France

We had an amazing time in Asia and were very sad to leave! :-(

We have now been teleported to the South of France, where we will spend time sailing along the coast and enjoying the Mediterranean.

On our first night in France we were treated to an interesting show involving a vertical piano!

Teh Tarik

We left the guesthouse after 'tea and toast' and tried to walk to the botanical gardens. It proved a little tricky due to the huge by-passes and flyovers that weave across KL. Crossing them took us on quite a strange route via the National Monument and the Asean Sculpture Garden.

When we reached the gardens there was lots of disruption due to building work and renovation on the parks roads. They seem to be spending a lot of money on KL! Walking through the gardens was very tranquil as there was hardly anyone around.

We left the gardens behind and found ourselves at KL Sentral, a huge transport hub and shopping centre. We walked all the way through it and it led us to an area called Bricklands, known for its Indian culture. After eating and browsing, we caught the LRT to Masjid Jamek station, which is in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Little India. There was a huge street market there to explore! We stopped at a restaurant near the river for tea tarik (tea that is 'pulled' or poured from a great height). We walked through central KL back to our guesthouse, passing many beautiful Mosques enroute ...

Leaving Malacca

First thing after breakfast, we packed our bags and walked to catch the local bus. We waited a few minutes in the blazing sun before a taxi pulled up. He agreed to take us to the bus station for not much more than the bus, as he was on his way there anyway.

We booked the next available bus to Kuala Lumpur which meant only half an hour to wait. The bus journey took 2 hours and we slept for some of it. We must still be recovering from the late night World Cup!

We arrived in KL, worked out the LRT map (tube) and 30 minutes later were in our hostel. After cooling off we explored China town and then had an Indian lunch.

After dark we caught the LRT to the KLCC area to see the spectacular Petronas Towers and watch the dancing fountains outside. There also seemed to be a show for Ramadan inside the mall but we were too late to watch ... maybe tomorrow.

We caught the LRT back to our hostel as everything closed down for the night.

Chinese opera

World Cup Final 2014. We watched Germany v's Argentina at 3am our time on a big screen outside our local Indian restaurant. In case anyone hasn't heard .... Germany won!

We went to bed after the game and didn't surface until mid morning. We headed to the Sikh Gurdwara (temple) across the road from our guesthouse. We had a look around the building and were kindly invited to sit and eat at the Gurdwara.

Afterwards we walked through Jonker Street for the first time with cars! They close the street off to cars for the weekend night market and that was the only time we had been there. We continued our walking tour through Harmony Street past a diverse range of religious buildings from different faiths.

At 8pm one of the Chinese temples were hosting an opera. The costumes were amazing, the singing (if you can call it that), not so great! We watched for a while then made our way to the Ramadan bizarre, where we couldn't resist the tandoori chicken ... just one more time! The bizarre was packed and seemed to go on for miles with hundreds of stalls.

The walk back took us through Chinatown, each street beautifully lit with red Chinese lanterns. When we reached the river, we could hear really loud music coming from the Hard Rock Cafe. We went inside and listened to a great live band for a while before heading off to sleep.

Singers

Breakfast was provided with the price of our room so we ate at our guesthouse before venturing out.

Our first stop was the Church of Francis Xavier. As we looked inside a choir were practising and they sang Songbird by Eva Cassidy. We sat and listened. Their voices were incredible and the acoustics of the building made the sound really beautiful. We continued our walk through the Dutch Square, which was lovely before visiting an old Dutch church on a hill top.

The whole area is filled with great buildings built by the Dutch or the British. We visited an architecture museum and one celebrating the Malaysian Independence from Britain.

In the river we watched a local man scouring the bottom for old coins from the Portuguese, Dutch and British rule ... A Chinese lunch before an afternoon nap, ready for our World Cup final all nighter!

Early evening we went to a concert held at Christ Church, right in Dutch Square. It was the New Zealand Secondary Schools Choir and they were great. Especially when they performed a Maouri song specially written for them, with actions! After the choir we took a short walk along the weekend night market before heading back to the guesthouse. 3am ... World Cup Final starts!

Melaka (Malacca?!)

Our night bus left on time and transported us south through Malaysia to Malacca. We arrived at 6am, had one rest stop and slept pretty well!

There was nothing open at 6am except McDonalds, so we made the most of their breakfast coffee refills. When the world woke up, we caught a local bus to our guesthouse. It was a little too early to check in but we were invited to take breakfast while our room was prepared. The guesthouse walls are painted with scenes of the local area and they look great!

We ventured into the city. We spent some time in Little India before walking the river (canal banks). There were murals painted on the sides of many houses and it was a very pretty area to walk. Whilst we were down by the river a huge monitor lizard swam across right in front of us. There were many small boat trips, packed with tourists taking tours too.

Every weekend a night market fills Jonker Street and wow, it is busy! We walked one way along the market before looking for a concert we had heard about at the end of Little India.

The concert was in a hall but didn't sound very 'in tune', so we decided to have our dinner nearby. We had the most delicious tandoori chicken cooked in a traditional tandoori oven with plain naan coated in butter.

After walking through the Ramadan bizarre, we continued back to the night market. There was a Chinese childrens concert taking place, so we grabbed a seat and watched. Once it was over we walked back to our guesthouse via the cycle rickshaw parking lot. Interestingly, all of them were 'pimped' with pink fairy lights and Hello Kitty memorabilia! Seriously ...

Last day in Penang

What a day! We checked out of our hotel just before 12 o'clock and went for brunch. Today's delight was masala dosai which we'd been waiting to try. You guessed it, they were wonderful!

We leisurely explored Little India for a few things we required before we stumbled across a dessert shop selling ice kecang which was on our 'must try' list. We of course went inside!

As we reached the sea front and jetty area, we spotted a group of people enjoying a celebration outside the Chinese temple. We crossed the street for a closer look.

The group spotted us approaching and invited us to join them. They were celebrating an annual festival, which involved lots of offerings and would end in a huge party this evening. They very kindly invited us to join them at 8pm.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Indian supermarkets and testing their amazing array of spices.

At 8pm we returned to the jetty area. We were invited by the 'temple committee' to sit on the front table next to a stage where the entertainment would be. The people on our table were so kind and the entertainment wonderful. We ate 4 courses of the 8 course dinner before sadly we had to leave, as we had pre-booked a night bus.

The hospitality shown to us was truly wonderful. We were 2 strangers off the street who showed a little interest in 'what was going on'. We were treated like kings and are truly grateful for the kindness shown to us! A very BIG thank you!

Georgetown

4am World Cup semi final! We watched Argentina beat Holland with loads of other people (crazy enough to be awake!) Once the game had finished we retired to our hotel to take a little nap ...

We left our hotel at 12 o'clock and went straight to our favourite breakfast spot. We were all geared up for their special masala dosai but ... we were just too late.' We had missed the breakfast slot so mutton curry was ordered for lunch!

We spent the rest of the day browsing batik clothing shops indespersed with air conditioned malls. More food called and (noodles) kept us happy for lunch, washed down with fresh fruit juice. We got chatting to a couple of English girls and that is where we spent the rest of the day.

The evening was spent eating too at a Chinese hawker market, where we tried something new. It did, however take us a while to persuade the stall owner to serve the dish ... for some reason he didn't think we'd like it! It was delicious and we stayed late to watch a live singer.

The beach

Breakfast this morning was of the take away variety. The usual little Indian restaurant was closed so we bought a few snacks from the Ramadan Bazaar.

We walked to the jetty bus stop as we were going to catch the bus to the beach. The journey was around 30 minutes as Batu Ferringhi lay in the north west of the island. On the bus we passed some huge shopping malls with designer boutiques and the Gurney open air hawker food area.

The bus dropped us at the beach and we walked through an alleyway to reach the sand packed with tourist markets. The beach was very quiet and we paddled in the sea, which was like a bath. However, the sea had a grey look to it and it seemed to be carrying grey sediment from the bottom, which made it look uninviting for swimming. We walked along the shore before heading back to the road.

The cut through to the road was the Hard Rock Hotel. Now we knew where all of the tourists were hiding - the hotel pool! The area was packed. Along the road we found hordes more market stalls. Many were closed and open at night but we were not staying that long ...

We caught the bus on the main road back to the hawker stalls at Gurney Drive. We sat and enjoyed local food and even got to try some of our neighbours at the table too. 3 Malaysian ladies joined us and they had all been to school in London! We chatted and even got to try their fried oyster omlette.

After several courses we left for the air conditioned shopping mall before catching the bus back to our hotel. It was an early night for us, as at 4am we were going to watch the World Cup semi final.

Ps. Check out the burger van

Around the island

After our breakfast visit to the Indian restaurant, we walked just a short way to the bus stop. We caught the local bus, which took us past huge shopping malls, past the airport and over to the far side of Penang island. The bus took around 40 minutes and we arrived at a small town called Balik Palau (which means, otherside of the island.)

We had an area map which had loads of sights marked on it but it recommend hiring a bike as the distances were a little far to walk. Do you think anyone was hiring bikes? Nope! We abandoned the plan and sat down and enjoyed a durian juice and a particular 'cake' the area is famous for.

We walked a little way out of town to see if we could find the Hindu temple marked on the map but it seemed to be a little further than we thought. As the heavens opened for a short tropical downpour, we ran back to a restautant where we tried a local laksa dish from this area. It was really good but spicy! Still feeling peckish, we ordered a special desert called cendol. It was delicious too. While we waited for the rain to stop, we watched 2 cute little kittens playing amongst some crates.

We decided to catch another bus to the Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple. We had to wait a while for the bus but the driver kindly dropped us off right near the temple. It looked impressive standing proudly on top of a hill, next to a pretty pagoda and a huge statue of 'The Goddess of Mercy'. It was a bit of a climb to reach the top but the view over Penang island were spectacular. The temple complex was huge, with gold statues everywhere and 2 monks chanting and banging huge drums.

After taking our time to look around, we waited for a bus to take is back to Georgetown. It was end of school and the his was packed with school kids making their way home. We jumped off at the nearest bus stop to our hotel and tool a short rest before dinner.

Noodles, rice and a sweet desert at a variety of street stalls saw us happily full!

Heritage Buildings

After an early morning coffee, we walked to join our first heritage tour of the day. The Kaptain Keling Mosque was holding guided tours of the elaborate building and giving talks on Islam. It was an interesting hour packed with information which we both enjoyed. We left with some interesting books to further our understanding of the Islamic religion, which is apparently the fastest growing religion in the world!

Next, we visited Sri Maha Mariamman, a beautifully decorated Hindu temple. Unfortunately it had been broken into recently and was undergoing some restoration. We had a full guided tour of the temple with explanations as to what each of the Hindu deitys represented and who may be seen praying to each. Some interesting facts were shared and the statues of each of the Hindu gods were amazing.

We were feeling a little peckish by now, so stopped at a Chinese style restaurant for char koay teow. A delicious plate of noodles with a slightly 'charred' flavour due to the cooking in an extremely hot wok. After completing our meal, our next tour was of a Hainese temple.

The Hainese were one of the later groups to move to Malaysia from China. The temple looked like a Chinese temple but slightly different ... from what we understand the people worship Ma Cho Por (a lady), whose statue is set on an altar. We were told an interesting story but basically Ma Chi Por is like the patron saint of sailors. The Hainese people came from a Chinese fishing community and she would protect them at sea. There was an interesting feature of the temple, where you had to take a handful of sticks and drop them back in the pot. You would be thinking of a problem in life, that you needed help with. If one of the sticks stood proud, you could open a small door with the corresponding number. Inside would be a solution to your problem.

Lunch was interesting! It was rice and curd mixed up with cashew nuts. Tasty and different. We ate in a vegetarian restaurant and washed it down with Masala tea. Mmmm ...

In the evening we strolled around a Chinese market, where the road had been closed. There were dragons dancing in the street, shadow puppetry, Chinese tea and craft stalls. Christine made a traditional rice packet and a small bracelet.

Oh, and our picture is in the local paper too!

Heritage Day

Today is the George Town Heritage Day. It is a special day to commemorate the awarding of UNESCO heritage status.

Most of the days events started at 2pm, so there was no rush to get 'out and about'. We leisurely left our hotel and went for roti cannai for breakfast in a cosy little Indian restaurant. We sat watching Tamil music videos and drank masala tea with the local clientele.

After leaving the restaurant we strolled the street and found an excellent Sunday market. Each stall was selling small crafts made from recycled material. The first stall we stopped at were making sun visors from old cardboard boxes and they very kindly gave us one each. Another stall was making small layered sand gardens by reusing small glass jars. Everyone was so friendly. We spent some time chatting to a local in a book shop who gave us some great tips on making the most of the day.

As the clock struck 2pm, we headed to the Kaptain Keling Mosque for our first workshop. Star lantern making. The lanterns are used to decorate the mosque at the end of Ramadan. We had expert help from volunteers wearing heritage festival t-shirt and we were interviewed for tv and Malaysian newspapers. It took a long time to make each lantern but the end result was spectacular! And, we got to keep them ... As we left the mosque, we were given blank postcards to draw on. We both took our time and completed some amazingly artistic 'stick man' images. We had our picture taken with our postcards in front off an antique post box and the volunteers even said they would add international stamps and post them to the UK!

Next stop was a Chinese temple. They were serving a special soup which the Chinese believe cleanses your body. Apparently it is made of lentils but it looked and tasted like sweetcorn soup!

As we walked through Little India, we couldn't resist a vegetable samosa from the 'Samosa Man' ...Eventually we arrived at our 2nd craft session. Rattan weaving. It was hard! Our attempts went a little haywire, even with the help of a friendly student volunteer!

We topped up on food once again at a special festival stall. This time we enjoyed a type of sardine curry and chapati before making our way to kite making. Our teacher (guru - Malay) was a wonderful lady from Penang. She was very patient with us and helped us make 2 wonderful kites. A little large for our bags, so we gave them to 2 little boys to enjoy.

On to the next stall. Thai lantern making from tissue paper. After a few neat folds, a quick snip here and there, we had multicoloured lanterns! So beautiful! Another activity we tried in the Thai area was another style of weaving with palm leaves. The volunteer helped Christine make an amazing fish. There is no way we could remember how to do it, it was so intricate!

There was many more stall to try different crafts but unfortunately time was up and it was now 9pm, packing away time. We left with our hands full and went for dinner. Another variety of curry each ... Food heaven!

Clan Jetties

After a later than usual start because of staying up late for the football ... we slowly made our way to the famous Penang Clan jetties. Slowly, because on the way we stopped for brunch (nasi kandar - mutton curry)! Oh and ice tea, which is served with 'condensed milk'. We did make it to the jetty eventually via more street art and heritage buildings.

The first jetty was more ramshackle in its appearance and maybe a little more authentic than the second, which was packed with souvenir shops.

We stopped for lunch at a Chinese food court where we tried mee jawa and chee cheong fun, which was on our Penang food trail map.

After our Penang food delights we caught the free shuttle to the opposite side of town to see the famous Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion and to visit the camera and chocolate museums!

Our evening was spent enjoying a sweet honey chicken dish with mixed curry sauces in Little India. Yum! Next, we sampled a seasonal fruit juice at a small street stall called Umbra, which was slightly sour but really refreshing.

Street art

We have been enjoying Indian breakfast for the last few days but today we resisted and ate Chinese style. Dumplings and a great Curry Mee with a sweet dough pastry for dessert ...

We continued to walk through a street market selling souvenirs,clothes and shoes, which was beginning to pack away. Next we tried to book a bus bus but none of the travel agents could help as they had no connections on the east coast. We even tried to do it online but we needed a Malaysian ID card. Eventually, we went to Starbucks where the manager helped us and even let us borrow his personal laptop!

Feeling hungry again we stopped off in a hawker food area and ate the most delicious pork cooked in a clay pot. We are beginning to see why Penang is the food capital of Malaysia. Around every corner is something totally scrummy to eat ...

The afternoon was spent ambling. Every street has so much to see with religious buildings including mosques, churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples. Old colonial buildings used for past trade and organised 'street art'! We ended up at the clan jetties as it got dark. We had a quick look, drank tea and will explore more in the light of day tomorrow.

Germany v France kept us busy until 2am. The World Cup games start an hour later here than Indonesia at 12am due to an extra hour time difference!

Free bus

After a short breakfast stop in Little India, we walked to the ferry port where we knew there was a free hop-on-hop-off bus that tours the island.

We caught the bus past a number of 'tourist sites' in the old colonial district and plan to visit some of them and spend more time at each tomorrow.

The bus dropped us back in Little India where we visited the Ramadan Bizarre. We bought some amazing vegetable sumosas and tried some very strange rotis. A 'batter type liquid' was put in a cup with holes, then poured onto a hot plate in a circular motion...! It made great patterns and tasted wonderful dipped in the curry sauce provided.

In the afternoon heat we rested, or as some might say took a siesta before heading to Chinatown. We found a lively food court selling lovely Chinese fayre. We ate and stayed late to watch an interesting show. The star attraction was an African lady from the audience who performed an incredible African dance routine!

Leaving Indonesia behind

Our 2 month visa in Indonesia has come to an end so we are off to our next port of call.

After a good night sleep in our smart hotel, we left early to catch the Airport Railink train, which is all shiney and new and runs to the airport just outside central Medan. It costs around 5x the price of the bus, but the traffic jams in Medan can be so bad .... you may arrive 2 hours later than you expected! From the hotel we caught a becak and it was around a 10 minute drive to the train station.

There were not many local restaurants open, as it is Ramadan but we did manage to grab some pizza for breakfast at the station! The Railink whisked us off and in 30 minutes we were at the airport.

The new airport was very efficient and quite quiet. We checked in, dropped our bags and had plenty of time to relax. Our flight with a Malaysian airline, Firefly, was super efficient too. The plane was boarded and took off exactly on time. It was a fairly strange experience flying on a propeller plane, as most big planes these days are jets. And, this budget flight even provided
free drinks and snacks.

We landed in Penang, Malaysia about an hour later. We collected our bags and caught the bus to Georgetown. In Georgetown we found a hotel, recommended by some people we had met and checked in. We then headed off to explore this UNESCO city.

First, we walked to the port as it was near our hotel. There we discovered a huge cruise ship in dock. We enquired where it was heading and were told nowhere. We asked again, "Which port does the ship go to after Penang?" A simailar answer ... The cruise ship sails out to sea, doesn't dock for the night but then sails back to Penang in the morning! Why, we wondered ... and then it suddenly dawned on us, it must be used purely for gambling?!?

We continued to Fort Cornwalis and its lighthouse before heading to a nearby hawker food court. However, it wasn't open because we were too early. It was starting to get dark, so we headed back to our hotel in Little India.

We spent our evening eating huge Indian thalis the traditional Indian way, with our hands and both getting in a right old mess!

Manic Medan

We woke this morning and had to say goodbye to our lovely homestay by the lake. We waved goodbye as we walked to the ferry port, only 5 minutes away.

The boat arrived exactly on time and transported us over a beautifully calm lake to the town of Prapat. From here we took a 'people carrier' with other Europeans .... destination Medan!

It was a smooth journey but traffic rules and courteous driving etiquette don't really exist on Indonesian roads. We stopped at a small cafe for a 'rest stop' and dropped off most of the other passengers at the shiny new Kuala Nemu airport.

We now drove into the city of Medan, voted the worst city in the world and were dropped at our hotel. The budget hotels in Medan are not great. They have terrible reviews. Noise, bed bugs, no locks on doors, stinky toilets etc. etc. So, we upgraded a little for just 1 night and for 'not a lot' of extra money, we have an amazing room!

Medan doesn't seem bad at all. The traffic is busy, it is a little polluted, there are more beggars but it seems ... OK. Whichever poll voted it worst city in the world, needs to take a look at a few others!

There appears to be only one major site which is a large mosque in the centre but it is nowhere near as beautiful as the one we visited in Banda Aceh. Shopping kept us busy for the afternoon, as there are large malls around town and we appear to be staying on 'fashion street'!

In the evening we walked back to the mosque area as there was a Ramadan festival tonight. Just as it started to get a little dark we brought some interesting food from a small stall and started eating. A policemen approached with a smile and pointed at the mosque where a voice was coming over the loud speaker... We were not exactly sure what he was trying to tell us but we did recognise the word Ramadan. We thought he was trying to tell us we shouldn't be eating but as we walked on everyone was ordering food. But, they were waiting to eat when the voice on the speaker stopped. Oops, we had started eating a few minutes early and right in front of every Muslim who must have been really hungry. Sorry!

We tried loads of food at the festival and everyone was super friendly. We had a browse at a photo exhibition and met the photographers, who had taken some amazing photos. There was a big stage and some music playing. Outside were parked TV vans and expensive cars for transporting VIP's. There were loads of stalls selling clothes, watches and jewellery.

We had a wonderful time in Medan. It seems like a great city in which we would love to explore more!

Enjoying the tranquility

After a 'western' style breakfast of mixed fruit porridge. We left the guest house to explore the local area. Most people seem to hire small automatic scooters/ motorbikes to get around the island but ... not us! Yesterday, a young man came back to the guesthouse with a motorcycle injury and had to pay a visit to the medical centre to be bandaged up. We've seen so many people with motorbike injuries, so we played it safe and walked!

The landscape is stunningly beautiful. The island has a high mountainous interior, covered in dense jungle. It is surrounded by a beautiful lake and populated with a few friendly locals. Farming seems to be a source of income for the local people in addition to tourism. We watched as people tended their crops, dried out their corn and busily went about their daily chores. Well, busily may be the wrong word. Time really doesn't matter much here, there is no rushing for anything!

We stopped in a local cafe with a wonderful view over the lake. We spotted avocado juice on the menu and asked the owner if she could add a squirt of chocolate sauce. She very kindly did and we had sensational avocado and chocolate shakes! We are becoming addicted to these and they taste great, although sound fairly awful!

We continued past a very pretty church but turned back as the road disappeared into the jungle. By now we were getting a little peckish so we made our way back for lunch.

The afternoon was spent relaxing on the guesthouse balcony, sipping tea with sugar. We never have sugar at home but it appears to be the norm everywhere in Asia and were now so used to it!

Our evening was spent socialising with other travelling folk staying at the guesthouse and eating pork curry with mashed potato!