"I would like a ticket to Texas." I can picture myself saying this to a ticket agent at an airline or bus or train counter. I would have to specify where in the hundreds of places in Texas I wanted to go. Here, though, I go to the bus counter and ask for a ticket to Penang. Penang is not a city. It is a 'State' in Malaysia. It is also an island connected to the mainland of Malaysia by a ferry and also a very long bridge. The capitol city of Penang is Georgetown, but I don't ask to go to Georgetown. If I go to the State of Penang, it will be the capitol of Georgetown. 

The bus terminal is quite impressive here in KL . There are escalators and floor after floor in the building. I pay my $6 for a ticket to Penang for the next morning at 7:45. Then, I roam around the huge complex to find where I will catch the bus the next morning. After searching several floors, I find the loading zones. Tunnels lead to each one separately. Finding them today will save me time in the morning.

I arrive at the station a little after 7 a.m. and it is strangely quieter than I imagined such a large operation to be. I find my tunnel and head through it down to the bottom level where the busses are waiting.

A young guy is sitting on the steps near the bus. He is Li Quing Tuan and he is from China, also backpacking SE Asia and he is also heading to Penang on the same bus today.

By 7:40 there is no activity around the busses. No one else has turned up to ride and the busses are all sitting quiet.

Li walks around to the front of our bus and through the windshield can see the driver inside, sleeping . He bangs on the windshield and wakes him up. The driver staggers to open the door and we show our tickets. Yes, this is the right bus. The driver motions for us to put our bags under the  bus in the cargo area.

We board the bus, while the driver is rubbing his sleepy eyes. The seats are really comfortable. They are more like living room recliners than bus seats. 30 minutes later we are still sitting, the bus has not moved. I suggest maybe the driver went back to sleep.

By 8:15 we are pulling out of the station, 30 minutes late. We are the only two on the bus. Then, we stop to fill the bus with diesel. 

Along the way sometimes someone will flag the bus down and we stop to pick them up. Eventually, the bus is about half full.

It is 370km to Penang. There is some beautiful scenery as we ride through the mountains. I like to do day trips when I travel, if possible, just because of the scenery . On night busses, of course, you miss any scenery on the trip. In my travels the journey is just as important as the destination, and sometimes more interesting!

Along the highway I see rolling hills and mountainsides covered with palm trees. I learn later they are 'oil palm trees'. The rainforest is under threat of being destroyed in Malaysia because of logging (much of it illegal) and farming and population growth. The oil palm trees have been planted where rainforest once was.

Around noon we are in Georgetown, Penang. Georgetown is the 2nd largest city in Malaysia. It was the first British settlement in the Malaysian Peninsula in 1791.

LI and I get off the bus at the end of the route in Penang. I have instructions how to get to the hostel I am staying at. Together we walk in the direction my instructions tell me. After too long of a time, according to my instructions, we decide something is not right .

It turns out the bus has ended at a different location than what we wanted. We are another hour's away from the place we should have gotten off the bus.

We find which local bus we need to take to get us to where we should be and find a bus stop and wait for it to arrive.

An hour or so later, we get to where we thought the long distance bus would let us off and follow my directions, only 5 minutes away we get to the hostel. It's been a long, hot day by now.
 
I will be staying near "Little India". In KL I stayed in Chinatown. The hostel is nice for the $7 per night. It has hot water in the shower and is very clean and near many sights I want to visit.

Li, my new Chinese friend, gets a room at the same hostel I am staying at, and we head out into the town to see the sights.

A British trader, Francis Light, founded Geogetown in the late 1700's . There is a lot of British influence in Malaysia today. The economy and education system is based on the British model. Malaysia seems more advanced than many of the other Asia countries I have visited.

There are Muslims as well as many Chinese in Georgetown. The city has a population of about 600,000.

Around mid-day on Saturday and all of Sunday, many shops and tourist places close. This is because of the large Muslim and Chinese population.

The Chinese locals are often seen burning incense on the streets and you can hear the Musulim prayer times called at certain times of the day. The prayers are broadcast by speakers from the mosques and can be heard all over the city. Prayers start early in the morning and are done 5 times a day.

We wander through Little India and find some good Asian food to eat at a street stall. I buy a small jar of instant coffee . The hostel has cups and hot water. Not all hostels do, but this one does.

We pass a Mosque. Since this is Muslim country, there are a lot of mosques around. It is the largest one in Georgetown (founded in 1801) and we are there about sunset ... and it is awesome. It is called the Kapitan Keling Mosque. 

It is whitewashed and has large golden-topped domes on it with crescents and stars. There is an islamic Indian style thing called a minaret that sounds the 'azan', the call to prayer for the muslims here. 

The worshippers come to the mosque 5 times every day, 7 days a week. Tourists can go though the mosque when the prayers are not going on. They even provide a guide for you. You must take off your shoes, and, if they think you are not dressed appropriately, they will provide you a robe to wear.

The muslims that wait at the table inside the door opening and look you over and then offer a guide, like to try to convert you over . They have pamphlets that tell how much better Islam is than Christianity. Li and I decide not to take the tour. But, I take pictures from the outside tonight and return the next day to get some daylight photos.

The next day Li and I visit The Parish of St George the Martyr. It was the first Anglican Church built in SE Asia! Malaysia is a Muslim country, but there are also Christian churches here. The first services were held in the Cornwallis Fort in 1799 but the new church building was built in 1819.

We went inside and toured the pretty building and chatted with the women attendants.

We paid a visit to the Penang State Museum built in 1816, also. Both the Japanese and Allied forces bombed the building during WWII. In 1961 the building was almost demolished by the state government. They wanted to build a school in it's place. But, the Malaysian Prime minister convinced them to instead turn the building into a museum.
 
Next: The Star-Shaped Fort!