Travel - Malaysia (2)

Time for part 2 of our Malaysian trip! In the previous post you could read how it started off in KL, now it's time to talk about Penang!

The weather in KL was mostly cloudy, and of course it had to be sunny on the day we left (typical)! We took the bus back to the LLC Terminal, which was very busy, and catched our plane to Penang (about 1 hour). At the airport a driver picked us up to bring us to our hotel and we had a very warm welcome! We stayed at Noordin Mews, a very nice bed and breakfast in the south of Georgetown, and it was great! Our room was bigger then expected and we had a nice pool!
After we'd freshened up it was time to explore Georgetown, it's the more historical and colonial part of the city. Unfortunately a lot of Chinese stores/restaurant were closed because of Chinese New Year, but luckily it was still very lively in Little India. Malaysia has a lot of different nationalities, Malay people, Indian, Chinese with all their different religions. I loved this mix!
So we drawled around in the Indian neighborhood. Tasted some local snacks (again!) and went to Kapitan, an Indian restaurant. It was a nice place and we ordered some very nice Tandoori chicken! After dinner we walked back to the hotel and relaxed at the pool.

Inside and outside our hotel

The next day we had a lovely breakfast and took the bus (101, at the terminal) towards Penang's National Forest. After about 50min we arrived at the FREE park! We could take a path to Monkey Beach or to Turtle Beach, because I thought Monkey Beach was more popular we took the other one and we didn't come across too many people. It was about 1,5hour hike to the beach, and it wasn't that easy. It went up and down, in between trees trying not to fall over their roots,... But it was a good hike! We saw some birds and monkeys on our way, super cool! There were no turtles when we arrived at the beach, but we had a swim and relaxed for a bit because we still had to walk back. You can take a boot back, but it was quite expensive (about 100RM a person) and hiking is good exercise (as compensation for all the good food)!
After our 3 hours hike we took the same bus back but stopped at the beach (the driver told us where to get off). We were recommended to go to Bora Bora, so we did! A nice bar with a terrace on the beach! As usual we had some drinks and a little food. The food wasn't that great, but you can't expect much from a bar so we enjoyed it. A couple of hours later we took the 101 bus (comes every 30min) back thinking it would drop us at the Terminal where we took it. No quite so, we just ended up somewhere in Georgetown, but lucky for me I have this amazing boyfriend who always knows where to go! So he walked us back to the hotel for a swim and a relaxing evening.

After a hike in the beautiful National Park we deserved some rest on the beach!

Friday already! (during a work week time doesn't fly that quickly) We had to wake up at 6.30 because we booked a cooking class with Nazlina. But it was definitely worth it! First we (and 3 other people) had some breakfast and then we went to the wet market, at least we tried to find one. Because of the Chinese New Year a lot of the markets were closed, but in the end we found one and got all our ingredients! We were going to make Beef Rendang, Chicken Curry Kapitan and a Fish Curry, all very delicious (even though I don't really like fish)! It was a great cooking morning!
We were finished quite early so we decided to take a walk close to the seaside. But after an hour or so it was too hot so we went back to the hotel for a swim and a relaxing afternoon at the pool! In the evening we first had a drink at Kashmir (very friendly service!) and afterwards we walked back to the seaside because they had this 'food court' with lots of food, and had dinner there.

At the wet market!

Cooking and eating delicious Malaysian food!

On our final day in Penang we slept in a bit and went to see a famous Chinese Temple, Khoo Kongsi. It was still quite early so we decided to also visit La Maison Bleu and we were lucky because there was just a guided tour about to start! It was a very nice house and it was good to get to know the history about it. After the 1 hour tour we had some local lunch on the street, Wan Tan Mee = dumpling noodle soup, it was really good! And for dessert I had a banana pancake, yummy! 
Because it was really hot again, we had another relaxing afternoon at the pool to enjoy our last day. After some time we freshened up a bit and went to yet another side of Georgetown, we past some nice looking street market and decided to come back at dinner time. But first we had some coffee at Old Town (similar to Starbucks but more local). We also tried shaved ice but because of the traditional toppings (red bean, sweet corn, some pink sauce) they put on it I didn't like it at all! My boyfriend did though, he eats everything, haha! So after that experience we went back to that street market we saw and ordered some different dishes, we had Chinese pies, duck noodles, fried chicken, vegi wraps,... All amazing food and so cheap!

My boyfriend taking pictures of "La Maison Bleu" and my favorite banana pancakes!

So, another wonderful 4 days of our holiday! Next up is Langkawi (= paradise!)