Penang

So, the night before I left KL for Penang I managed to meet a right group of characters! One of whom was a French guy who had just finished studying a Journalism masters in Delhi, and two other guys  studying for a doctorate in Philosophy and Theology. Well, we managed to have some very interesting debates on the world. Some were welcome, others weren't. But its only in an environment such as backpacking that you get to meet such an interesting bunch.

The journey from KL to Georgetown was similarly interesting. Got chatting to the Malaysian woman sat next to me, and then to a mother and daughter sat across the aisle, who were very nice, unlike the git behind me who decided to stick his feet pretty much at eye level if I were to turn my head to the right, which meant the trip wasn't the most fragrant I've ever experienced! Couple this with the Malay kid who only knew one English word: 'Sister,' and decided to call me it and giggle for the best part of the 5 hour journey. So, feet in my face and ripped by a 4 year old girl... quality!

The taxi driver from the Penang bus station to Georgetown was similarly colourful, despite knowing little English. Thick framed black glasses and an electric blue jump suit made him look like an Asian Paulie from the Soprano's. The Malaysian Mafioso's car however wasn't what you'd expect from a crime family and had a huge crack down the middle of the windscreen, no rear view mirror and one wing mirror, so that was an interesting drive.

There are three main ethnicities here, dominated by the Chinese who own the majority of the businesses, then the Indians who usually work for the Chinese, and then the Malays who you usually see chilling out somewhere. All three groups in general are a pretty sound bunch.I was wandering around the evening I got here and asked a bloke how to get to Love Lane -the street where the majority of the hostels are- and whereas any Londoner would, at best, point you in the direction, the old boy went out of his way to walk me there. I felt pretty bad about dragging him 10 minutes out of his way but it seemed like he was pretty happy to come along for a walk and a chat.

Similiarly, we were waiting at a bus stop today and got chatting to a Malay girl who was training to be a nurse. She asked for our map and gave us directions to the best places to get Malay food from in Georgetown, asking us loads of questions about our respective countries. I find it hard to see any resentment of the west in the local people who are pretty devout Moslems (I've heard the call to prayer at 5 in the morning far too many times now).
It's also Ramadan here and I've got to give it to these lot for managing to get through a whole day without eating or drinking anything. It's seriously hot and humid and I don't see how someone can go a whole day here without drinking water. The trainee nurse was telling us that she saw a lot of people coming in with dehydration. Got to say, not a big seller for Islam there!

There's a good bunch of people in the dorm room here - a few from the UK and an Italian, and we had a good chat about careers and stuff back home, generally agreeing that its still a shite state of affairs. None of us really want to go back, especially with the job market as it is. I'm personally stuck in two minds: stay out in Thailand and teach English, or go home and apply for an MA. One of the girls is an English graduate and she's been trying to get a job in Journalism for a year with no luck so going home isn't not the most appetizing dish on the table for me right now!

Me and the Italian lad had a look around a few temples today. They're pretty amazing out here, better than anything I saw in Bali. The Chinese temple with the enormous statue outside was very impressive. I will put some pictures up of it when I get to Thailand. We also went to a much-hyped snake temple which turned out to be shite! Trapsed around the industrial arse-end of nowhere to find a tiny little temple which contained what must have been plastic snakes. I mean they looked pretty real ( I wasn't going to go poking them or anything) but we looked at the ten of them for a good while and they were not up for performing... so that was a bit of a let down.

And finally the food. The grub out here has been much hyped by the majority of the people I've met, and I've tried my fair share of food I wouldn't usually go for in the last couple of days. I'm not a fussy eater at all but a lot of the food out here is pretty different to what you'd expect back home. For example, Fish-head curry is an Indian delicacy out here, whilst the Chinese and Malays love to cook with fish sauce and sour flavorings which I'm not hugely keen on so I thought I'd give a few things a a go so here's the run down:
Murtabak- A square Indian food that's somewhere between an omlette and a naan bread thats made by filling some pastry with chicken onions and spices and covering it with beaten egg and turning. Really good!
Tom Yum- A sour Chinese Soup with some meat, veg and God-knows-what-else in it but it tastes pretty nice.
And Laksa- Every Malaysian I've spoken too raves about this sour Fishy broth. I've tried it and I'll tell you straight it tastes pretty much how I've explained it. Tried it... Not for me!

And that's pretty much it. Bit of a long one today, but I won't be writing another one until at least after the Full Moon Party. Hope to have a few stories for that one!