Penang it is!

So after much debate of whether to move on to another island or stay here, we chose to stay here, and are happy to have a few more days in the same place (although we did move 2 doors down to another hostel). Yesterday we went on a hike in the national park here, which was a nice, although at times difficult to find, trail along the coast to Muka (monkey) beach. Living up to it's name we did see, monkeys chasing each other through the trees and even saw a huge lizard-ish thing. We are enjoying the beach area where we are staying and returned home to tasty food on the beach.

We had our first day of sun here, which Ryan was hoping for, but as true Oregonians, we were soon hoping for some clouds and even a nice shower, as it is blazing hot and humid. Today we took a trip into Georgetown, the major city on the island. Saw some sites, including a Chinese Khoo Klan house, which is part temple, part meeting hall for Chinese of the same clan or surname. The stone carving both here and at the many temples in town was remarkable! We have found Indian food to be some of our favorite here, so we headed for little India, which was a vibrant colorful area, with Indian music blaring from the shops, lights and glittery paper hanging across the streets, and bright colored clothing and sari's in every shop. One funny thing we have found at almost every restaurant is that as soon as they give you the menus, they expect you to order and will stand at your table and make suggestions. We are big fans of Tandoori chicken and Roti Canai. We had a fun ride in a trishaw and our driver had moved from India when he was 7 and starting riding the trishaw at age 20 and had been doing it for 40 years!

The taxi drivers here take driving to a whole new level, it is at the same time terrifying, as they cut in and out of lanes, cut in front of people and send pedestrians scrambling, and amazing as they seem to drive effortlessly and follow some (unknown to us) code of the road. We just strap on the seatbelts and prepare for a wild ride! We have one more day here, which we plan to spend at the beach. Today we threw our frisbee for while and attracted the interest of a lot of the locals, who have asked to play with us tomorrow because we "have a good frisbee.":) Then it is off to Kuala Lumpur for a whirlwind tour and our flight out on Tuesday.