Monday, January 28, 2008

Getting Ghetto in Georgetown...












Dave and I did some touring of Langkawi on a motorbike. We stopped in at a bird sanctuary and made friends with the animals including the elusive mouse deer. We decided to go on an island hopping tour with our American friends, who are substantially browner than us after one month in the islands. A lake on Pulau Renang is said to give couples who drink from it instant fertility. We didn't linger here, although we swam. We also took part in feeding the eagles at a little bay, this probably isn't a great practice. Another day of relaxing in the heat was all we could take, so we packed up and left Langkawi on the 26th.

We're staying in the backpacker ghetto of Georgetown, Penang...We are the people that lurk in the street late at night, making our final rounds to the 711 before we get to bed. We have friends staying at every hostel in a 200m radius which, is sad. We've transported our entire Langkawi group directly to Penang. Our stay on Langkawi was cut short due to heat rash, I am a walking disaster. How can someone, who is allergic to the heat, continue to travel in Malaysia??? Stay tuned, but so far it's called for air conditioning and lots of it. Dave and I like to linger in shopping malls and movie theatres, but we've tried to maintain our jobs as tourists.

We've toured the city and found it really interesting, colonial structures dot the city between hotels and apartment buildings. We are staying at the edge of Chinatown who were one of the original settlers. There is also a huge Indian population, Arab population, Malays etc. This city is so multi-cultural it makes Toronto look like a British colony. Dave and I toured the island of Penang on motorbike and got to visit some of the tourist sites as well as find a few of our own. Today we made it up to Penang Hill which, was used to escape the heat down in the city. In the early part of the 20th century a funicular train was created to take people up the 700m to the top. Here there are botanical gardens, restaurants, hotels, a mosque, canopy adventures etc. Ready to pack it in after a huge Dim Sum meal in Chinatown.

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