Im on a boat, aaand, Im going fast and

Today was a travel day, though a relatively short one. After having our fill at the pretty disappointing hotel breakfast buffet in Langkawi, we jumped in a taxi, and headed to the ferry central ferry terminal.

Having bought our tickets online, we had to trade an electronic reference number for a paper ticket, but had no ideas how to do it. Fortunately, one of the baggage handlers in the airport saw us looking helpless, and quickly directed us to the ferry company's ticket office. The directions were simple - behind the KFC.

Having got out paper tickets, we headed to departure hall, and checked-in. Five minutes later, we were walking down a gangway to get onto our ferry to Penang. As it turned out, the ferry was the same design as the ferry we had taken between Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe.

The ferry ride itself, was pretty relaxing, and we spent it catching up on a few TV shows, downloaded onto the tablet the night before. On the way, we also passed a few fishing vessels, a few research vessels, and a three-masted tall ships. We had no idea what the tall ships might have been doing in the area, as they were anchored miles from each other, and miles from the nearest landmass, which was an island nature reserve.

Bobbing along, we eventually saw the mountains of Penang come into view, but because of how high they were, it would be another hour before we actually arrived at Penang's ferry port.

The walk from the ferry terminal to the hotel was brief, but because of the heat, left us both drowned in sweat within five minutes. Along the way we passed a clock tower built for a diamond jubilee, not for Elizabeth II, but for Victoria, many years ago, when Malaya was one of the British Empires many possessions,

Once checked in, we dumped our bags in the room, quickly worked out where we wanted to go, and then headed out into the Penang afternoon to find some lunch. We headed to the area around Armenian Street, which would be the yuppiest street in the Penang - just about. There we had a nice lunch, befiore heading out to explore further.

The remainder of our explorations were confined to the UNESCO Hertiage area. It is an incredible place, with many different architectural styles, many different spoken languages, and many different religions. On the one street, you might pass a Malay style building, with signage in Chinese and English; a Chinese style building with signage in Malay and English; a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple, a mosque, and a church. It is an incredibly cosmopolitan place. It has the feel of London, in terms of its demographics and mix of people from around the world, with an obvious focus on people from South-East Asia.

On the way back to the hotel, we headed to the Clan Jetties. This is an area on the waterfront between Penang island and the Malay peninsula, where Chinese communities have built their homes and business on plies in the sea. There were once seven communities, but one was lost to fire, and each is over a century old. Wandering along, it was like any other community on land, with grocery stores, bars and restaurants. We had a couple of fruit juices, and commented on the rather flimsy nature of the piles that held up this floating village. And yet in spite of its perceived flimsiness, they have endured many hardships, including a Japanese occupation, storms, and fires (except that one jetty that burnt down, in spite of being built above water - you can't win them all).

Our next stop was the hotel, to make ourselves a bit more presentable for a drink and dinner. We then headed to Love Lane, in the Backpacker district of town. This was to take advantage of the place in town with the cheapest cocktails. We can report that they were also probably the strongest cocktails in town.

Courtney had one too many, being two and by the time it came to having some dinner, she was in another world. That made it slightly easier to find somewhere for dinner, as in that state, Courtney would not be as fussy as she might otherwise be.

We ended up at a local indian restaurant, which was always going to be a good choice, because we were the only non-Indians there, and everyone was eating with their hands, rather than with cutlery. The food was indeed incredibly delicious, and incredibly cheap too. The bread was especially good, and did a good job of sobering Courtney up for the short walk back to the hotel.

Nothing eventful happened on that walk back to the hotel, and the night ended pretty casually, with an isotonic drink for Courtney, to save any pain the next morning.Read more