Penang

I wasn't planning on going to Penang, which is just along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Afterall, I had spoken to other travellers who had been there, who spoke of its relative mediocrity. However, I needed to work my way towards Kuala Lumpur, since I had a flight out of there to Australia 10 days later, and I didn't want to be in KL for that long. And it just so happened that Air Asia was having a crazy sale on flights from Hong Kong to Penang, so I bought the ticket.

But I ended up staying at the house of a very interesting local guy named Ang, who was also from the Couchsurfing world. He picked me up on his motorbike as soon as I landed in Penang, and immediately began showing me the sights of Penang. It turns out Ang ran a tourism business in Penang so apparently I picked a good host to stay with. That night he took me to a Chinese Opera performance, where I was allowed backstage to watch all the actresses getting ready and where they spend hours putting on their elaborate make-up. Unfortunately they didn't speak a word of English, so I wasn't able to speak with them, other than the occasional hand gesture (like giving the thumbs up to a girl to approve of her make-up selection - yes I am that lame). The show itself was interesting yet confusing, as it was all in Chinese.

That night, as we had an invigorating discussion about our philosophies on life, and Ang telling me about the wonders of meditation. I spent the day checking out the sights of Penang, and making plans to leave for somewhere else. Luckily there were cheap bus fares to Phuket, Thailand. I booked my ticket for $20, and left the next morning.