A couple of days in George Town, Penang.

Tower near the Ferry Terminal, George Town.
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It was another comfortable bus for the six hour ride from the highlands to Penang Island.  A pretty cool ride out of the high mountains and through an area with lots of limestone mountains, on out to the coast.  We made it across the bridge and to the bus station, which is inconveniently located about 10k outside of George Town.  The 15 minute taxi is more expensive than the 6 hour bus ride, but that's the way it goes.  We met a couple from our bus and split the taxi into town.

Big Mosque in downtown GT, Penang.
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Checked into the Broadway Inn: same same as the Hilton, but different.  We spent the rest of the day just roaming around the streets and taking in the sites.  Finally on the ocean, Ann and I were both anxious to get to some good beaches and spend some days barefoot and relaxing.  When we walked past the ferry terminal, thought it a wise idea to go ahead and get a ticket to Pulau Langkawi for the following day.  White sandy beaches were waiting.

The oceanside area in George Town is quite nice.  This city used to be the biggest British colony in Southeast Asia at one point, and a lot of the architecture testifies to their presence.  Plenty of Mosques and Chinese temples dot the city giving it a nice multicultural flare also.  Whenever I might make it back to Malaysia, Penang Island seems like it's probably worth a few days to rent a motorbike and go exploring.  All throughout Little India, giant bronze Islamic Stars are inlaid into the roads.  Open air restaurants, tailoring shops, and CD stores abound.  Roti and curry called our names once more.  Lunch and dinner, we could never get enough.  That night we went to a more upscale Indian restaurant that had fantastic food.  If I can ever remember the name, I'll come back and insert it, was well worth mentioning.

Yet another Indian lunch in GT, Penang.
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That night, as we tried to sleep in the lovely room at Broadway Inn, we were both set upon by a ravenous gang of blood thirsty bedbugs.  Needless to say, we were both up and ready to go by the time the itchy sun poked his lazy head up over the horizon.  I'm sure that the lice and crabs that were undoubtedly awaiting us in the communal shower were sorely disappointed to here that the two, slightly smelly, foreign delicacies had been chased away by those greedy bedbugs in the early hours of the morn.  One can only wonder how many times those evil bedbugs have ruined it for the crabs and the lice.  What a pitty!  Lucky for us though, bedbugs don't care to travel, where as the crabs and lice were waiting for us with their bags packed...eluded again.

Street in Little India, Penang.
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Early that next morning, we were down at the ferry terminal drinking cold coffee and waiting to be on our way.  They let us swap our tickets for the earlier boat, and we were off for Pulau Langkawi.  Nice view of Penang as we got out onto the water.  We made our way to the back deck for most of the 3 hour boat ride.