Dec 28, 2009 - Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! Hope you've all had a very merry christmas and are looking forward to the new year celebrations. For those of you who have been checking out the map to see where we've been, just look at the place names we've left on there as this journal thingy won't let us draw lines to places without doing a entry for every single one - we wouldn't want to bore you that much! So from where we left off - Thursday 17th was another day at the beach! It cooled down quite a lot and there were massive storms every night we stayed at Telak Nipah....

Dec 3, 2009 - Georgetown

Mittags in Butterworth nach fast 24 Stunden (Sleeper, lower berth) angekommen. Rueber zur Faehre (200 m) und ab nach Georgetown - meine absolute Lieblingsstadt in Asien. Dies ist eine der alten Straits-Settlements wie z.B. Singapur und Malacca - eine der wenigen die noch echt quirlig asiatisch sind - eine sehr angenehme Mischung aus Indern, Chinesen, Malayen und Travellern. Hinter mir wird gerade mein Pass nebst Bahnticket gescannt - nur um zu beweisen, dass ich auch wirklich in Malaysia angekommen bin. Und dann gibt es eine nicht allzu...

Oct 24, 2009 - Penang

We said our good byes to the staff at Jungle Hut and got a ride to the pier to catch the overnight boat. At first glance we wondered if this was really the vessel that we would be spending the night on, travelling across the dark waters. Yep! This was the boat. As we considered that people travel this route daily our confidence increased a little bit. We boarded the boat and as had been described by Susie there were two rows of endless mattresses along either side of the boat on two levels. We picked our spot and settled in for the night....

Oct 17, 2009 - Penang, Malaysia

Hi! As Monica said in her message, we are now in Penang, an island in northern Malaysia. We left early Friday morning and have spent the weekend here. We rode in this awesome deluxe double-decker bus that had leather recliner seats and they even served us a Subway sandwich midway through the trip! A 5-hour luxury bus ride, with food, there and back for about 30$. Once we arrived on the island of Penang, we took a 1-hour taxi up to the north to the beach town of Batu Ferrigni where we were staying the first night. We spent the afternoon on...

Oct 17, 2009 - From Hong Kong to Penang Malaysia

Hi all, I'm finally going to make an entry on this site. Finding Internet access is not always easy when travelling, plus, we are having way too much fun to be waisting time on the Internet :) For the sake of friends and family who want to know what we are up to...here goes... My time in Asia started in Hong Kong by myself. It proved to be a challenging and rewarding experience. My first challenge was when i realized my friend had booked the wrong hostel for me...Dragon Inn instead of Two dragons...it turned out to be a real dump and test...

Jun 22, 2009 - Penang

Die Fahrt von den Cameron Highlands nach Penang ging problemlos vonstatten - aber schliesslich hatten wir auch einen Super-VIP-Bus (so heisst die luxurioesere Busflotte in Malaysia wirklich!) Super-VIP bedeutet in dem Fall: breitere und komfortablere Sitze mit Beinstuetzen und Air-Condition (Super-VIPs muessen wohl die ganze Zeit frieren - kein Wunder sind die immer so schlecht gelaunt!). Zusaetzlich gabs diesmal einen grottenschlechten Film (Anaconda), den niemand wirklich schaute... Von Butterworth gings mit der Faehre auf die Insel nach...

May 8, 2009 - Penang, Malaysia

Penang was a three day stop. Malaysia is a Muslim country with three main cultures - Malay, Indian and Chinese - that make up the distinctive cuisine and traditions. Penang is an island that pays homage to all three cultures. While there we toured the Cheong Fat Tze mansion - one of several homes owned by the Chinese millionaire. The tour of his home was a fascinating introduction to traditional Feng Shui and the guide was a really funny Chinese woman who told a lot of corny jokes and shared some great background on Penang architecture and...

Apr 24, 2009 - Malaysia

Damn Malaysia is nice!! We didn't expect to like it so much so we havn't left much time to see it which we are a bit gutted about, it's a lot more developed than we expected it to be but in a good way. Anyway it was a grueling journey to get here we had to get on two different boats and three different buses. The passport control at the border took forever as well but so far it has been worth it. We are staying in a really nice hostel which is the center of all the good stuff and it is cheap as chips like everything else here. The first day...

Feb 21, 2009 - Georgetown, Penang, a UNESCO Heritag SiteWit

With only one full day to spend in Georgetown, Josh and I decided to make the most of it, arming ourselves with the Lonely Planet map and heading out. We plotted a route through Georgetown via all the interesting heritage sites, many of which were religious buildings. Georgetown was first colonised by the British (and the East India Trading Company) in 1786, and since then has expanded into being such a multi-cultural town. Before being taken over by the British, the Malays, Chinese and Indians were already around! The town is just an...

Feb 19, 2009 - Cameron Highlands and the delayed trip to Penang

We made the decision to catch the 2.30pm bus to Penang the next day, because it takes 6 hours to get there, and we wanted to check out some final things in the Cameron Highlands before saying goodbye. So after a relaxing morning of visiting the strawberry farms (yum!) the butterfly farm (beautiful!) and the bee farm (total crap, don't bother going there!!) we arrived at the bus station at 2.15pm as instructed by the rather rude old Chinese fellow we'd bought our tickets off the day before. After sitting there for about 20 minutes, and...

Feb 15, 2009 - George Town, Penang

Started the morning with a visit to Fat Chi Song (find correct spelling later) Mansion with the only Tour of the day 11am. He was the Rockefeller of the East and when he died in 1921? Several governments around the world ordered their citizens to fly their flags at half mast. It was a real rags to riches story. The Mansion was the best example of the many houses he had built and kept to a traditional Chinese (chi and feng sui) design. It was so warm that a few of us hailed a taxi and went to the beach which was mostly full of water sport...

Feb 14, 2009 - Penang

Arrived Penang which was my first port of call in Malaysia. After arriving I read that the Home Office only recommend train travel in Southern Thailand and only under exceptional circumstances - ignorance is bliss - happy valentines day! The Cathey Hotel was typical ex colonial and ex decorator (probably since that era!) The room I had was vast with 3 beds and a double door that would not be out of place as an entrance to a castle. The bath room had a leaking toilet and a large gaping hole under the bath, where some plumber had started the...