We had a bit of a mare at Phuket airport because Vicky had lost her immigration departure card. Luckily we fluttered our eyelashes, played the innocent young traveller card and the immigration officers took pitty on us and wrote her new one!
After making it to the gate we sat watching the planes coming into land, totally oblivious to the fact that everyone else had boarded and it was the final call! We rushed through the gate just as it was closing - what idiots, who thought it would be a good idea for two ditzy girls to go travelling together on the other side of the world?!
Penang is known for being the street food capital of the world and is certainly a holiday for the senses. The night we arrived we headed straight out for some food, although it didn't turn out that well. After wandering around looking at the variety of food on offer we settled on the handmade dumplings and spicy chicken stick. You buy the dumplings by the piece and then they make it to order. Turns out both the dumplings and the chicken were super spicy, much more than either of us could handle! We powered through and ate it all but my mouth and lips were burning. To cool down the spice we tried the local dessert, Cendol. Disgusting. It was a combination of bright green sweet noodles, condensed milk in crushed ice and sweet red beans; it did not look appetising. We ate half of it but really couldn't stomach the rest. Oh well, at least we tried it!
On our main day in Penang we did an audio tour of Penang Hill which was interesting. I wish we'd learnt more about the Colonial era in school as I had no idea Malaysia had been colonised by the British.
In the afternoon we wandered around 'Little India' and soaked up the smells and Indian atmosphere.
We're staying in a really cute, friendly hostel called the 80s Guesthouse and it has such nice showers (a real luxury on the backpacker scene!). We accidentally booked double bed bunk beds so we're having a couple of cosy nights together!
Y x
