Advertisement
We left Pantai Cenang on the Sunday and quickly covered the 25km to the port at Kuah. We were not in any rush as we planned to stay the night in Kuala Perlis - the town where the ferry disembarks - which has some excellent fish restaurants . We reached Kuala Perlis about 2.30pm and started looking for a place to stay. Unfortunately for us all the hotels were full or asking ridiculous prices for a room. So we decided to push on to Alor Setar, our next destination, about 50km south. By time we set off it was 3pm and the weather quite hot. We were also hampered by a strong headwind but pushed on regardless. We arrived in Alor Setar about 6pm, very hungry and very very thirsty. The last time we had visited Alor Setar was 30 years ago but we recognised very little of today's city. We then spent the next 2 days travelling south to the island of Penang where we have spent the last week. Initially we had problems finding a hotel as the 1st May is a public holiday here and most places were fully booked over this period. But again we eventually found
a small hotel next to a pub called Soho. I was conscious that the proprietors might try to increase the room rate over the bank holiday so to avoid this I paid up front for the full week. The pub next door I mentioned is one of the most popular in Penang and apparently serves more types of draft beer than anywhere else in Malaysia. I did say that we were right next to the pub, in fact we latter found out that we were right over it as it occupies the complete 1st floor of our hotel. Fortunately for us the extremely loud music only goes on to about 3am so at least we get a couple of hours sleep.
Penang is the oldest English settlement in Malaysia and still has many well maintained colonial buildings. The weather here hasn't been too good and most days we have had heavy down pours. Thankfully we've had plenty to see and again utilised the bikes during the sunny spells to explore the island. On Saturday we visited one of Joy's relations in Butterworth and had a very enjoyable evening with Joy (Joy's niece) and her family. Penang is renowned for
its excellent food and we can verify this. Having eaten mainly Malay cuisine on the east coast we are now going through our Chinese phase on the west - that aside, the Indian meal we had with Joy and Russel on Saturday evening was outstanding. There are quite a few travellers in Penang and as a consequence there are numerous second hand book shops around. Having exhausted our supply of books from the UK we have now exchanged them for new ones for the final stage. Joy is currently reading a Jeffery Archer book (can't stand him or his books myself) and I managed to get a copy of the 'Riddle of the Sands' by Erskine Childers - a classic. We will probably stock up with a couple of more books before we set off again on Wednesday.
Having eventually recovered from my bout of vertigo I sustained in India I have to announce that it has unfortunately returned - though thankfully this time not as severe. I think this time I sustained it after a visit to an Indian Barber. I only wanted a beard trim and shave but after he finished that he started massaging my head.
Before I knew what was happening he had grabbed my head and twisted it over my left shoulder (apparently this is part of the head massage process). The pain was excruciating and I could feel and hear my joints and tendons in my neck ripping apart. Again before I could say stop he wrenched my head over to the right. Anyone watching from outside would no doubt have found this incident quite funny. The Indian guy looked about 80 and appeared to have problems just holding up the scissors but there he was now throwing this Westerner all over the place. All was alright until the next morning when I tried to get out of bed and things started spinning around. Luckily the sensation soon disappeared. I said to Joy 'I don't want to go through all that again' and she replied 'well then you better be better prepared for your next visit to the barber' - easier said than done.
Joy woke up the other morning and announced that she wants to run a half marathon when she gets back to the UK. Since then we've both been singing 'Keep on Running' - I think they must have
had a 60s night in the pup. Anyway, the result of this is we are now jogging on days we are not cycling. I thought that after all this cycling it would be quite easy to run. Regrettably both types of exercise involve different muscles and we were both quite stiff after our first little jaunt. Despite all this exercise Malaysia is the only country we have visited that we seem to be putting on weight - obviously the food here is just too good.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 35; dbt: 0.0589s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Moira and Les
non-member comment
catch up
Hi Joy and Steve - great to catch up on your travels and experiences. Lovely pictures - Joy are looking great - lovely picture with your niece. Enjoy rest of trip. Lots of love xxxxxx