We're back on the Indian Curries - blame the Irish!

Sadly we had to leave Ko Phangan and in fact Thailand early due to our visa expiring which made us quite sad really as we'd enjoyed the tranquilty of Ko Phangan and the fact we didn't do anything but chill out and read. The journey to Penang took over 15 hours (boat, coach and 2 mini-buses) but we arrived safely last night at around 9pm. Fortunately we'd shared some of the journey with fellow travellers (1 guy from Bath and a couple from Ireland). Apart from the occasional concern due to the drivers forgetting they were in minibuses and thinking they were in a Ferrari the journey was uneventful and again it was raining!
Not having anywhere to stay (due to a miscommunication with Mr Balfour) we walked around the city for an hour trying to find somewhere. After trying five places we went back to where we were dropped off right outside a guesthouse - convenient hey (driver commission)! So bored with hunting we decided to drop our bags at the Banana Guesthouse (not the best but it did the job), grab a quick beer, talk about the trip down with the other travellers and then go for a bite to eat. The Irish couple mentioned they fancied an Indian curry and because we haven't had one since leaving India we also thought why not. Taking the recommendation from the guesthouse we ambled down the road and tucked into a mixture of dishes (no beer though).
Being tired from the long journey we returned with our bellies full and hit the sack.
Apart from being woken up at 04:20 due to someone calling the UK outside our door we slept well. To be honest it was a blessing in disguise really as Mark had fallen asleep with his contact lenses still in - idiot!
Waking up later at a more reasonable hour our main objectives for the day were to find another place to stay as the Banana Guesthouse could only put us up for one night, get a Malaysian SIM card for the phone, see if we could book an extra days stay in Langkawi and then book a boat for the following day to Langkawi! By lunchtime we'd completed all our tasks and deserved a spot of food - an Indian again!
Luckily a number of the tasks meant we had to walk around a fair bit of Penang. Most of it was around the Chinatown and Little India districts (near the port). You can tell that Penang used to be a very important place for the East India Company when the British Empire was alive and well with some very impressive colonial buildings (now looking worse for wear). Tonight we plan to frequent a drinking establishment (might not need food after our big lunch) and people watch.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Langkawi and hopefully we'll be lucky with the weather. Another couple of days chilling by the beach!
Love to all and remember - someones got to do it and fortuntately it's us!
Mark & Rach. xxx