Penang

Tim, Al and I made a short trip to Penang while Al was here.  It is a small island off the north west coast of Malaysia, just south of Langkawi and the equivalent of going to Edinburgh for the weekend - a short hop in the plane from Singapore.  We stayed in the heritage part of Georgetown, which was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN a while back.  It is a busy burg, bustling and brimful of quaint shophouses, one of which provided our accommodation for the three nights we were there.  The only downsides to being so central were the 5am call to prayer (we were hemmed in by mosques), the constant buzz of mopeds and the dog across the way that barked all night.  I'm not sure Tim caught up on his much-needed sleep.

A day and half would have been enough, but we amused ourselves for three days.  The guidebook said it was what Singapore used to look like, so it was good to see. 

Downtown Georgetown

Down by the harbour

Sunset

Chinese lanterns

Having an aperitif outside our shophouse

 One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Tropical Spice Garden, about 40 minutes out of town.  It was wonderfully done and best of all, they had a giant swing and we had so much pushing each other back and forth.  It really is the little things.  The garden was full of mozzies and the 'organic' citronella oil that they provided did not cut the mustard, so I reverted to the 'burning the very skin off you' spray that you can buy in Singapore. Works a treat.  Although in the final count, Al was bitten 17 times and I escaped with a mere 10 bites.  Damn those mozzies!

On the swing

The swing in action!

Ridiculously happy