Penang

Having slept at Changi airport rather than make the journey back to a comfortable home and bed (I had to say I'd done it at least once), we were gifted with a flying visit from Frenchie who was getting off a plane as we were getting on to one, and then we were off to Penang. There was a brief moment of frozen panic when I left check in a bit too late, but loudly assured Frenchie that he was a fussing grandma and the plane would never leave without me, only to be greeted by a nice lady who told me that the plane was full. Frenchie was standing behind me, a little distance away, refusing to become embroiled in yet another travel scandal of my own making, so I asked her to keep her voice down whilst she sorted it all out so that he wouldn't hear and be all smug about it. He did hear, but wasn't smug, because despite being French, he is a wonderfully patient man. 

George Town, in Penang is a lovely tumble down mixture of Straits Chinese shophouses selling quirky gifts, houses of revolutionary mainland Chinese politicians, street art and Peranakan mansions crammed with gold, jade and mother of pearl. Have some choice photos:

I personally think she should pay me for this one. Other than the interruption of the actual photographer in the background, it is beautiful. 

Cute!

On our first day here, we ascended the tallest hill on the island in a very, very steep funicular for "high" tea (chortle) in a lovely colonial building, whereupon it started raining and didn't stop until the early hours of the next morning. Following this, we discovered that Malaysian taxi drivers' raison d'être is to rip you off, despite the fact that that all their taxis are printed with the words 'this is a metered taxi. Haggling is not permitted,' but eventually we got to a very cool bar/restaurant/cafe called China House where we ate dinner and bitched about taxi drivers. 

Our hostel was very cute, and the owner super friendly and helpful, but we were quite impressed with our splurge hostel, which boasts a balcony bath, sea view and lovely pool. 

Hopefully the rain will clear up so that we can actually make use of the facilities. Until then, I'm refusing to move from this position:

RoD, on the other hand, is threatening to use her book to make a raft on which to sail back to the mainland if we do any more luxurious, tea-drinking, relaxing activities, so we might have to waterski tomorrow, or the appeal of the private beach, cocktails and sushi may be a little too much...