We arrived from Thailand in the pouring rain, into our hostel in China town in Georgetown, on the island of Penang, just off the North West of Malaysia mainland. After checking into our very cramped hostel, we thought we’d take a little walk around. Then we spotted this little beauty:
Obviously deciding instantly that we simply must hire it and have a ride around, we gave the men some ringgit (the Malaysian currency) and off we went. It was certainly a laugh as we pedalled through Georgetown, through the streets, past markets and traders, everyone we passed seemed to find it humorous too, laughing and waving as these two crazy tourists who were riding this ridiculous contraption through the town. I must add I was on the broken side too, which seemed to take three revolutions of the pedals to get one pedals worth of movement, which felt like we were riding into the kerbs a lot of the time. I did feel like we should have had a little basket of ice creams to sell!
A group of young lads who insisted on a photo with us
In Georgetown there is a large Indian population, and I had the pleasure of eating some of the best curries I’ve ever eaten!
I found a great little Indian stall at the local night market, Red Garden, and it was so delicious I went back to the same place every day that I was in the town.
It may not look much but this is the most delicious curry I have ever had!
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The hostel we had stayed in on our first night, had not been overly pleasant, and we weren’t really sure whether we wanted to stay there. The room was very cramped, with no room to put our bags, and there was an ‘all weather’ open air run to the toilet and shower area! Anyway we were umming and arring over whether to stay or move, and then suddenly I saw it, crawling over Laura’s blanket on the bed – a bed bug! Big, fat and full of blood, waiting to feast on more. Disgusting! So in that instant we made our decision and got out of there pretty sharp, moving to a much nicer hostel down the road.
Georgetown has some pretty cool street art, here’s a few photos…
Some crumbly buildings in Georgetown
We decided to tackle the local Penang Hill, at 823 metres high, and there is a train that goes up the hill. We decided to enjoy this experience (cop outs!) although we did make the effort to walk back down. This was a slog itself, relentless pounding down a winding road, with a short cut through a jungly bit guided with my map app on my phone.
A video of the ride up the hill!
At the top there was a very British looking house, with picket fence and cockerell weather vane included!
And a very British postbox!
To realise how far from home we were…only 14,000 km! (8,700 miles)
Love locks on the bridge
An amazing millipede
Check out this – A video of the millipede!
Views from the hill
A couple of strange plants!
Monkeys on the walk back down
Laura enjoying the jungly bit!
An abandoned toilet block and a building falling down the hill
We (shamefully) arranged a day trip to this exciting place…
Sometimes it’s quite nice to gather a few goodies from a supermarket!
ontheroadwithclaire 
Love it Claire! Genius idea to rent a rickshaw- that cracked me up. Love it xx
I wish you’d taken a photo of the bed bug – big, fat and full of blood! .. because I’ve never seen one! A very interesting read, though.
We couldn’t run out quick enough James! Although yes very unlike me to miss an opportunity! 🙂
Just thinking how those Minions get everywhere!! Love the artwork in the streets and also the lampposts on the railway up Penang Hill. How high was that though!!!!! xxxx
I particularly liked those lampposts too. And especially the house and postbox on the hill, felt at home for a little while 🙂
You didn,t have to go that far Claire, theyve got those bikes at Butlins! don,t know aBOUT THE CURRYthough, Daddykins x x x