18th September 2010 We had to be at reception for 7am as we were being picked up for our full day excursion. First stop was Danndensaduak (the floating markets). We drove about 90 minutes to get to the canals and we had another 90 minutes of free time to wonder round and buy what we wanted. I brought some Mango-steam which is a type of local fruit. They were so delicious and i ended up eating over a kilogram of them. After our free time we had a small boat trip on the canal which took us through a local village. We saw quite a few families washing themselves and their clothes in the canal water. Was a bit of a shocker as the water was all green and filthy! We got back onto our bus ... read more

16th September 2010 Again I had a lie in today! We were leaving to go to Bangkok around midday so we had to morning to do what we wanted. We got some breakfast and then decided to get a pedicure from the beauty salon down our road. It cost us 200 Baht which is about £4! We packed up out bags and check out of the hostel for 12.30pm. A mini bus picked us up and took up to the port where we were getting to ferry back to the main land. On the other side we picked up a coach which took us to the Train station for the overnight train to Bangkok. We boarded the train around 6.20pm and we weren’t arriving in Bangkok until at least 6am. The train was very basic and ... read more

14th September 2010 I set my alarm early so I could get the embassy as it opened. Luckily I was the first one there so I got seen straight away. I was in the embassy for nearly 4 hours whilst they were getting all the documents together to be processed and sent off to the UK embassy. I had to leave to check out of my hostel before 12 and get back asap to hear the verdict. Luckily once I got back to the embassy my passport had been completed and signed off. I now had 3 hours to get to the airport, buy a ticket and get on the plane! I got the train to the airport which was the quickest route, the train left just after 1pm and I didn’t arrive at the airport ... read more

12th September 2010 So today I was feeling much better. We got up for breakfast and then went to find the Kek Lok Si Temple which was about 30 minutes out of town. It was gigantic!! There were lots of statues including the Pagoda of 10 Thousand Buddha’s. We got the cable lift right up to the top of the temple where we could see the giant bronzed statue and also had a great view of the whole town. We walk all the way down and grabbed a taxi to take us the Penang Hill - however train up to the top was under construction and you can’t actually walk up it so we gave it a miss. By this time my camera had run out of battery anyways. We got back to the hostel and ... read more

10th September 2010 We got up, had breakfast and made our way down to reception for 8.45am. We were being picked up for the Rainforest Adventure Tour which was a full days tour trekking through the rainforest to find the Rafflesia, which is the largest flower in the world. The truck drove for an hour or so on the normal roads before a 20 minute off-road drive to the start of the trek. It was going to take us between 60 and 90 minutes to get to it and then the same on the way back. There had been rain in the last 8 days so the route was pretty slippery and actually quite dangerous. We eventually got to the flower after about 80 minutes of climbing up and down hills, over small streams and fallen ... read more