Thailand and Penang - something that started quite unpleasant but turned out to be very good

So after my first day in Penang, Edwin, Antje (a german woman working in Penang, whom Edwin knew because
of working for her boss) and me went to Thailand. Well I wouldnt say Thailand because when you think of Thailand you automatically picture beaches, really good Thai food and cultural sights. We went to Hat Chai a city 1 1/2 hours away from the border, but still having the flair of a border town (prostitution, bad food and tons of replicas, like watches, glasses etc). So to be honest it was okay going there as I have never been there before and we tried to make the best out of it by visiting a few live-music bars at night. During the day we were just strolling around the streets trying to avoid the "massage mister, massage mister" cries.
Getting back from Thailand was a relief and we treated ourselves on Monday night with an exceptional Thai food in Penang (I guess you dont have to drive that far to get what you want and even better). This restaurant was on top of a hill so you could also watch parts of the sunset as it was cloudy. The restaurant owner created an artpiece around his restaurant with a leisure park and different scultures in the garden.
Tuesday I spent the entire day exploring the city of Penang and the island itself, visiting several temples, a botanical garden, a tropical spice garden (very informative), a mosque and several more.This was a lot of fun as I had the opportunity to talk to some local people (e.g. in the mosque I was approached by a couple of Muslims).
On Wednesday I went down to Kuala Lumpur as I was getting ready for my 3-week adventure in Sabah and Sawarak (also known as the Malaysian part of Borneo), including no sleep from Wednesday to Thursday as I had to get up at 4 am and there was some disturbing noise either from the hostel or some other place and too many thoughts running through my head.
Right now I am in Miri waiting for my father to join me the following three weeks, where we will be hiking quite a lot (including the climb of Mt. Kinabalu, 4100 meter) and visiting remote forests and hopefully encounter exotic animals. As we are mainly staying in lodges of different National Parks the posts on my blog will be very infrequent.