Penang, Malaysia.

Rumour has it that because the tides are wrong and there is not enough depth under th keel in the approach channel, we have had to delay our arrival into Penang until late morning. Consequently, this gave us the opportunity to compete in our first trivia challenge of the trip. We joined up with elderly couples from Australia and the USA and our combined efforts won the day. To be fair though, there wasn't very much competition.

Once alongside we decided to have an early lunch before proceeding ashore...we had no excursions booked so just decided to have a look around Penang's main town, Georgetown (which incidentally is a UNESCO world heritage site).

There is a huge cultural mix here in Penang, of Malay, Thai, Indian and Chinese. The streets are full of small businesses, little shops, street food, temples, cars, mopeds, bicycles and people. The stall holders and shop owners are welcoming, a genuine welcome and not one just because we are tourists and they can spot a potential sale. So we had a good meander round, took many pictures of the street scenes and purchased a couple of souvenirs. Being a tourist resort the entire waterfront and coastline is gradually being taken up with high rise hotel blocks and already the place is far more built up and developed than I had imagined.

Inevitably we had to take shelter once or twice from the afternoon downpours, but they have not been quite as heavy today. Before reboarding the ship we also stopped for some coconut icecream which was wonderfully refreshing.

After our exertions in the heat, a dip in the pool was called for. We opted for one of the two smaller pools at the back of the ship, the water was pleasantly warm, and we spent a half hour or so swimming in the rain.