My partner and I are also regular visitors to Penang. We have the luxury of a motorbike and/or car and we have been taking tour groups around Penang Island for 13 years.
So many of the reports I read about Penang are by people staying inner-city, usually low budget and mostly describing initial responses to everything. Bit like a photo explaining a movie. The low-budget tourist only sees a small slice of Penang. They carry a Lonely Planet and generally miss 90% of what Penang has to offer.

Nice to read your take on things. You are astute and adventurous. Penang is not like KL or Singapore. Thank Buddha, Allah or the old ‘rent act’ for that. Penang is marvellously chaotic. Komtar has been dying for some years now. They are trying to resuscitate it but it’s a bit like trying to reform a serial killer.
If you stay at or around inner-city boarding houses anywhere in the world you’ll see old men. In Asia it’s often Waiguoren ( white men ). All boys become men and then they get old. They can survive financially by spending there European savings in Asia. If they were to be disturbing they’d probably be in Thailand not Malaysia. Maybe they are renewing their Thai visas – maybe you got a point.

Anyway, nice reading your article, good luck with all your travels – John.

I look ahead to more similar postings like this one. Does Your Blog have a RSS I can subscribe to for updates?

the reason you did not get the house was the owner of vijit. he is pure mafia.

Gavins reply :
Sorry we have no contact details for coral beach 2. Hope fully somebody maybe able to help you and have a wonderful holiday.

Jackie Chia

Penang is really a wonderful place to visit in Malaysia. I visited once and feel like visiting again

I compiled penangmalaysiatravel.com Penang Travel Guide recently. Please visit and leave some comments .. Hopefully I will visit Penang soon

cheers Ö

I am J-P, Annette’s partner. I happened to find your website cruising around about 8 months ago, and have saved it in my favourites because it makes me really jealous- and I like that feeling as it is for good reason.

I think that what you guys are all doing is fantastic, and even though things dont run smoothly all of the time, you are having experiences that will be with you for the rest of your lives.

Cornwall will always be here when you get back and doesn’t change much

Keep on living the dream.

J-P, Annette and Taran

Reply (Hanna) Thanks for the message. Its nice to know that you have been reading our stories and enjoying them. We are back to Cornwall at the end of March for a week and then off to Spain for a little while. All the best to you, Annette and Taran.

Thanks very much I really enjoyed your portfolio

(Gavin’s response)
Many thanks Jeff really appreciate your comments if you would like to see more of our images take a look on Picasa : http://picasaweb.google.com/cornish.travellers
Many regards Gavin

(Reply by Gavin) : I’d say you should be more qualified than me to comment about Thai visas (www.siamese-visa.com) As far as I know you just apply for another visa at any Thai embassy / consulate outside of Thailand. Also remember that you can extend the 60 day tourist visa by another 30 days in Thailand. Take a look at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site : http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2637.php