Our bus to Penang was due to leave at 10.30am. After the Taman Negara debacle we checked the ticket several times the night before and several times in the morning. Our plan was very simple:

• Get up at a sensible time.
• Pack our bags.
• Have breakfast and brush our teeth.
• Check our email quickly and write down directions to the hostels in Penang.
• Leave the hostel in KL and find a taxi to take us to the bus station.
• Find out which bus number and platform we needed.
• Buy some doughnuts.
• Go to Penang.

But of course some divine entity felt like messing with us again. Part way through retreiving the directions to our hostel in Penang the power went. We had no idea when it would be back so we just headed for the bus station. Having reached the bus station and lugged our bags across the road to get the bus number from the grumpier than usual woman, we then had to lug them back again because the bus was on the other side of the road. The man who was trying to hurry us to the bus kept making some strange hand signal to us that I interpreted as meaning "Stay there". Apparently though it meant "Come with me" and he started to get grumpy too. Then it turned out that although it was only 10.15, we were the last ones and the bus driver was grumpy too.

The divine entity must have become bored by then and gone off to pester someone else as we found ourselves in the most roomy bus ever. Instead of the usual rows of four seats squished together so closely that you can lick your own knees, the rows were only of three very wide seats and the legroom would have been good enough for even the tallest basketball player. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.

We reached Georgetown in Penang at about 3pm ish. Having no idea how to get to our hostel we thought we were going to be in for a hot and sticky afternoon of finding maps or information centres etc. Right outside the bus though was a man offering a taxi ride who knew exactly where we wanted to go. Bingo!

So, here comes the Star Trek reference. We were staying in Batu Ferringghi. Ok, so the spelling is slightly different to the big earred trade freaks of the future but it made me smile to think of all of the people there as aliens.

Our guesthouse was comfortable enough and the people made us very welcome. Being quite hungry though we quickly headed out in search of a bite to eat.

We were quite late up the following day / afternoon and headed to a nearby café for some brunch. After finding and internet café too, we managed to flag down a local bus on its way into Georgetown. Although the bus was air conditioned, it did more subtle changing than conditioning and were were quite hot by the time we reached the centre of Georgetown. It was also after 3pm and we hadn't done much. We decided to see a couple of sights before it got dark only to discover that we'd left our guide book in the room. After a bit of ummming and ahhhhhing, we wandered into the Shangri-La hotel nearby and, posing as hotel guests, managed to acquire a city map. Behind the hotel, according to the map, was a geodesic dome that we thought it might be fun to see. Thirty minutes of searching for it proved otherwise.

Being nearly 4pm, we got our skates on and jumped into a cab to the Penang Museum to see what we could learn about the area and its history. By the time the museum closed at 5pm that was a fair bit. I especially liked a couple of pieces of Khat art that they had. (Khat is a style where pictures are made from handwritten verses from the Koran.) When the museum threw us out at 5pm we headed towards Fort Cornwallis, a relic from when the British were in Malaysia. It was fun but nothing too special.

On our way back to where we thought the bus would leave from, we stopped in at the Kapitan Keling mosque - Penang's biggest mosque. A very nice man showed us around and talked to us for quite some time about Islam and the mosque in general. Compared to the places of worship of some other religions, mosques seem to be very clean and plain in decoration although it's quite amazing what meaning there can be in some of the simple features of a mosque. It felt different too. I didn't feel quite the same feeling that I can feel when I go into a big Catholic church for instance but I get the impression that when the place is full of people, that would change.

Unfortunately, as there was a lot of traffic outside, I couldn't hear a lot of what the guy was saying so it took a while for me to notice his subtle hints about converting to Islam. I had to suppress a smile when I cottoned on though.

We left shortly before 7pm and headed for the main shopping mall to see if there were any restaurants there. Several streets away, we could hear the call to prayer start up over the noise of the traffic. Did I mention that it turns out that we're staying right next to a minaret too? It's difficult not to notice at 5.20am but at the same time it's a great sound to wake up to.

We had a quick supper of rice and noodles (and beer) and gave up trying to find our bus so we took a taxi back instead.

We got up slightly earlier the following day, determined to do something more than we did the day before. Once again we caught the bus into Georgetown. This time we headed straight for the old Chinese wholesalers' market for a quick look. It had been closed the previous evening when we had tried to see it but now it was open. We poked around a bit and managed not to get in the way and then we came across some sort of ceremony being performed in the market. I'm guessing that maybe because of the amount of red being worn that it was some sort of good fortune / prosperity ceremony. We stayed and watched discreetly until it was over and then went in search of a bus to Penang hill.

We eventually made it to Air Itam, supposedly where the funicular railway up the hill starts. We wandered around for a while and found ourselves at Kek Lok Si temple, the largest buddhist temple in Malaysia. We had a quick look around and found a group of monks and nuns singing and chanting. It was quite peaceful just listenning and even better not knowing what they were saying - no thinking required.

Back in Air Itam, we eventually found directions to the funicular railway and made our way up Penang hill. As it turns out, there are two railways going up the hill as it is too big to do the whole climb in one go. At the top we admired the view, the fact that it was subtley cooler up there, ate an ice cream and wrote some postcards.

Our journey back to the guesthouse took some time as two buses were necessary to complete the journey. It was dark by the time we arrived and we found out that we were to leave at 8am the following morning for Thailand. (The guesthouse manager had been trying to arrange transport to Thailand for us during the day but until than had been unable to confirm what time we would be leaving, 4.30am or 8am.) Moments later, we went out for dinner and went over the top spending a little over 11 GBP! The food though was delicious. I had stir fried beef in a black pepper sauce and a dessert I couldn't quite finish (oh, and a beer or two of course).

So that's it for Malaysia. I've enjoyed it here. The people have been really nice and we've seen some fun things. It's definitely worth a visit.