Penang Part 2...

On Day 3 we took a trip up Penang Hill, 2750 feet above sea level- there is a tram type thing to take you up-its surprisingly quick and smooth but so very steep!! The views from the top were great and there was yet another Hindu temple, however storm clouds rolled in which we could see over the lower lands and soon the tempertaure dropped and it was raining heavily, we sheltered in the cafe at the top and had some really nice Char Koay Teow-what would become my favourite dish...

A little friend we met along the way

Clouds over Penang

Day 4 and we went to find Wat Chayamangkalaram, a famours Thai Buddhist temple which housed a giant slkeeping Buddha stautue, we hadnt yet seen a Buddhist temple and it was really nice, peaceful and  beautifully decorated-alot of work and respect went into building it. We also visited the Burmese temple across the road. Later in the day we took a quick trip to the botaniucal gardens where we saw yet more monkeys!

Food!! Penang Island is know for having some of the best food in Malaysia-I totally agree with that! I enjooyed pretty much everything we ate and we made a special effort to try specific Penang dishes includine Mee Goreng (Noodles), Chee Cheong Fun (Steamed and rolled rice flour), Penang Laksa (Noodles in Fish based broth), Char Koay Teow (My Favourite-Fried noodles, Garlic and Prawns), Roti Tissue (Dessert of very thin roti and condensed milk-yummy) and the desserts of Cendol (coconut milk and ice-ok) and Ice Kachang (horrible!!) The final 2 evenings we spent in a Hawker court where you can have all these dishes and more (Beth had some great Chicken and Coconut Soup) for really cheap (8 pound between 2 got us starter, 2 mains, 2 desserts and 4 drinks!!)

                                       Char Koay Teow...













                                       Chee Cheong Fun...

                        Chciken and Coconut Soup...

                                   Ice Kachang and  Cendol...










Hawker Court...

Overall I loved Penang and would go again just for the food alone let alone all the other stuff and apparantly theres loads more to do so maybe another trip will be taekn... in the meantime however lectures start proper tomorrow and got lots of work to get done and not much time to do it...still we plan to take a few weekend out to visit Langkawi, Tioman and Singapore and hope to take a week to go to Borneo!!






 Still missing home and everyone there but feeling alot more settled and confident in life here-next exciting trip however will be to tesco tomorrow for some much needed supplies!