are we there yet?

No, not quite yet. I have yet to finish trawling and selecting for you my dears, so hold tight, have those eyes peeled and get ready for another onslaught of Penang images.
These gold lined images were taken at the Reclining Buddha, a buddha that was, as you can imagine, a ginormous buddha in my child's eye but as an adult this was merely a massive buddha. The space where the buddha does it's reclining is surrounded by lesser known buddhas, with donation boxes labelled ' Prosperity and Long live' 'Riches for all your life' 'Happiness in your family' etc, so basically you can take your pick and make an offering to the buddha you think most meets your needs, so convenient. This space has recently been overhauled (it was looking decidedly shabby when last we visited), now it is absolutely sparkling, especially outside where the sun reflects off the gold leaf in a way that is very nearly disco.

A little night trip to the Pasar Malam, night markets. We walked, wandered, smelt, stared and delighted in the warm cocoon that embraced us in the fading light and hustle and bustle of our surrounds. True, the food was it's biggest lure but I do admit I had hoped for more, the markets of yesteryear which included, handmade wooden treasures perfect for little hands, a variety of special oddities, secondhand bits and pieces amongst a small amount of new plastic crap. But now it seems (as it is for a large proportion of our world), plastic has taken over, yet again it reigns supreme and the market was loaded with a sizeable amount of plastic crap, that nobody, nobody, nobody needs hmmm. 

Wandering the streets, gazing at the colours, the signs, smells, a quick haircut, yes, this filled our days just perfectly. 

We stayed in three places whilst in Penang, firstly the rather posh but totally lovely G Hotel (which has great internet rates) for hanging out by the pool, relaxing and an amazing buffet breakfast, then we headed to Mango Tree Place which is a selection of beautifully restored townhouses, just out of Georgetown. It is located on a quiet and quirky street that is close to everything and then we stayed at the Bayview hotel for a couple of nights. The Bayview would have been big in the 70's it has that brassy/Florida kind of feel about it, in a weirdly cool way. However the nighttime renovations and daytime varnishing of our whole floor, made us experts at running down corridors holding our noses and lying in beds with pillows over our ears, very quickly, it left a little to be desired. But wonderfully the Bayview was so close to Georgetown, which allowed for so much more wandering, etc, etc (by now, I think you get the picture).

After sampling three different accommodations, what we did realise was that when travelling with children in hot countries a swimming pool is a must, as all that wandering about is hot work for everyone involved, the pool provided the perfect space to cool off, relax, read and just take some quiet time (the photos below are of us enjoying some poolside time at the Bayview).