Arriving in Penang

Buss ride from Singapore to Penang took about 10 hours and was really nice. Huge seats and easy to sleep in. At 6.30 am I arrived in a middle of nowhere place and sort of forgotten to exchange any Malay money. I had 2.5 euros on me. For that 2.5 euros I got breakfast, a buss ride into downtown and tickets for the fort Cornwallis. There was some taxi driver who tried to bargain a ride for 30 rings which is about 8 Euros....Buss was 50 cent and took about 15 mins longer. People were friendly and helpful to give directions. Quite a tourist trap when you arrive but mainly you will be left alone once you come into Georgetown.

One of the first things I did was go change money, they had an old 500 Finnish Markka bil, haven't seen one of those for VERY long time (red upper left corner)

First thing you see when entering Georgetown, the old clock tower

Georgetown is an Unesco heritage site, it looks almost exactly like it used 100 years ago, the colonial feeling is really present here

Started with walking around the old British fort called Fort Cornwallis. Was build in early 1800s and for about 100 years for the time Malaysia was a British colony. 

The old cannons were originally raided from pirates and then used against them

The fort lighthouse

The old town hall and city hall was build just next to the fort and are still in use for the same purpose, they were build to last!

Town Hall

The street picture is basically old colonial houses, some local houses and then really street kitchens and other places that look like they will fall apart any time. 

Local sweets and snacks cooking

Cakes and egg tarts, really really CHEAP

Street food, loads of mixed Asian food: Indian, Malay, Chinese, Singaporean, Indonesian, BBQ, Seafood

Typical street kitchen look...quite shabby but food usually great!

Snapper, stingray, prawns, squid + other fish I do not know the name of

A bit bigger local food diner for dinners

Streets are narrow lanes, this is one of the famous "Love Lanes". I'm not really sure why it's called that, didn't seem to be any different than the other streets in town. 

 Local Ice Man :) Must melt fast because everyday has been 35 degrees and sunshine!

 

Yepp, we can all be good and we can all go to heaven!

When Penang was a colony there were a lot of Chinese living here too, there are still some of the Clan families left and they live in "Clan Jetty" area where you can find floating houses and loads of temples like this one

 

Inside the temple

Clan Jetty houses on the water. It's sad that the toilet is something that goes straight into the sea, they would really need to fix that, water seemed kinda dirty but did not smell bad.

 

When leaving the jetty a crab came and wanted a hug, or duel

Had my first night hotel just a bit outside Georgetown, with cab it took about 20 minutes to ride and driver kinda rips you off, but it's either that or a 1 hour random bus ride. Should have gotten a scooter the first day since renting it for 1 day is as much as a cab ride (8 euro). Hotel was north west of Georgetown with sea-view and beaches :)

View from the balcony - Tanjong Bungah area

Completely empty beaches by the hotel

Walking around the beach I found some cool shells and a live crab in his "house"

 

Some sea-stars had also washed up on the shore

 Sunset was great!!