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Published: March 6th 2009
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After flying into Kuala Lumpur from Borneo we decided to stay for 2 nights. Nice enough city but glad to leave, its was very modern and clean and full of the usual shopping malls. Had added stress of sorting out bank stuff and finally got sorted after 2 weeks of endless skype calls to lloyds tsb.We then left KL and caught a bus north to Penang which is a lovely island of the northern coast of malaysia.
Arriving in Georgetown the capital of Penang we suddenly felt like we were on holiday. The city is pretty & bustling with bars and cafes lining the streets. Its was pleasantly warm and had a really nice vibe. We did start to have a minor panic when every hostel was fully booked but eventually we stumbled upon "Love land Inn" owned by Jimmy a friendly Chinese lethario aged about 60 with too many women in his life. Jimmy was what you would call a character. He was really helpful andgave us a cheap decent room. His wife about 50 years his junior (honestly) was also really sweet. His other lady friend worked as the receptionist They pointed us towards and Indain restaurant called
Capitans and we had one of the best Indian meals we've had since leaving Bristol.
Day 2 in Penang we had a wander around trying some local street food and that evening found ourselves in the middle of Chinese new year celebrations. The little side street in Chinetown were going crazy with local children putting on traditional performances and everyone giving away free food. It was great. Nearby we had another fantastic meal at alocal food court providing entertaining live music. We both felt reallt relaxed and had finally found the cheap Asia that everyone had been talking about.
One of the main attractions in Penang is the Kok Lel Si temple ( the largest in Malaysia) and to take the funnicular (yet another one on our trip) to the top of Penang hill which we did both of. We headed out the enxt day early to catch the local bus to the temple which was 45 mins out of town. After seeing the temple (which was possibly the most amazing building we had both ever seen, in fact we dont think we need to see another temple!) we walked to the funnicular station and took this ancient
and crumbling mode of transport to the top of Penang hill for views of the island.
This in itself was interesting experience. As soon as the cart arrived the seemingly patient passengers suddenly turned into a frenzied mass of pushing and shoving lunatics all fighting to get one of the 4 seats in the carriage. We soon realised that queueing here is non existent concept and elbowing someone in the face to get a seat is prefectly acceptable...you dont even need to say sorry! Seamus being about 2 foot taller than everyone else was able to mustle his way through and eventually battered and bruised I managed to get onto the same carriage, even if it meant I had to stand with my head wedged in some mans armpit. Once on the carriage it was entertaining to see everyone returns to a calm and civilised state! The ride up to the hill takes 30mins but each cart is hugely overcrowded so it was a relief to get to the top. THe views were nice but jaded by the fact we knew we would have to endure more of the same to get down!
Another attraction Jimmy suggested
we should see was Snake Temple. Having worked for an animal welfare organisation I should have realised this was not going to be a haven for sacred serpents and naievely thought it might be ok. It wasnt. It was hideous. The actual temple itself had snakes in the trees which appeared to be ok, however the 'education centre' which we paid to enter was nothing more than a concrete yard with 60 snakes housed in tanks that didnt have enough space to swing a hamster. To add to the 'attraction' there were some demented monkeys, rabbits and guinea pigs in bare iron cages with no water or food in direct sunlight. It would challenge even the most hardened person to not show some compassion. Feeling miserable and incredibly stupid having contributed towards this hideous place we made a sharp exit to get the bus back to Georgetown.
Waiting at the bus stop we joined by 6 seemingly sweet old ladies. We should have learnt nothing is as it appears when it comes to public transport! When the bus finally arrived I was shocked again to find myself being swiped (yes literally swiped!) out of the way by a
women 60 years my senior with the strength of the incredible hulk! Worse still being so politely english I found myself apologising for getting in her way! I have got to toughen up! Seamus however has learnt a little quicker and has no issues with swiping right back...when in Rome...
On our return to the hostel we sorted out out Thai visa and eventually made our minds up to get the sleeper train from Penang to Bangkok, thinking it would be a novel and fun way to travel, something we had not yet done on our travels.
The next morning we were woken up by shouting downstairs in reception. Jimmy and wife no 1 (same age) were having a huge row and when we got downstairs she decided to involve us by telling us what a nasty man he really was and how badly he treated her, whilst he was sat 5m away - a little awkward when we were just aboutto et alift from him to the ferry!. Then wife no 2 (young) comes back from the market crying because she had her mobile phone stolen. This was the icing on the cake for Jimmys morning
and he was furious so all the way in the taxi to the ferry terminal we got the rundown on how angry he was. His wifes were silly women and didnt care about their expensive mobiles, he was going to cut their wages to make them learn. Wife no s talks too much, gives wrong information, wife no 1 was told to mind her phone as it was expensive etc etc etc etc. It was great to get an insight into local life.
When we arrived at the station and finally boarded our sleeper train to Bangkok.
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