Penang

My first two days in Penang have been pretty amazing. Last night I went into a bar on my own for the first time in my life and it wasn't as terrifying as I first thought. I sat in a great little reggae bar with the generous owner (free drinks all night) an English guy called Justin, an American scuba instructor, a french boy and a Dutch couple and had a really fun (if random) night.

Today I took myself for breakfast to the special famous roti canai hawker stall at the recommendation of my taxi driver, and it was amazing!! Then I ended up wandering into a Chinese market. I've never seen anything like it! Live crabs and chickens in cages, people butchering meat and fish on the streets and street food, fruit, vegetables and gifts being sold on hundreds of stalls!


Late morning I had to change hotels and then rented a moped with my new friend from last night. We set off in search of Batu Ferringhi beach. We ended up driving straight past it!  It instead found this beautiful little cove beach where we swam. Then we drove into the mountains and came across an amazing waterfall which we climbed to the top of and were able to swim in the icy cold pools. It was paradise on a boiling hot day with the view over the island. After that we bought bananas from a local fruit market, fed their monkeys and set off in search of snake temple. Snake temple is an old temple with venomous snakes roaming free! They were even on the tops of picture frames. The day was polished off with an Indian feast for 12 ringits (about £2). The food here will never get old!!