Penang

At last a long weekend...we have a Sunday off...which gives us a 3 and half day weekend.  We decided to catch a luxury bus to Penang...a 5 hour ride.  bus was great, power points for your laptop...we had our mobile broadband so could play on the internet while travelling.  We had to get a taxi from the local bus depot to Hotel 1926.  Quite  a quaint hotel and only walking distance to Georgetown.

We stopped here for a drink...it said cafe and bar so I was expecting to be able to get a wine but no they only had beer.  So it was a lime juice for me.  Wayne went off and bought some dinner.  Looked and smelt lovely but unfortunately had chili in.

This is one of the oldest temples in Penang.  A guy was sitting outside with many cages of birds.  Apparently you could pay him some ringgit and he would let the cages open and the birds would fly for your photo. 

A stairway to nowhere!

This is a tourism/travel shop...not sure if their only mode of transport was the bike at the front.

This building is as old as Wayne.

Arches were everywhere as the law was to build a  wide verandah footpath...great for keeping you out of the sun...sometimes they are clear enough to walk along ans sometimes they aren't.

Finally we found a beach worth visiting...out infront of Hard Rock Hotel.  we stopped off here for lunch..  Huge meals and really yummy.

Beach was clean and litter free.

We took the train up the hill.  It had opened the day before so was very busy.  It was also very new.  The scenery going up was breathtaking.   Lucky for us the guard pointed to the back of the train and said this would be the best views and he was right.

Looking down the track with the other traingoing down.  Penang  is in the background.  The train broke down on the next day so we were very lucky.

Wayne is on a viewing platform.

This was the view behind him...stunning.

Everywhere you walk in Georgetown  you see old building.  Beautiful.  some are restored and others are not.

Tea on the roadside.

Fort Cornwallis...an old fort that they are in the process of doing up.  An interesting place to walk around  as they have the history written in the shade (thankfully). 

The canons lined up facing the sea.

Dates ripening.

A red ant on these seeds.

Two nights was not long enough...we will have to go back again.  there is so much more to see and do and as usual we didn't fit everything in.  We walked and walked and saw so much but felt we had also missed so much.  We visited a butterfly farm, taking the local bus out there and back.  This was due to close down a week after we were there for renovations.  The bus ride was only RM2.40 each and well worth it as opposed to RM 35 taxi ride.  It dropped us off outside the butterfly farm and picked us up there as well.  We had been advised that the beach at Hard Rock Hotel was worth a visit and stooped off there on our way back.  It sure was and this has by far been one of the best beaches we have seen in Malaysia.  What really fascinated me was the different colours and structures of the shop house shutters.  They come in all shapes,m sizes and colours as well as state of repair.

Just a small sample of the beautiful (and not so) creatures I found at the butterfly farm.  We bussed back to 1Utama on the 5.15 bus arriving back at around 10 pm and walked over tot he taxi stand to come home and sleep in our own bed before work the next day.