Penang

This weekend Nuch and I flew to Penang, an Island off Malaysia. We flew with Air Asia, which is the South East Asia version of EasyJet. The flight was very quick and easy, just as you would expect in this part of the world. After a 90 minute flight, we arrived a Penang mid morning, a half hour Taxi ride took us to our Hotel on the northern part of the Island.
The Hotel Ferrenghi is a four star hotel right by the coast, the rooms were big and the service very good, after settling in we had a walk down to the beach, for a back drop, it is right next to the Jungle, where you can go trekking. We found a fantastic cafe right on the beach, I could'nt believe we were the only people there, then we found out that this part of the coast was devastated by the Tsunami last december. around the coast there was still debris, and alot of locals lived in tempoary accomodation. I shall go into the Tsunami in my next post "Miracle Baby".
In the evening we found a Malay restaurant, Malay food is a good fusion between Chinese and Indian, and the meal we had was fantastic, very close to a Chicken Tikka Musala. Bloody georgous! The whole place was very relaxed, and the main language spoken is english.
Saturday saw us go to the races which I will cover in "At the Races" Post later. As is my want when i'm abroad, I have to visit a Mcdonalds, just to see how it is different from the UK, and as usual there is no defference, except the price. About 60% cheaper than the UK.
The Hotel was very quiet, although I was speaking to the Chef saturday night and this had been the bussiest it had been since the Tsunami, there where a few Kiwi and Aussie couples and the obligertary Cockney Couple, ( Who I avoided successfully ). At the weekends, the Malay goverment more or less subsidies hotel space for Malay People, they get to stay for next to nothing, trouble is most are strict Muslim, so dont drink and have to have special needs catered for, so it ends up costing the hotel in the end. The pool was nearly empty both days we were there.
At the end of the day, I would definately go back to Penang, Malaysia is a lovely country, you feel very at home here.