We slept in quite late this morning (despite the racket of construction outside our un-closeable window), and changed rooms to the place next door, which had a hot shower in the shared
bathroom instead of a cold one. Also, our room was a wee bit bigger. Afterwards, we headed out to explore the town. Georgetown is quite an interesting city. It was a huge trading center, as well as commercial and financial district and there were many immigrants, meaning that even today the town is divided into sections, i.e. indian, chinese, etc. (more history? click here). Our first stop was little India, for some breakfast. We had some great dishes, having no clue what any of them were. Our next stop was supposed to be Khoo Kongsi, but we got lost and ended up at an old Muslim trader's mansion, which had been turned into a museum. Then we found another Chinese temple, where they had set out a huge meal (for the ancestors?), and were burning large piles of yellow paper, which we assume were all preparations for the New Year. Finally, we pulled out our seco
nd map (way better) and found our way to Khoo Kongsi, a clan house built by the Khoos, originally from China. It's a beautiful temple, and we explored it for a while before continuing on our journey. Next stop, mostly by accident, was the Kapitan Keling Mosque. We ended up talking with an imam, the equivalent of a priest. We had an awkward moment or two, when we explained that we, ahem, "weren't dedicated to any religions at the moment." He continued his planned speech, where he explained how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all intricately linked, gave us some mini-books including "Crucifixion or Cruci-FICTION?" and gave us a small tour of the Mosque, for which we had to don long black robes. Afterwards, we 
headed to Fort Cornwallis, probably one of the lamer forts we'd been to. It was built by Francis Light, an English dude, when he 'took possession of the island' in 1786. We checked out the magical Seri Rambai cannon, and went to grab some coffee. After coffee, we went to grab some dinner at the hawker stalls. We had 3 noodley dishes, which were quite good. They were all on our "Food Map of Penang" (a list of dishes Penang is famous for, and where to get them), so we felt like we had accomplished something. Then, bed!
bathroom instead of a cold one. Also, our room was a wee bit bigger. Afterwards, we headed out to explore the town. Georgetown is quite an interesting city. It was a huge trading center, as well as commercial and financial district and there were many immigrants, meaning that even today the town is divided into sections, i.e. indian, chinese, etc. (more history? click here). Our first stop was little India, for some breakfast. We had some great dishes, having no clue what any of them were. Our next stop was supposed to be Khoo Kongsi, but we got lost and ended up at an old Muslim trader's mansion, which had been turned into a museum. Then we found another Chinese temple, where they had set out a huge meal (for the ancestors?), and were burning large piles of yellow paper, which we assume were all preparations for the New Year. Finally, we pulled out our seco
nd map (way better) and found our way to Khoo Kongsi, a clan house built by the Khoos, originally from China. It's a beautiful temple, and we explored it for a while before continuing on our journey. Next stop, mostly by accident, was the Kapitan Keling Mosque. We ended up talking with an imam, the equivalent of a priest. We had an awkward moment or two, when we explained that we, ahem, "weren't dedicated to any religions at the moment." He continued his planned speech, where he explained how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all intricately linked, gave us some mini-books including "Crucifixion or Cruci-FICTION?" and gave us a small tour of the Mosque, for which we had to don long black robes. Afterwards, we 
headed to Fort Cornwallis, probably one of the lamer forts we'd been to. It was built by Francis Light, an English dude, when he 'took possession of the island' in 1786. We checked out the magical Seri Rambai cannon, and went to grab some coffee. After coffee, we went to grab some dinner at the hawker stalls. We had 3 noodley dishes, which were quite good. They were all on our "Food Map of Penang" (a list of dishes Penang is famous for, and where to get them), so we felt like we had accomplished something. Then, bed!Dec 31: NYE on the Esplanade
We slept in again, then headed to Little India for breakfast (or really, lunch). Today we stopped at a place serving banana leaf curry, where they serve you on a banana leaf. At the top, 3 piles of
miscellaneous Indian food. In the middle, rice. On the side, your choice of either chicken fish or lamb. And you eat it with your hands. We were a bit disappointed that we got fake banana leaves, but we got over it, because the food was good! Afterward, we caught a bus to go check out the Kek Lok Si Monastery (the biggest in Malaysia). Turns out the bus ride was about an hour long, but we finally made it. We made our way through the RIDICULOUS amounts of souvenir stalls, and made it to the top! Little did we know there was another 'top' to the monastery. We had to pay a dollar each to ride the "First inclined lift in Malaysia!" and wait in like for 10 mins instead of just taking the 100 or so stairs. Oh well, it was funny. At the top, we got a nice view of Georgetown as well as a huge statue they'd put on top. After getting all our viewing in, we made our way through the souvenir stalls again, and hopped back on the bus. After getting back, we ha a quick snack of wan tan mee (we saw the ladies making the won tons the day before and decided to come back). Then it started pouring rain, so we had an in
ternet session. Around 9, we decided maybe we should get ourselves prepared for the New Year, aka buy some alcohol for some pre-gaming activities. Since we're in a Muslim-majority country, the alcohol is pretty heavily taxed ($4 for a big beer??!!! what??!!). We bought ourselves some coke and some rum (Stanley Morgan?...must be Captain Morgan's cousin...), and headed back to the hostel. After mixing our beverages, we had a couple of beers at the hostel before heading out. We stopped quickly to grab 1/4 of a crispy duck (the duck lady was starting to recognize us) and then headed to the Esplanade, where there was a band playing. We witnessed an all-male Malaysian band playing covers of Limp Bizkit's "Rollin" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" before we celebrated the New Year with the obligatory countdown. Afterward, we sang Happy Birthday to Georgetown (it became a city on Jan 1st, many years ago). Somehow, we ended up next to some other whiteys, and we all decided to grab a beer together. It was 3am when we grabbed a delicious burger from street vendor and headed home. A good start to a New Year!Jan 1: Happy Birthday Georgetown!
Continuing our streak of sleeping in, we slept until about 11. We had a noodly breakfast down the street, and then headed to the Chocolate Factory, where we sampled many different and interesting chocolates. T
hen we headed to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Cheong Fatt Tze is your basic rags to riches story, as he started in China with nothing and made himself an empire which afforded him the nickname of the "Rockefeller of the east". After he died, his mansion was left to his youngest son, and then to his son's wife. His son's wife didn't have the funds to keep up the mansion, so rented out the rooms and the mansion quickly fell into ruin. In 1989 the mansion was purchased to save it from the bulldozer and underwent a massive reconstruction effort to bring it to its former glory. What stands today is pretty amazing. Its indigo blue, making it stand out from the rest of the houses around it (although that was apparently a popular color at the time of construction). We got an amazing tour guide to bring us through the mansion, seeing all the benefits of being a wealthy Asian man in the late 1800s and early 1900s (and learning about how his mansion was built perfectly according to feng shui standards). After touring the mansion, we went back to skype our families into the new year (being 15 hours ahead, we woke them all up at around 1:30am their time hehe!). After some skyping we headed over to the Georgetown City Day festival. What we thought was going to be a huge field covered with food stalls turned out to be maybe a dozen, but we still managed to find some delicious koey teow tasting rice-noodle-balls (which looked like fried potatoes). After a while, the City Day parade started and we got to see some of the cultural influences on the city, for instance, large Indian and Chinese populations. We got to see Silak (Malaysian martial arts), an Indian wedding dance, dragons of the Chinese New year, marching bands, and this awesome Malaysian past-time of throwing an enormous pole up in the air and balancing it on your head (it looks really hard actually). It was a pretty good time, all in all. After all this culture, we were worn out and ready for bed.Jan 2: Penang National Park
Today we decided to, guess what, sleep in! I dont know what it is about Georgetown, but its a sleep in town. After a huge lunch of some delicious Indian food, we hopped on a bus for an hour long ride out to a national park. We really had close to zero expectations going out there (except hearing that there were monkeys), but were happily surprised to see that they h
ad a canopy walkway and a lighthouse we could hike to. So we grabbed a map and started walking. After maybe 20 minutes of easy walking (on concrete; this must be where most visitors go!), we found ourselves at the canopy walkway. It was pretty cool to be up above the jungle walking on these foot-wide rope walkways (supported by steel cables- completely safe). This really hadn't satisfied our desire to do some hiking, so we decided to head for the lighthouse. After another hour or so of more legitimate jungle hiking, we made it to Monkey Beach (seeing some monkeys right before arriving there). Once there, we asked a couple heading the opposite way if they'd made it to the lighthouse, which they had, but were sadly informed that it was closed for the day. Damn! Our hopes dashed, we sat on the beach for about 5 minutes before turning around and hiking our way out. Once we got back to the park entrance, we were ready for a snack and had some delicious roti before catching the bus back to our hostel. Once we got back we waited for a rendezvous with our Swiss friends Claudia and Dominik from Laos, which was supposed to happen around 8:00pm. After waiting a while and reading the paper (in English!), we went for some food. Tonights meal was a pretty awesome combo: duck and stingray. After the food, we went back to our hostel and by chance found our friends walking in with their packs! Since they had been coming from Thailand that day, they'd understandably had a long journey (involving 5 different mini-buses, once getting out of one to get back into the same mini-bus 10 minutes later). After some beers (and getting them some duck...the duck lady smiled and laughed at us), some more beers and a long catch-up session, we headed to bed.
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Georgetown? click here
ad a canopy walkway and a lighthouse we could hike to. So we grabbed a map and started walking. After maybe 20 minutes of easy walking (on concrete; this must be where most visitors go!), we found ourselves at the canopy walkway. It was pretty cool to be up above the jungle walking on these foot-wide rope walkways (supported by steel cables- completely safe). This really hadn't satisfied our desire to do some hiking, so we decided to head for the lighthouse. After another hour or so of more legitimate jungle hiking, we made it to Monkey Beach (seeing some monkeys right before arriving there). Once there, we asked a couple heading the opposite way if they'd made it to the lighthouse, which they had, but were sadly informed that it was closed for the day. Damn! Our hopes dashed, we sat on the beach for about 5 minutes before turning around and hiking our way out. Once we got back to the park entrance, we were ready for a snack and had some delicious roti before catching the bus back to our hostel. Once we got back we waited for a rendezvous with our Swiss friends Claudia and Dominik from Laos, which was supposed to happen around 8:00pm. After waiting a while and reading the paper (in English!), we went for some food. Tonights meal was a pretty awesome combo: duck and stingray. After the food, we went back to our hostel and by chance found our friends walking in with their packs! Since they had been coming from Thailand that day, they'd understandably had a long journey (involving 5 different mini-buses, once getting out of one to get back into the same mini-bus 10 minutes later). After some beers (and getting them some duck...the duck lady smiled and laughed at us), some more beers and a long catch-up session, we headed to bed.wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Georgetown? click here
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