I found the hostel pretty easily after that nice lady had helped me a lot and once again, I got really lucky with my accommodation! The house of journey is just around the corner from a street food market, Main Street, the street art district and some cool bars and hostels.
When I came to my dorm room, I met Ben, a 29 year old guy from San Diego, and since he hadn’t eaten anything either, we went out to grab some food. He already had a plan where he wanted to go so I just followed him and we ended up at a really cool and crowded food court place, called “red Garden” (which is only open at night) only 10 min away from the hostel. We tried some of the typical Malayan dishes that the girl at the hostel recommended and listened to the weird but very entertaining singing and pretend-piano-playing of the guy on stage ;) Ben has been traveling for over a year now and still doesn’t want to stop – he’s been all over the world! When I hear things like that I just want to do that for the rest of my life, too!
After dinner, talks and music we met one of Ben’s friends at the hostel where she’s working at the moment and hung out at the bar there with a couple of other people. We had a lot of fun talking about our travels, playing games and singing karaoke and afterwards we went to a club and danced until 3 in the morning – it’s been a great first night in Penang and I already fell in love with this place ! I’m definitely gonna stay here longer.

Cendol – typical dessert from Penang: shaved ice with red beans, syrup, coconut milk and “Cendol-noodles”

Lok Lok – you chose the food you like on the stick and put it in the pot with boiling water until done