Day 7 - Penang

Today we hired a driver for 8 hours to take us to the places we wanted to visit and educate us on the way. It only cost $100 AUD and was well worth it to have total flexibility and an air conditioned car waiting for us after every stop! First he took us to Georgetown and we saw several of the street wall artworks. They were very beautiful and rustic looking. The oldest and most famous one of the kids on the bike had lots of people waiting around to take their photo with it and it was on a busy narrow street so it wasn't easy getting a pic. I am starting to get the shits with how long people take to take a photo because the stupid poses they do so I count to five and then I walk in front of them.
We then went to the magic house which the kids enjoyed and the glass making house where they made a trinket. Then we went to one of the Chinese Clans on the river which is a bunch of old houses on stilts over the water all connected by walkways. It was nice but pretty touristy. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant which is the kids favourite food. From there we headed up the mountain to the Kek Lok Si temple which we visited on our honeymoon 15yrs ago but Steve doesn't remember. We also took the railway up Penang Hill to see a view over the city. There wasnt much to do at the top as the temple I wanted to see was covered in scaffolding and otherwise there was a lot of touristy junk. I am surprised there doesnt seem to be much change to when we were here 15 years ago, the people still live in pretty poor conditions and I feel sorry for them trying to make a sale to tourists to get by.
We got back to the hotel at 5.30 and had a long swim in the pool. We walked up the street to the same little restaurant as last night and had satay sticks, singapore noodles and banana fritters, followed by crispy nutella pancakes from the street vendor. We got back to the hotel at 10pm.