Homeless But Not Hopeless: 30/10/2013 to 01/11/2013

Penang A.K.A Georgetown was a surprise for me, I had a fantastic time here with all those i met especially the incredibly friendly locals but all this fun came at a cost; the cost of spending too much time and money. I was looking forward to cycling up into the Cameron highlands and seeing the apparent spectacular views and scenery but time for me is now running short as I have to be in Singapore in now just 11 days. I will have to push myself hard to and through Kuala lumpur and onwards to Malaca following the old highway along the southwest coast of Malaysia.
So about my time in Penang; Penang offered more than I expected with hiking, incredible and varied food with also plenty more to see and do in and around the city it had much the same western-esk feel as Singapore does. Many people I had met on my way through to Thailand told me that Penang wasn't a good place, yes, the drinks are expensive compared to Thailand but that is the only fault I found.
During the four nights I spent here I progressively accumulated a group of people to share the experiences around Penang with including hiking up Penang hill,which was more like a mountain with a steep 5 km incline where we ended up walking back down in the dark because the cable car was a little too pricy to get back to the city - still, it was fun with great company.
The first guy I met when arriving in the city was a Canadian named Andrew who was great, we got along well and hiked the trial to Monkey beach (Penang's most pristine beach) which was secluded, overrun by monkeys that would steal food and drink left right and center and although i had seen nicer beaches on my travels. We were short on time and didnt get the time to sit and relax as we had planned to meet some of the others back in town.
David, the Malaysian hostel owner of 'Super K' was a fantastic addition to the group of us who consisted of 2 québécois girls (Anna and Louisa) 2 American girls (Alana and Sarah) an English guy and girl (Shaun and Julie?), Andrew, David myself and a socially inept Aussie guy named Mike.
Mike was borderline retarded but also the laughing stock of our group making us other guys look so much better, he was painfully and awkwardly amusing and more often than not you would cringe at some of the shit at came out if his mouth.
Now back to David, he has the type of attitude that I would want if I were to run and own a hostel, always happy, incredibly generous and willing to help out every single person in our group and at the hostel.. Well, excluding mike. Ill give you an example; on Halloween where we all dressed up (I went as a magician entertaining those who were interested with card tricks) David bought 3 bottles of black label Johnny walker! I can't imagine how much that would have set him back but really should have taken the money we all offered him. He also took us to a wonderful waterfall driving an hour with 5 of us in the back of his truck where the authorities pulled him over and he received verbal bollocking for having too many people in the back of his truck, he took the risk knowing it was illegal. Needless to say, what a guy!
The expensive alcohol in Malaysia I mentioned earlier and mouthwatering food was part of my stable diet everyday here in Penang and although I now have to be even more careful with the lack of funds in my account it was a fantastic and great time on this trip.
It's 800km more to Singapore and I have just 11 days to get there, there certainly won't be anywhere else ill be spending more than 2 nights at along the way.
Overall a very memorable experience and one easily not forgotten.
I'm going to throw this one in there too - Alana (one of he American girls) you are drop dead gorgeous!!!