Anyway I digress, we spent our first full day in Penang walking round the streets of Georgetown - and went up the Komtar (58 storey high rise) to get the view which was pretty impressive (see the photo page). We also saw the Padang (central park), the City Hall, Fort Cornwallis, Victorian Memorial Clock (60ft, 1 ft for every year Queen Victoria reigned), Cathedrale of the Assumption, and the rather shabby exterior of the Supreme Court. We also saw the outside of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion built by a local merchant trader and painted a distictive blue.
The day was topped off with a very good homemade samosa off a street vendor and a mexican style burger off another street vendor - both excellent.
If you want to see the Photos that have now been put on the web please click here ! This covers us up to present day.
I also went on a guided tour of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion which was worth every Sen of the 10 Ringett I forked out for it. Built in the 1800's and restored in the past decade it has 38 bedrooms, 5 courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 windows...(bet the local window cleaner drives a merc). Built in accordance with Feng Shui (wrong spelling I know) its excellent - it did make me laugh when I found out the floor tiles come from Stoke-on-Trent.
Anyway tomorrow will be the motorcycle ride around the island as there's plenty more stuff to see !
I think riding the mopeds round the island was possibly one of the most hair-raising things we've done so far - it appears everyone in this part of the world drives like and idiot so I guess we weren't in bad company - after spending the first hour getting used to it, it was bloody good fun and a very economical way to get about (65p in petrol for round trip of the island). We managed to get to Penang Hill (at sunset), Youth Park, the Botanical Gardens, and the Forrestry museum as well as touring round most of the island which in some places were steep climbing hairpins with great views over the shoreline of Penang.
Of the places we visited the Forrestry Musuem was a little gem - with some great exhibites on various animals/insects and reptiles that you could find in Penang and the different Rainforrests. Penang hill was also worth the 25 min ride up the side on the railway/cable car to 800m above sealevel providing good views across the whole of Georgetown to mainland Malaysia on the other side. These photos will soon be on the web as well - best to check Photos.
I was reading in the the New Straits Times (Malaysian paper) that the Australian gov/US gov thinks that other countries where you could be at risk (aka Bali) are Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, and Malaysia. Nice.
(pm) Couldn't visit the museum as it's closed Fridays ! ah well tomorrow then.........