Penang

This lovely hostel put on a similar breakfast to the last but with the added addition of fruit and a delicious blackcurrant jam, something I'm going to make when I'm home. We wanted to explore the island but hadn't a clue where to start so the guy at the front desk directed us to the bus stop and advised us to visit the national park. The bus took about 40 minutes in total but when we got off we realised we weren't at the right place. We were at an adventure park called Escape which looked cool but was meant for kids. This meant waiting for another bus and going a few more stops up the road until we reached the national park. 

After registering (just in case you get lost they have your names written down) we set off on our hike to Turtle beach, hoping to see some turtles. Stupidly, we had both worn out sandles again and although they are very comfy, we would have been safer in trainers as the terrain wasn't the best. However, after just over an hour, we made it to the sweet little beach and had a sit down before realising there wasn't really anything on the beach. As it was now lunch time we were pretty hungry and were extremely disappointed that there wasn't a shop or restaurant. There was a turtle sanctuary but that consisted of two large tubs of water, one with mini turtles in it and one with larger turtles in it. Not what we thought it would be like. There were a few boats that came in and out of the beach but they had been booked by other people and were rather expensive. This meant that our only way back and to food was to walk the way we came from. 

After another hour of walking through forest, up and down, dodging tree roots and lacking massively in energy we made it back to the entrance. Luckily, the whole walk was under the cover of trees so although we were nicely sweaty, it wasn't unbearable. At the entrance we signed out again and went to find lunch. There was a little pop up restaurant barely 20 metres away so we sat down and ordered a roti with a standard curry sauce and some mee goreng (noodles which are similar to pad Thai). They both tasted delicious (mainly because we were so hungry) and meant that we could function properly once again. 

We caught a bus back to Georgetown and arrived there at about 4pm. As were we planning to leave Penang tomorrow, we booked a bus to the Cameron Highlands which lay between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. We knew at the time (but for some reason didn't care too much) that we were being ripped off as the price was higher than we thought it would be. However, to save time and hassle trying to find somewhere else that sold a cheaper bus, we just booked it. Not one of our wisest moments. 

To cheer ourselves up after the expensive bus, we thought it a good idea to buy a slice of apple crumble each from a very nice looking bakery. It was rather a nice apple crumble but obviously needed some delicious custard to accompany it. We then set out to find all of the cool street art that was dotted around Georgetown. We started off at the Time Tunnel which is like a little mini museum. It was a tad boring but at the end they had all sorts of 3D art that we could take pictures with. The best was an anti gravity piece that enabled us to look like we were walking on the ceiling or floating when the pictures were taken in the correct way. Pretty cool. 

The other art was spread out in another area of town but when we left the Time Tunnel it began to rain. Heavily. And we didn't have our waterproofs with us. However, as this was our last evening in Penang, it was our last chance to see the street art so we braved the rain and explored all that we wanted to (see pictures). By the time we'd seen the last one it was getting dark and food was calling us. We wanted to find the food that everyone raves about so walked for a good half an hour (still in the rain) to a night hawkers area. This had been the place to go as there were loads of different stalls selling different things. It appeared to be mainly locals that were there but that added to the excitement. Maybe we got a little too excited and so ordered a lot of different things but we wanted to try lots. First, there were Chinese dumplings (yes, Chinese not Malaysian but I got forced to try them) that tasted incredible. They had pork and onions and deliciousness inside them. I could easily have eaten about 20 of them. Also, there was a spinach cake style thing that had been fried. This also tasted good. Matt chose some noodles in a soup similar to what I had on the first night in Kuala Lumpur but the soup tasted loads better and there were even little muscles dotted about in there. We tried some chicken satay sticks that were moreish and then some noodles like the mee goreng from earlier today but with huge meaty prawns and muscles and a lovely flavour. To finish our meal, we had some green pancakes wrapped up with brown sugar, coconut and cinnamon inside that I enjoyed (they weren't too sweet) but Matt wasn't a fan. We each had a fresh fruit juice (orange and pineapple) to cleanse our pallets before starting the longish walk back to the hostel. I do like food.