Day 62-63 Koh Samui to Hatyai to Penang

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Day 62 Koh Samui to Hatyai (Fri 3rd Sept)

An earlier morning than the past few days today. Departing at 0700, we were up in time to experience the sunrise, which made the beach look lovely despite the appalling hour of the day.

We received a packed breakfast which we did manage to eat on the ferry. They really like their lychees over here for breakfast, although they are much neater to eat if you don’t have to peel your own...

Today was a simple travel day and we were all glad of the lovely coach used all through Thailand. Some of the group bought DVD’s to watch on the coach, which was a good idea for the long drives. Or at least it would have been a good idea if they had checked to see if they were in English first. Because surprisingly enough, none of us understand Thai dubbing...

We arrived at our destination around 1700 and had a quiet night in. There were markets near the hotel but they didn’t sell anything interesting at all. It also rained. Which really shouldn’t surprise us at all, but for a change it also didn’t upset us. This stop really was just a convenience stop before the border.



Day 63 Hatyai to Penang (Sat 4th Sept)

And today we had a very short drive before arriving at the border. It was extremely busy there with masses of teeming people. Fortunately for us though, most people were heading into Thailand, not out as we were and there wasn’t even a queue to go through immigration on either the Thai or Malay side of the border. They even let us take the bus through from border to border (the Malay bus came through to the Thai side to collect us) instead of making us walk with our bags as has been our experience at some borders. A very nice change. Malaysia is on the same time zone as Perth which was also nice for a change. It makes it feel like we are getting closer to Australia (which I guess technically we are...)

The Malaysia coach was really nice as well and in fact it was big enough for us all to have our own double seats on the same side of the coach if we wanted...although why we would want that is beyond me, I’m just pointing out that it is possible...

Our guide, Soman, was full of information all through Malaysia and our first stop was Penang Island. We crossed the bridge form the mainland to get there and it was a pretty impressive bridge too. I remember seeing it last time I was in Penang but at that time I flew in.

We stayed in Georgetown for the night and the fact that we arrived before 1400 was a bonus. It meant time to relax in a quite nice hotel while we waited to meet up for dinner in town.

We took a walk down the main street to see what we could find and in the end we stumbled across an open air food market place. It was lovely and we all end up ordering food off different stalls. I had the most amazing fish dish here, which I think I’ll attempt to replicate at home one day...

It really was a relaxed place to spend the day and we took our time wandering back to the hotel. Apart from needing to walk off our dinner (and the banana split for dessert that really wasn’t needed), we just wanted to have a look through the market stalls and point out things we really didn’t want to buy.

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Photos

George Town
A good view from the hotel

George Town 2
AJ with dessert