Be Square, and be there. Part 3 Penang (Part 2)

Returning back to Penang was like visiting an old friend, it was like we had never been away, although we did notice the traffic was a lot worse than in Langkawi. It took us about an hour and a half to get back to the hotel due to the peak hour traffic and when we asked at reception for our key, they didn’t even notice we had been away, even though we told them!  Early evening we decided to go for a walk to see a waterfall that was signposted by the side of the road. There was an opening in to a field leading to a dusty path, and the occasional sign saying “waterfall this way”, after about five minutes and the sound of large dogs getting ever nearer, we bumped into Anthony. Anthony was about twenty five and told us he ran one of the bars we had just passed with his wife, and told us to pop in on the way back, we asked him about the waterfall and he said it wasn’t far just follow the path and don’t worry about the dogs. We said we’ll see him later and continued for about two more minutes and turned back once we saw the said dogs. We walked back down the road and had something to eat in one of the little roadside cafes before visiting Anthony’s bar.
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Once we arrived at the bar he made us feel very welcome and introduced us to his wife and some of his customers, who were watching English football. So we all sat down and had a few beers and started to have a conversation with the locals; I asked the Geordie what score it was and he said nil-nil. After a while I noticed something wasn’t right about this game, the teams playing were not the current teams, the game was about five years old and the Geordie didn’t even notice and had been cheering on his side as if it was live until I told him the outcome of the match. We stayed in the bar for about an hour, then decided to go back to the hotel and see what was going on there. When we walked in, there was a cabaret act playing and it was quite full with people from the other side of the hotel, the ones with the sea view, we had a few drinks but this wasn’t for us and decided to call it a night.
The next day we walked the long way round to the beach, past the so called “Waterfall” pathway and continued 100 metres when we noticed a “Hard Rock Café and Hotel”. We went into the gift shop to have a look around, then afterwards decided to have our lunch there and a big lunch it was. We ordered ribs, chicken and wings and the whole meal covered the table it was that big and most of the sauce covered my face it was that nice.
 
Stuffed to the gills, we continued on our walk to the beach, which was only a few metres away and deserted apart from a few swimmers and jet ski riders. It got dark and cloudy very quickly as a storm started to appear, we took a few photos of the beach and made our way back quickly before the downpour started in earnest.

The next day we got the bus back in to George Town to have a final look around, we walked down by the sea, then through the Historic UNESCO World Heritage Zone, past all the wonderful restaurants and shops until our legs could take no more. It’s a great place to walk around and take in the history and see all the old buildings, but at times the traffic is quite hectic and seems to come at you from everywhere. Once again we get the bus under the shopping mall, and have to do battle with the locals to get on, and once on, it seems to take an eternity to get out of the city. An hour later we are back at the hotel, just in time for the end of cocktail hour, marvellous, so we have to make do with a beer. On the way out the hotel staff were doing a flower display to celebrate Diwali, it was magnificent and the staff explained what it was for and how they celebrate Diwali.

The last evening we were looking for somewhere to eat and something different for a change, so we went to a little restaurant about 200 metres from the hotel and set back off the road. The reason we went to this place was the legendary “chicken chop” and this place advertised it was the best so we finally decided to give it a go. The place was empty and it looked like you were dining out on someone’s patio, you could even see in to one of the rooms people sitting there watching television. The toilets or the toilet was outside, down the back of the garden, like an old fashioned English lavatory. But one thing in this place you couldn’t knock was the chicken chop, imagine the best fried chicken you have ever had, then multiply it by ten, delicious and the fried rice dishes that came with it weren’t bad either. It was one of the best meals we have ever had anywhere and it was so cheap that we thought they’d got the bill wrong. On the way back to the hotel we had one last look in the market and bought a few souvenirs to take home, mostly handbags bigger than my case and a few T-shirts.

The next day came and it was time to check out, we were met at reception by the Samoan rugby player who took us to the airport and seen us off. This was one holiday that was packed with things to do, I have forgotten loads of other things that hopefully I will add later.
After all this I was exhausted, I said to myself “I need another holiday!”