[George Town, Malaysia] With only one full day in George Town we had a few things to get through. Unfortunately it is a Sunday so a lot of places were closed and then added to that a well loved local politician passed away so the town was holding a procession and funeral. We started off wandering the streets around the hostel. Again China Town mixes with Little India on British colonial streets and it’s hard to identify anything truly Malay (whatever that is). After breakfast we headed to the start of the LP guide’s recommended walking route. We started at the Eastern Oriental Hotel. A huge colonial monster from the 1800’s. Apparently the waiters wear shorts and pith helmets (hopefully that’s not all) and it is THE place for a fancy English afternoon tea. Too expensive for our blood so we moved on.

We passed some architecturally boring Christian churches and arrived at the Penang Museum. It was closed due to the funeral. Pity. it is highly rated and we were looking forward to it. We continued on to what looked like the municipal buildings where a huge crowd was gathered for the start of the procession. Quite a turn out. Crowds, police, press, dignitaries, school kids, scouts, ambulance services etc. All in uniform and getting ready to march. He must have been a really cool dude. The police force seem mostly Indian and they appear very proud. Perfect uniforms, shiny motorbikes. Great to see.

We navigated past the gathering and along the Durbanesque waterfront to fort Cornwallis. Not that impressive as far as forts go but it was cool to learn a little about the history of the Island (George Town is on Penang Island). The colonial story sounds interesting and centres around a British naval officer – Francis Light (must remember to look up the full story sometime).

With nothing else to do we then decided to stroll back through India and China and take in the ‘atmosphere’ on the way to do a little shopping at a large mall air conditioned mall. We have to admit that Malaysia seems a little boring so far. Possibly we are not back into ‘travel’ mode yet after all that time on holiday in Thailand. Tomorrow we move on to the Cameron highlands where thankfully it should be cooler and hopefully there will be fewer mozzies. Not sure if it was mozzies, fleas or bed bugs in our room but both V and I are covered in huge itchy welts. Oweee.

[UPDATE: We found an Internet cafe on the way home that boasted 30 times faster (but faster than what they did not specify) and have uploaded photos to date under Thailand (Koh Lipe) and Malaysia or just linked to posts. Have also dropped some pics into the posts that had none and added the video of V with the fish in Thailand (Link). Enjoy]

[Pictures: Posing around fort Cornwallis]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi