To escape from our tough life on Samui, we have just been to Penang, another South East Asian island which is situated just off the west coast of Malaysia. Our friends from London JP and Nicola are currently traveling round the the region and this was a chance to meet up and compare war stories (where the best/worst beaches - food - public toilets etc can be found). To compare our stories about Penag check out their travel blog -
http://www.travellerstaleof.blogspot.comOur trip involved a ferry to the mainland and then an overnight train, then another ferry to Penang itself - all quite exciting for Tammy who hadn't left Samui since her trip to Singapore last December.
Penang itself is a real cultural contrast to Samui - despite it's similar size and geographic location. The population is half chinese half Malay and there is also a significant European colonial history . As it was Chinese New year when we were there the Chinese influence was in full force - note the giant sized joss sticks in the first photo!
As well as having a significant modern port town, Penang also has several National Parks which we explored on foot - a pleasant change from Samui where we seem to do more driving than walking...
The food in Penang is great - authentic Indian, Chinese, Malay and of course seafood are all widely available and pretty cheap -even compared to Samui. All the food and drink in the picture cost about ten pounds - including the freshest (and tastiest) whole red snapper we've ever had - bargain!
Just to prove that we don't spend all day on the beach -here's one of the latest photos of the villa - the builders are getting ready to put concrete beams on the second storey! It's definitely starting to take shape! 
We finally ventured across the sea to Koh Phangan on Thursday - with a bunch of friends. We spent the day on Haad Rin beach (where the Full Moon Party is held). It's probably one of the nicest beaches that I've seen in Thailand - and just 45 minutes by ferry from Samui!
On our return from Penang we discovered that we are now the proud owners of several vertical beams in addition to our concrete slab. The next stage is for the workmen to create a wooden structure capable of holding up the first floors concrete slab while it sets (or "goes off" which is the technical term apparantly).
To escape from our tough life on Samui, we have just been to Penang, another South East Asian island which is situated just off the west coast of Malaysia. Our friends from London JP and Nicola are currently traveling round the the region and this was a chance to meet up and compare war stories (where the best/worst beaches - food - public toilets etc can be found). To compare our stories about Penag check out their travel blog - http://www.travellerstaleof.blogspot.com
Penang itself is a real cultural contrast to Samui - despite it's similar size and geographic location. The population is half chinese half Malay and there is also a significant European colonial history . As it was Chinese New year when we were there the Chinese influence was in full force - note the giant sized joss sticks in the first photo!
They just poured the ground floor concrete slab on Sunday (yes, we've seen a lot of the concrete truck over the last few days). The wet concrete is held in by formwork, which was knocked off today. The guys are now starting to move upwards.. and started work on the columns today.
The builders have been quite busy this week, laying out kilometres of steel and pouring concrete into the ground floor beams. We can now see an outline of some of the rooms - including the swimming pool (shown in the left of this picture), which is quite exciting. Next stage will be the ground floor slab...