Chapter 4; Southeast Asia, Maps Out In Malaysia

Saturday 14th November 2015

We slammed the dingy hostel door shut after we had handed over the cell key and left it behind us, never to see again. The distance from there to the Golden Mile Complex bus station wasn't too far, but once again the luggage turned walking into a challenge. I struggled, but mum struggled more, so I took her smaller backpack off of her along the way and carried it along with my own collection. A huge sigh of relief fell over me as the station came into sight, and I had to rest for a minute outside the coach office, to subside the disturbing sickness and weary weakness. I resembled a camel when I was loaded up with all of the luggage, and it had resulted to stinking like one. I had to go on a hunt for the deodorant before I stepped into the office, and approached the lady, sat upright behind the desk. She turned her head from one side to the other, her eyes examining the A4 paper tickets that I had just slid across the smooth, white surface towards her.
"This station is closed due to renovations," she stated, looking up into my glassy pupils, "So you will have to go to the Tbs station instead, okay?"
She pointed at the station that we were meant to be dropped off at in Kaula Lumpar, which was located four minutes away from the hostel we had booked up, and scribbled an X on it.
"Okay," I replied, thinking no big deal, "so is the Tbs station close by to the other one?"
My fingers and toes were crossed as the receptionists hand moved gracefully across the paper, pen held firmly and ready to write again. The tip circled a location on the printed map, below the ticket, away from the X.
"Hm not really, it's further away. You will have to get the train into the city."
Crossing my body parts hadn't helped. I thanked the lady, who said goodbye with an apologetic mask covering her face, and walked outside to tell mother the thrilling news. Her expression had said everything.
"Well, that is bloody typical!"
I shrugged, and leant against the wall as I scowled over at the map markings. "Nothing we can do, we shall just have to work things out when we get there. I'm getting used to these unexpected situations, aren't you?"
Mother sighed. "Hmm, somewhat."
The journey itself was gratifying. We floated in and out consciousness as there was minor noise within the small capacity of the vehicle, with one actually being more modern than the majority we had voyaged on so far. I was a little apprehensive about the boarder crossing, but it was a straight forward procedure. No forms needed to be written on as we faced the boarder patrol officers, so they just added their country stamp to the gathering collection in our passports, and waved us along. Shorty after entering Malaysia we pulled into a service station, which was absolutely meaningless to us due to having no Malaysian riggits. We stretched our legs out, forgetting that we had no money currently to our name, and calmly looked into the pond outside a restaurant. The Koi fish swam lazily in circles under the shimmering water. It was a peaceful distraction from the delectable food that was indoors, torturing our noses. Food would have to wait.

We arrived at the Tbs station, which appeared to be exactly how the ladys sympathetic tone had described it back in Singapore...set in the middle of nowhere. Our brains must have been at a similar consistency to mash potato, because it took us an extensive amount of time to perform the simple acts of detecting the exact IRT train line that we needed, and purchasing a ticket from the machine. Two men ended up assisting us with it. We must have appeared to be very lost, and I felt quite hopeless too. The ATM didn't soothe my current aggravation either, as it had decided to spit out nothing but my card back at me, after joining the queue for it with at least twelve people in front. Furthermore, it wasn't just the one train that we had to climb aboard on, but two. Our fatigued, potato heads were overriding everything. On the train

was confined space, which wasn't exactly a match made in heaven for our oversized bags. I found myself accidentally bumping into the people as they were jumping on and off the platforms, rolling with the tracks, conformed under daily life routine.
Thankfully, It was a short walk to the hostel from the stop that we had to wave goodbye the congested sky capsule at. And it would have been shorter if we had gone in the right direction. We threw our shit on the hostel floor, which took up the entire width of it's cute corridor. The look of concern on the sweet old ladys face was endearing, as she took our details and handed us a key. We found out that her name was Suzie.
"You originally had a basic room?" She asked, her head shaking from left to right as she checked over the reservation; "Well I have a private, bigger room available for you so you can upgrade for no extra charge!"
That piece of news was a sweet melody to my ears, and was definitely something that we were grateful to hear after an uncontrollable afternoon. I collapsed on the bed in sheer joy, once we had been shown to our living space, and then began to unwind as we unwound our bundled up clothes.

KL Bus Terminal

info-http://www.malaysiasite.nl/busstationskleng.htm

The hostel was located in the party hub of KL, and central to the main shopping districts and local attractions. Once we washed away the dirt and chaos that was created from the prolonged journey, we locked our new room up and directed our feet to stroll us up to the famous street food road. We were rather starved, and with our stomachs running on empty, they screamed for popular noodles. The street was a notorious area for tourists, and we became quickly

trapped in between bodies as we investigated various menus. A restaurant tout twisted our arms to sample their dishes, but I think the main reason that we chose that particular venue, was to escape from feeling like a struggling fish in a fishermans net. Everywhere was exhaustingly busy. The food was Chinese and it was undoubtedly palatable. I washed the food down with a cider, which was a kind relief from the usual uninterrupted taste of beer.
Full and then fired up, we took ourselves to the KLCC Towers, which are a dominant pair of twin buildings that brightened up magnificently every night, against the night sky. I could not help but stare up at the architecture for what seemed like a long time,as they seemed to stretch endlessly upwards to the tips of the earth. I noticed that mother was in awe as well, and I could see her own brightness reflect within her pupils, dancing as entrancingly as the multiple colours from the water fountains close by. Fireworks of fascination exploded in our hearts. The music from the free concert remunerated a celebratory atmosphere, that softened souls and concieved joy. And so after that, we walked back and passed out in our shared bed, under not an actual cotton blanket because it was too muggy, but our own invisible quilt of bliss.

Jalan Food Street-http://www.wonderfulmalaysia.com/food/jalan-alor-food-street.htm

Petronas Twin Towers-http://www.petronastwintowers.com.my

Sunday 15th November 2015

We rose from our bundle of bliss entirely refreshed. The hostel breakfast reminded us of the one in Jakarta, as the exact same foods were spread out for us to nosh on. Cereal and toast with tea and coffee. A simple combination that just cried win. It was on time due to the loyal members of staff. Suzie was also outside, and ate her meal whilst wearing a peaceful, affectionate smile.
Once we had ate as much as we could manage, we collected up our bag of dirty clothes to take to a launderette. The smell that projected off of them was quite pungent, and I was more than happy to hand the reeking material over the counter, where behind it I could see was abound with washing machines, hungry for our disgust.
Our wander around KL took us through the vibrant bustling China town and central markets, bursting with life and showering us in Christmas decorations. I had a wonderful dance with Santa outside a cheap Christmas store. That was followed by the free botantical and sculpture gardens, and there we had to dive hastily for shelter as the heavens opened. We sat and watched the droplets fall agressively onto the wondrous greens of nature, absorbing the lugubrious mood the way the plants were feeding on the water. The day was well spent, and we trudged back to the main part of the city, feeling beat and willing to relax. The rain only seemed to pelt down harder, and the sudden thunder caused us to jump with it's bestial roars. A bar was offering pints of Belgium beer so we obviously had to make an appearance in there and swig one down. The night ceased for us rather early as we both wanted to simply sleep, so after dinner and a walk around the twin towers again, we fell into bed and slept soundlessly.

China Town-http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/klareas/chinatown.htm
Central Market-http://www.centralmarket.com.my
Botanical Gardens-http://www.klbotanicalgarden.gov.my
The Pressroom-http://pressroom.gastrodome.com.my

Monday 16th November 2015

We had planned to visit the visual arts centre on this day, but by the time we wanted to began venturing to it, the weather again took unkindly to us. It wasn't the type of rain that you could walk in

without almost drowning. Even the roads began to resemble training lanes in a swimming pool. So we decided against art for the day and shopped around three to four shopping malls. Everything was indoors, and there were enough stores to keep us rummaging through materialistic crap that we didn't need, but still was entertained by the prospect of looking at it all. One of the malls was gargantuan, and it actually had a theme park inside of it. I stared at the roller coaster and almost didn't believe the utter weirdness and randomness of the concept.

At least I had managed to get my fix of nature in the morning, when it was the calming phase before the actual storms. The KLCC city park had a childrens playground and I couldn't refrain myself from crawling through and climbing over the equipment, acting

like a child that was under half of my age. I mean, who wants to grow up anyway?
Food for the day was a fantastic coffee and cake stop, which was admittedly
needed inbetween the numerous shop entering and exiting, but we usually never actually NEED an excuse for a coffee stop. And for dinner was a traditional Malaysian dish called Lemak. The flavours of Malaysian food is unmistakably, to the core, one of the best.

Berjayatimessquare-https://www.berjayatimessquarekl.com
KL Pavillion-http://www.pavilion-kl.com

Sungei Wang Plaza-http://www.sungeiwang.com

Ayam Penyet Ria Malaysia-https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g298570-d5893627-Reviews-Ayam_Penyet_Ria_Malaysia-Kuala_Lumpur_Wilayah_Persekutuan.html

-d5893627-Reviews-Ayam_Penyet_Ria_Malaysia-Kuala_Lumpur_Wilayah_Persekutuan.html

Tuesday 17th November 2015

We finally managed to make it to the arts centre that had held onto our curiousity. I had taken art and design at college, and have always took a keen interest into creativity. Anything that can expand the mind through visual and artistically dynamic expressions will always be enjoyable to me. Anything surreal, to make me depart from this world...
The roads that led us to this gallery became tricky in parts. Some were blocked, so we had to tune up our sensory radars along the motorway to survive. As much as I mostly live by google maps when I travel, I swear that sometimes it shows the topsy turvey route as the easiest on purpose. Curses have rolled off of my tongue multiple times at that mischievous little blue dot. We luckily did not end up dead and bloody like some of the artwork that we saw, which was undeniably awesome. I can also mention here that I am a fan of horror. The weirder, the better. Mother has often displayed a look of concern as I have rambled into the details of a gory, twisted underground picture.
"Amber, sometimes I do worry about you".
My mechanical giggle and impulses to shout at the screen for the savagery to get worse probably goes against my sanity, but where the fuck would be the fun if I didn't get so heavily involved?
Not all of the pieces were a gore whore, and the gallery was split

into different eras, so there was a variated and variegated range to see. It was worth the treacherous treck and the wait for the weather to back off. A frappachino was absolutely needed before the return journey began, especially how it was going to be a longer one. We had to find out where we would be boarding the next bus to take us to Penang, and had no clue as to where the KL central bus station was. So off we went once caffined up, and you know that I mentioned about the weather backing off? Well, of course it grew weary, and it had a fondness for testing our willpower. The sky clouded, making the sun retreat and dissolving the brightness of rich colour, dulling down to sombre greys. The rain fell angrily, and almost left our frame of mind eratic and traumatic. I couldn't follow that fucking maddening blue dot, so we found retreat under a bridge to gain composure. Two storms in two days apparently hadn't been enough. We watched the rain pour and the cars noisily pass by until we braced ourselves to drown again. At least we had our rain coats, to aid us only slightly in the wrathful clutches of the storm. The relief that washed over us (quite literally) when the bus station appeared in sight, was warm and welcoming. I could have dropped to my knees and bent my sopping head over to kiss the smooth, marble floor of the shopping centre ,that connected with the station. But I had decided against it for hygeine purposes. A cold could have been on it's way, and that was the most that I would have wanted to accept when it came to that horrible topic of illness.

Art Gallery-http://www.artgallery.gov.my

"Amber, I am not walking anymore in this poxy weather," Mother confirmed, and commanded with instructing eyes, "we are getting the Skytrain back."
I grimaced, as the rain showed no sign of subsiding. "You know, I agree with you. Fuck the storm, it wins!"
The numerous train lines had caused us some confusion once again, so the journey back to the hostel took slightly longer than what it should have. Yet we wrestled our way through, and lapsed ourselves into our own silences, until the bullet shaped vehicle in the sky rolled it's wheels into our stop. Our clean, dry clothes that we picked up from the Laundry shop looked reassuring, and felt even better on. Dinner later on was back down the hawker road, and on the menu for that evening was Vietamese. On the restaurants menu was also Special brew, and it went straight to our noggins as all we had really consumed that day was caffine and rainwater. I remember gaily laughing at the men who were attempting to shove seflie sticks up our noses along the street, and declining the mass amount of massage offers from the men, women, and ladyboys that harassed you in their flocks, outside of their questionable parlours. One of the men asked us if we had wanted a massage not once, not twice, but three times.
"Really?! Do they not get it?! How many times do they bloody have to ask us?" Mum ranted, in between hiccups of giggles.
I could just about respond through the fits of my own laughter. "Too many! Why don't you accept one? It's cheap and your joints are always in the wars."
Her eyes widened, amused."No way am I letting HIM do it".
My eyes scanned swiftly over the gender confusing sea of eager faces that waited for a westerners acceptance. "No you are right, maybe some place else..."
Before we retired in the hostel to pack, we purchased a super Skol from the 711 each to drink. The super Skol infected my skull pretty badly and it wasn't very super to not remember going to bed. Stupid drunk.

Wednesday 18th November 2015

An unsurprising hangover was stubbonly lurking around in my system that morning. It always seemed to have wanted to hang around on the days that we had to travel, and was I thankful for

that? No. No I wasn't. There was nausea, the shakes, a headache...the whole lot. Mother hadn't been struck by any hangover savagery, so at least one of us had made a great escape. Breakfast wore the feeling off a little and I was eventually okay by the afternoon. Plus, the journey itself went according to plan, for once! No mishaps, or miscommunications, or struggles of using machines. We were quite shocked at the smooth ride because there was always usually chaos, even if it was only minuscule. Four hours seemed to sail, because of frequent head nodding from drifting into dreams and taking in the landscape that cruised passed us. The bus company described itself perfectly, and I would highly recommend 'Nice' to fellow travellers. For a low price you receive a spacious seat with your own telly and complimentary snacks.

KL Sentral, transport info-http://www.klsentral.com.my/conn_main.aspx

The bus came to a stop at the open aired bus station of Penang, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Both of us were busting for a pee, so up the stairs we individually climbed to relieve

ourselve in the holes in the floor, amongst grime and grot. Then we hopped into a taxi to get to George town, making sure that we picked a legit company and a welcoming enough looking driver. This can be difficult as they always swarm around you. We were getting used to the scenerio. Our driver was a smiling chap, and happy to hear that we were from England as his son was apparently obsessed with the country.
"Hey, do you like drinking?" He then randomly asked.
He turned in his seat to breifly look at us, and I met his gaze with an attempt to hide my smirk. Silly, silly question, I thought, with the ebbs of the hangover still crawling around inside my mind.
"Of course we do!"
"Ahhhh," he slurred, "well you should visit this place, full of tourists and beer is cheap!" And he pointed out of the window, with my eyes following his arm to this little hole in the wall, where men sat on the little plastic stalls, beer perched upon small tables.
"Amber, remember that place, thank you!"
Mum didn't have to ask me twice to be able to remember cheap beer. It wasn't going to be that hard to find anyway, because our hostel appeared as we drove around the corner. We thanked our

taxi man and dragged our backpacks into the reception area to check in. That place turned out to be one of our favourite hostels, as the room was spaciously terrific and the facilities impressively clean. We unloaded and walked out yet again into unknown territory.

Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal-http://www.expressbusmalaysia.com/bus-stations/sungai-nibong-bus-terminal

It had a quiet, hippy vibe in Georgetown, which proved that that I was going to thoroughly like it. Malaysia is known for it's tastful

cuisine, but Penang was also known as a true food hub for all of it's mouth watering dishes, so our mission was to hunt down as many of these decent street food joints as possible and sample it. Someone had to do it, right?
After we had streched our legs and found our barings around the rustic, narrow pathways, we stopped in a food night market for dinner, to try a traditional Penang dish called Rojak. The meal consisted of a selection of fruit, smothered with a savory paste which I belived on our meal, was a black bean type. Other places may serve it up with a shrimp paste. It was different to anything that I had eaten before but it somehow worked and was dead delicious. The night market has an almost undecidable amount of stalls, stood competivetly next one one another, thrusting you with displayed lines of plates, piled up with luring dishes. The annoying part of it was that I wanted to eat everything that was displayed. Fuck you and your food Asia.

Red Garden-http://www.redgarden-food.com/content/home/index/site:redgarden-link:718

Food In Penang-http://www.gopenang.my/top-food-in-penang/

Thursday 19th November 2015

The both of us rose together. Usually I was the one who was awake first, and I have to keep noise and to a bare minimum as mother carries on dreaming in a land far, far away. But she wanted to train with me on that particular morning. A lay in would have been inevitable anyway, we discovered, because of the temple which stood directly on the other side of the road, from our room. Every morning, the wails from songs of worship encapsulate the entire area that surrounds the vivid building. The ritual was our alarm clock, and not even the ear plugs that the hostel had provided for us, were enough to cast out the sounds for the prayers.
We had found a decent patch of green that we could sprint around. Well, as quickly as we could manage anyway. The sun bore down, and even at the early hour it was uncomfortably humid. I was caked with sweat in no time. The park was a peaceful area however, situated along the promenade, only a short walk from the hostel. There were many others over there participating in their exercise routines. Some were jogging, and some were taking part in a tai Chi class, a mixture of maddening and mindful energy circled around among the hot air. I myself circled around the track whilst listening to muse, and musing about their lyrics, which caused me to get my legs pumping faster. It was their latest album named Drones, and the conspiracy theories that are portrayed out of the words, was something that I can relate to completely.
We also used the fitness apparatus in the park, as running straight for a lengthy time in the humidity was dangerous...and quite frankly, fucking horrid. Despite that, we were pleased with our training. It always set us up for the day.
"What on earth are they doing?!" mum pointed to a couple of the local women, trudging by along the path in a slow jog. I scanned over their outfit and stopped at their moving feet, as I had noticed what mother had been remarking about. They were jogging in socks and flip flops. There were two words only for that sight, and those were WHY and HOW.

Breakfast was a selection of fruit and toast, which was pleasant enough. They provided a yummy jam. Then we set off towards the botanical gardens, which was an hour and a half trek away. Usually we would be able to do this without feeling too hindered. But the heat seemed really strong in comparison to Kaula Lumpa, and in fact anywhere else that we had visited so far on our epic journey. So we struggled. The air con of the Gurney shopping malls were a saviour, where we had to catch some cool breath because the perspiration was becoming too much. The battle against the sun was an admirable one, especially to watch mum fight through it. A

pure trooper. We sat in a local cafe for an iced coffee before we continued on into the green of the gardens.

Gurney Plaza-gurneyplaza.com.my

The gardens were free to roam around and took up a huge vast of

space, resulting to having plenty of plants to photograph, and trails to weave in and out on. One of the trails led us up and up to glorious views of the high trees and the tranquil sound of a trickling waterfall. Turtles swam mindfully in the river, which caused us to watch in silence, with only the waterfalls light splashes and the whispering of the trees that surrounded us, being the only sound. The animals played, the branches swayed. Mother and I did not need to speak, yet we smiled at one another and that said everything. There were also monkeys roaming wildly playing and typically causing mischief. We followed a family of them, and laughed at the babies as they swung into gleeful action, having play fights in the grass.
We stalked nature into the late afternoon, and gulped another drink down before the battle with the sun on the walk back continued. By the time we had reached Georgetown again, we were blinded by exhaustion and ravenous.

Botanitcal Gardens-https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g298303-d455055-Reviews-Penang_Botanical_Gardens-George_Town_Penang_Island_Penang.html

We picked out a hawker restaurant which was known to supposedly serve up a mean curry. Georgetown is famous for it's Indian distict, providing the almighty cuisine with it. And was the curry mean? Oh yes, yes it was.
We guzzled down a huge plate of Byriarni and shared naan for around two pounds fifty each. Compar that to a take away back at home for both price and taste, and England gets led to the chopping block for slaughter. The rain had begun to fall delicately whilst we were eating, and as soon as we had made it back to the hostel, it poured and poured and did not stop throughout the warm evening. We hibernated in our sheltered room and watched seperate documentaries on devices. Mother wasn't as engrossed in my new keen interest of leaning about the new world order, although I admit that it wasn't the best of subjects to watch before having the intention to go to sleep. Less than one percent could have power over the planet. Does anything ACTUALLY even matter? I don't think so. Once I had switched my tablet off and climbed under the airy sheet, I closed my eyes and slowly exhaled, to feel every ounce of breath leave my armour of flesh. I realised that I was living my life exactly the way that I wanted it to be, and

that was wanting absolutely nothing at all. I was happy to be accepting the unknown. I was unchained from a system and reaching into new depths of internal consciousness, as well as cultural awareness. I was learning more about myself and the planet by exploring it, and it beat anything that I had ever read on a whiteboard in a classroom or some text on a page from a book. I took another deep breath and smiled before I went under. Was I to wake up? I didn't know, but that was okay.

Little India-http://penang.attractionsinmalaysia.com/Little-India.php

Friday 20th November 2015

So I did wake, and my smile was still displayed on my face. Another day to live, and how beautiful that was to know.

We explored Penang well over the next two days, and managed to still walk in the sweltering heat. We had accepted that we were crazy long ago. The sun was certainly showing it's strength. It took an hour and a half to walk to an attraction named Penang Hill, and on the way we had to take on the teeming main roads with no pedestrian crossings and broken up pavement. Once we had got to Penang Hill, it turned out that you could only take a little train up it. We had wanted to walk up the steep incline to feel like we had earnt the view at the top. A priceless reward. I noticed that the queues for the train were absurd, full of brainless tourists, looking lost and forlorn.
"Fuck doing that," I said, and laughed humourlessly, "looks like we simply have to turn around and go back."
Mum placed her hands on her hips, tapping her foot on the hot pavement. "So this was pretty much all for nothing?!"
I turned my head towards her. "And that does matter? We still had an interesting walk, right?"
"Well no, I guess not," she retreated, "but now we have to go back onto that crazy road."

I started to move again, back in the direction that we came, thinking that life in general in one big mother fucking crazy road. The return trip was tougher and as the centre came into view, waves of relief washed over us. We turned straight into the direction of the bar that sold beer on offer, and the cold brew that travelled down into my system was glorious in all of it's entirety.
Before dinner, we had time to explore the jetties, and it was an eye opener. A sore eye opener. There were little houses on the jetties that were coated with rust, and tarnished heavily by smells that made you want to hold your nose, and try your best to keep your insides from coming out. Garbage patrolled the spaces in between the houses, and the filth boldly protruded the air, sinking it's paws into anywhere clean that it could sniff out. And yet, despite all of the grime and the stench, the local residents were still smiling. They had accepted their poverty and their conditions long ago, and probably were unknown to any better. Or if they did, they were unhindered by it all.
They were happy to just be. The masses should catch on to this concept, but I have little doubts in my mind that they will. There is always the pretty laying within the ugliness, and seeing the locals smile as well as the landscape views of the ocean at the end of the jetties proved it at that particular moment.
We ate in another Indian restaurant that evening and tried Nasi Kandar, a famous Penang dish. It was a type of curry with a mixture of protein in, which was chicken and squid. The squid meat was hard to cut up, so I used my hands like an animal, and put mum off of eating her food, as I kept waving the fins around in front of her nose. I wasn't sorry. The meal really filled us up, and I almost got short changed whilst I paid because I accidentally misheard the woman. Luckily I got the extra fifty riggits I gave over back. Ooops.

Clan Jetties-http://www.penang.ws/penang-attractions/clan-jetties.htm

Kapitan Restaurant-https://migrationology.com/restoran-kapitan-restaurant-penang/

Saturday 21st November 2015

Always walking. The next day we walked down the same busy road, but we thankfully wasn't going as far as Penang Hill. Instead, we had decided to check out the flea market. The majority of the stalls looked like they were selling mountains of old, antique...well, shite. Most electrical items were rusty enough to make you question whether they would work again, and anything else just would have been a pointless purchase. Apart from the sunglasses, which we took our money out for. We quickly grew tired of looking at the same stalls consisting of jumbled junk, so we made our way back and nosed around the main shopping mall. And of course to get some of the air cons cool touch on our skin.
The afternoon was a notably pleasurable one becaise it heavily involved food. We queued up to try the famous dessert dish named Cendol, from it's own little famous street stall, and you must not be fooled by it's bizarre appearance because it tastes fantastic. Mother also bought some flavoured, small bread balls from a local Chinese store. Again, utterly ogasmical on the mouth. And of course there was dinner to consider, so we picked out a local joint to have a Malaysian dish called Wan Tan Mee. My tummy happily sighed as it wasn't used to being fed that much in a small amount of time. You have to grab the oppotunity when it arises, do you not? That was my excuse anyway.

Penang Times Square-http://www.penangtimessquare.com

Prangin Mall-http://www.prangin-mall.com/

Cendol-http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/venues/teochew-cendol-penang-road

Sunday 22nd November 2015

Georgetown is surrounded by streetart, which is dotted around corners and tucked away on building walls, along the narrow streets. We made it a quest to find as many pieces as we could on our final day, and we did pretty well with our mission. The most famous work was tainted with tourists taking photographs with it, but to see it with our eyes was pleasing enough for us. There was a burger bar that had caught our eye on a previous day, and we decided to go in there for an early lunch. As much as all of the local cuisine that we had been eating was sublime, we were still westerners at the end of the day, and for westerners, you cannot beat a good ol' fat burger with a side of fries, right?
Before we had indulged in the epic meal, we had stopped off at the hostel as mumma had wanted to pick some bits up. One of the guys who was working there (or possibly just staying, I wasn't entirely sure...) began speaking to me.
"Ahh, you are that old? I thought that you were in high school still!" and he laughed at me, warmly.
Typical, I thought, and huffed a couple of strands of hair out of my face.
He then begun to tell us stories about tourists that he knew, getting killed in various parts of South East Asia.
"You must be very careful as you are women, especially when traveling around in these parts of the world."
I didn't know if to really thank him for such encouraging words, but I guess that he was only looking out for us? You cannot trust anybody or feel entirely safe anywhere these days, and yes, it does sicken me. Such a wonderful world we live in, but is constantly being poisoned by humans. Yet, to become wise you must be open to both the positive and negative. There is always going to be light at the end of every tunnel, no matter how long or winding that tunnel may be. But then, even if there wasn't a light, do we really need a light to see or can we awaken other senses? Maybe we do not need to see anything, because maybe nothing will be there. Everything, is nothing. Anyway, back to burgers. We pulled away from the conversation and got to the western cafe for a happier atmosphere. It was very tasty, and unlimited soup was included in the price, plus a salad. Once we had finished and the rain had eased up, we walked down the random streets that were yet to be explored, before stopping for a drink in one of the bars that we had been in before. Then it was back to the hostel with a Skol super

and to begin packing. My brain could once more face the super strength beer, and if I regretted it once more in the morning, then it was only going to be my own fault.

Penang Street Art-http://www.onlypenang.com/penang-attractions/penang-street-art-wall-painting-at-penang/

Street Art Map-https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.tourismpenang.net.my/pdf/street-art-brochure.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjY6IPuz8LNAhULDsAKHZ-uBjgQFgikATAd&usg=AFQjCNGdteAnemeHL7MZ7FW5IHWLKE5Low

dteAnemeHL7MZ7FW5IHWLKE5Low

Wingers And Diners-https://m.facebook.com/wingersanddiners/