in store. It’s bloody marvellous stuff.

Today we woke at the increasingly disappointing hour of 12 o’clock midday. Another wasted breakfast opportunity and a few hours of our last full day wasted. Well not wasted as such because we love sleep. But not what we would have liked.

When we eventually got up Soph was up for a little treasure hunt. It was a sort of sight seeing tour that you could do on foot through the small nooks and crannies to see all the different examples of street art in the city. We walked around most of these roads yesterday but never really stopped to notice the work on the walls. So with our map in tow we took off.

It was clearly a very popular thing to do in Georgetown. Loads of visitors were out with their maps trying to find each hidden piece. Some were obvious. But some were inside shops and down little passage ways that you usually wouldn’t even consider walking down. We looked high and low for every last one. It was thirsty work. Thankfully there was some refreshment available in the form of a large ice slurp. About 60p got you a huge ice ball in a plastic tray that was soaked in Ribena or lemon or whatever really. Different but rather nice.

At one point, while in search of another piece of art, we found ourselves walking on a type of pier. There were small wooden houses or shacks that were selling fruit and water and other souvenirs from their front doors. All of which were set on a structure standing in the sea. So caught up with discovering all the hidden street art we hadn’t noticed we’d stumbled on to one of Georgetown’s other main attractions, the Chew Jetty. On here we grabbed some fruit to snack on that we’d never tried before. Bit of a mix between a watermelon and a pineapple. It comes in the form of a huge green spikey watermelon with a bright yellow centre which is the part you eat. If I could remember it’s name I’d tell you. It was rather nice though.

The art hunt It was a really fun way of exploring the city without simply walking in no particular direction. And of course being the most competitive team around, we were having to help others locate art as if we’d been living here for years. We found them all, and some.

Once we’d smashed all the competition we headed back to Georgetown’s famous Love Lane. After walking down here yesterday we noticed a shop that we thought surely too good to be true. But this afternoon we realised it was in fact exactly as we’d hoped. A coffee shop that puts your face on top of its cappuccino froth. Literally a must for anyone.

You walk in. You order your coffee. You take a selfie on their smart phone hooked up to a computer and they give you a number. After a little wait someone comes to you with your coffee, with your photo on it. We couldn’t believe what we were looking at. Coffee. Our faces. There. In front of us. Mental. And it was actually pretty nice coffee all for less than a small regular latte at Starbucks.

Something else we have also experienced today has made us feel a little sad. Happy. But still sad. You see today we failed in our attempts to stay away from western fast food. Today we had McDonald’s. Bugger! Just the simple double cheese burger meal sufficed. It tasted pretty much the same, maybe a little different from home. But just as we were getting up to leave I noticed a disturbing sign.

“McDonald’s Malaysia. 100% halal meat.”

Not knowing what halal was, my first thoughts were, “what the hell have we just eaten.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have said this out loud, but I was pretty worried we’d just eaten a burger made of some animal I’d never heard of. Thankfully Soph thought she knew what halal was and told me it was all ok. However I’m still not totally sure so if someone could help us out that would be great. Please be good….

Tonight we have booked our bus tickets to Kuala Lumpur and will be starting that 6 hour journey around midday tomorrow. We are definitely getting up for breakfast. For sure. Maybe. Probably not. We’ll see. See you in KL.

Thanks for following x