MALAYSIA - Penang

Penang is a region of Malaysia on the west coast. The residents are made up of immigrants from predominantly India and China making it one of the best places to get a takeaway!

I have never been to a place where the people of such different backgrounds get along so well. It seems as though the world could learn a lot from them. Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs, Protestants, Catholics and many other religions all in one place all living happily and neighbourly. When we arrived however there was much going on. A fire had broken out at a nearby restaurant. We witnessed the fire spread to the next building and threaten many more. Some firemen were already there and more were on the way, however it was at this point that we realise how lucky we are with the emergency services in the UK. The whole situation seemed to be dealt with in a less organised manner, people were all over the streets surrounding the fire, in the way of all the services making everything a whole lot more difficult. We walked around the city on a very warm day and saw many of it's highlights. By the time we had returned to the hostel the fire had been extinguished without crossing over to more buildings. We headed down to Little India for a brilliant diner. It was a Naan Set which was made up of a naan, tandori chicken and three dipping curries/sauces. The meal was delicious one of my favourites of the trip to that point. On the way out I expressed some interest in the way that a man was making naans in the kitchen. I was invited in to take a look by some very enthusiastic staff. They were fantastic and showed and explained what they were doing. Great way to finish the day.

The following day we explored some more of the city including the incredible housing located on piers over the water's edge. The construction of the piers could be seen as nothing less than amazing. We walked out onto them seeing the water beneath through some large gaps between boards. I noticed that some of the pier was held up by concrete buckets. Buckets filled with concrete and then placed in position ontop of each other to form piles. With time some of the plastic had split or broken away leaving piles of concrete in various angular bucket shapes. Later we went up the cities lookout for sunset and to see the city at night. Although not quite as spectacular as Hong Kong it was still a great view, although we did have some interesting company in the form of some rather large spiders floating overhead on their webs around the street lights.

Next day we boarded a bus to the Cameron Highlands.