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Published: February 1st 2010
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Day Nineteen - Phuket, We’re Out of Here
After a great breakfast, the guesthouse owner took us the few minutes journey to the airport. With Angela’s nerves jangling at another flight, it wasn’t helped when she took the terrors on us all having drugs planted in our bags.
Thankfully, we were clean and able to get on our Firefly flight to Penang. I was looking forward to getting to spend some time in Malaysia as it is a great place. I had mixed feelings on Thailand - I had enjoyed and got bored of Bangkok; I had found Phuket to be a mix of the good but mostly bad; and I had loved Ko Yao Yai, it was what we had sought.
We landed mid afternoon and took a taxi (teksi) to Georgetown, the island’s capital and main town. It is a world heritage site and full of old crumbling buildings, half Chinese, half British colonial. We were sharing a four-person dorm but any worries of it being cramped or squalid were way off the mark. It was an old colonial villa and was as good as a three star hotel. The place was massive and we were
given a six-bed dorm so we could have more room.
We strolled towards the Chinese area to get some dinner. Surprisingly most of town was shutting up, a sharp contrast from the usual hustle and bustle of Georgetown. I had been here once before, not intentionally and although I enjoyed it, I had not been in a rush back. It was only due to travel problems in Southern Thailand that we were taking this route instead of our original plan to go via Ko Lipe on the ferry.
We found a restaurant just before the girls expired, delirious with the hunger. The food was great and varied although Angela didn’t agree with the rest of us - she still hasn’t taken to chicken on the bone which is the standard way to serve here.
I also managed to get Wi-Fi in the restaurant for the first time since we left Terry’s and found that Firefly had cancelled our evening flight to Langkawi and we were due at the airport at 8.30am instead of 6pm. At first a bit pissed off, we realised this meant another day on the beach as opposed to a day wandering around town
- the hardship...
We proceeded to Little India and found ourselves in a carnival parade. It was a parade to entice a god to appear for a festival at the end of the month. The noise and colour was amazing and we trailed through the streets happily.
To try to get some feel for the city we then headed to the Padang and Fort Cornwallis. The last remaining British fort in Malaysia, this is also the site of the first British garrison there. At night, there is not much to it and after a circuit around it and the City Hall, we headed home.
With teksi booked, it was bed early for all of us and in the dorm, it was damn comfy.
Today’s Highlights Great Satay; Little India; and a warm shower in Hutton Lodge!
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