Penang adventures

Beautiful Penang!

I’m sorry to say it, but this is going to be another cheat update – when there is more than a couple of days to account for, and plenty of photos to help me along, it just feels easier to let the photos do the talking!

            This weekend, myself, Nick and our friends Flash and Liv (not a couple, but one of the most amazing best friend couples I have ever met) ran away from work slightly early and headed to the airport to make the one hour journey up to Penang, a small island off the west coast of Malaysia.

            In an attempt to make the most of the weekend, and to enable the others to get rid of some serious work stress (I’m still the new girl at work, so the stress hasn’t quite reached me yet), we had planned a weekend of pretty much nothing, but just enough movement to ensure we felt like we had accomplished a little something at the end of each day.

            We arrived fairly late on Friday night, and marked the occasion by getting a cab straight to George Town, where we were staying for the first night (in a slightly questionable town hotel). Once we had our keys and had disposed of our bags, we went in search of an adventure. After having a couple of drinks at a local hotel we ended up on a rotating roof top bar where the bar staff were entirely inept but utterly lovely – it’s great when you get to teach people how to make cocktails and just how strong a gin and tonic ought to be!

Up on the roof!

As the evening came to a close (at around 4am) we finished up our dancing (we were the only people on the roof to be dancing) and made our way home to sleep.

            The next day was understandably a fair bit slower than ideal, but we had a fabulous brunch of local specialties (curry, satay, noodles – all the fusion classics) at Beach Blanket Babylon on the seafront before jumping in a cab to the next hotel on our list.     

The view from our breakfast / lunch table 

Best seat in the house

Our afternoon, second night and following morning were all spent soaking up the sun at the Park Plaza on the beach about half an hour from George Town. Dinner was had at a hawker centre down the road where we ordered and ate so much that we all had to go to sleep at about ten, but the rest of the time we lounged in the pool and enjoyed very fruity drinks from the beach bar.

Hawker street food for dinner

The lovely quiet pool

The final stop on our tour was on the way back to the hotel – we popped into the Eastern Oriental Hotel for a very posh afternoon tea, lapping up the colonial luxury. There was then just enough time for the boys to have one final curry (apparently it was essential) and then it was time to head to the airport for an hour or so of nap time as we made our way back to Singapore.

An afternoon tea worth travelling for!

It’s amazing to think that you can take a weekend away so very easily, but that when I was living in London I never really did it. What a fabulous way to pass two free days – the endless sunshine and insanely cheap food and drinks most definitely helped!