All around the world...

The ferry from Langkawi to Penang took 2 and a half hours but I met a couple of Dutch girls on the boat - we stood out on the deck and the journey really didnt seem to take very long - got caught by the sun though..

I headed off to a place in the lonely Planet called D'Budget Hostel
Shitheap
I was staying in the dorm with the idea that i might meet some people but there was nobody else there - it had qute a nice rooftop sitting area where you could see a bit of the town - which would have been good to hang out - if there had been anyone there

Anyway - I stayed there 2 nights and only that long because i needed to get some washing done - ive moved elsewhere since and am in a quality hostel now - but im getting ahead of myself
The night I arrived I wandered around Little India - a very lively spot - loads of shops selling fabric and saris and music shops blaring out Hindi music full blast - i grabbed some food in a curry place which was top notch and wandered back to the hostel - stopping off for a quiet beer in a bar opposite on the way back

The following day - the 27th was quite a busy one I wandered around Chinatown - which is enormous here for several hours - it felt like I had been walking for a lot longer than I had been - it was very hot
Later I checked out the Colonial District down by the sea - Fort Cornwallis (or whats left of it) was pretty unspectacular but some of the buildings here dating from the British period were pretty good - it actually started raining - but not the usual tropical storms which you get here - it reminded me very much of english weather - kind of threatining to rain but not really - wandering down the esplanade with the sea pretty choppy and washing up against the side i could have been in a British sea side town

Chinatown was pretty spectacular though - so much noise - no real pavements and some of the craziest stuff being sold.
I stumbled across a large pink shop containing an amazing collection of budhas, Chinese lanterns, water features and that sort of thing - not the easiest stuff to carry around though so i gave it a miss - one of the best things was a large ceramic buddha with lots of little Buddhas sat on his lap.

There are lots of little temples here with incense burning outside - i saw several - but i would need to check to book to figure out which ones exactly (most of the writing was in mandarin)

For lunch i grabbed a Nasi Ayam or Chicken Rice barbequed with chilli which was pretty good

gotta go actually but ill continue later