Kuala Lumpur to Penang

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This morning was a relaxed start. I'd packed last night so all I had to throw in my bag were some toiletries my towel and my newly dried hand-washed clothes. I was begging to miss having machine-washed clothes, the only opportunity I'd had to wash stuff was at Dai's in Singapore and I'd now been through all these. I'd arranged for a 10.30am bus from KL because the journey only took six hours so I still got to Penang in time for dinner. Aruna, a girl who'd been in the same dorm as me, was also headed to Penang but she hadn't booked her ticket there. I told her to tag along as there were so many coach services there was bound to be a space. I had pre-warned her of my experience yesterday and sure enough, on our exit from the LRT we were hounded all the way to the coach terminal. All of the ticket touts looked equally disappointed when told we already had our tickets, and I took some twisted pleasure from stringing them along for a while.

Now when I say there was a bus terminal, it wasn't really a bus terminal. It was more of a marquee, not dissimilar to what you'd find at a summer wedding back home, which housed about twenty or thirty small booths all offering travel to Northern Malaysia, Southern Malaysia and Thailand. The marquee was skirted by some shanty shacks offering food and drink all of which were covered in various bits of tarpaulin. Aruna booked on to the same coach as me and we were shown to our transport. The coach was the similar to the one I caught from Singapore to KL minus the plush tv in the headrest. We stowed our bags and went to get snacks for the trip. I played it safe, as normal for my transit days, and went for water, oreios and some things called chocopies - like a wagon wheel, but all dried out and slightly past it's best due to lack of refrigeration. We boarded the bus and were away by 10am, a cool half hour ahead of schedule.

The bus ride was not the most pleasant experience. We were seated on the back row which meant we got thrown up out of our seats each time we hit a bump in the road. The driver wasn't the friendliest guy nor did he speak any English, so at toilet breaks we had to guess by the number of people getting off why we were stopping. Nevertheless, we arrived in Butterworth pretty much on time. Butterworth is a small town on the mainland, and the main drop-off for those not driving across to Penang. We hopped onto the ferry and paid the RM1.20 (£0.40p) for the crossing to Georgetown. It tool only fifteen minutes to cross and we sat at the front of the good ship P. Talang Talang to enjoy the breeze as we sailed.

Once on Penang, it was a stones throw to the Red Inn where we were staying. It was blisteringly hot and with heavy bags neither of us fancied the idea of walking much, so taxi it was! The Red Inn on Love Lane was a delightful little place that wasn't too dissimilar in set up to the Back Home in KL. We checked in, dumped out bags in our rooms and headed out to find some food...we were starving. I'd been given a map of Georgetown showing where we were and asked the girls on reception to circle some traditional Malay eateries. I'd read that Penang was the best place to get Malay food as it had been less watered-down with Thai and Chinese influences and I wasn't disappointed.

We visited one if the many street restaurants called Line Clear which was just on the corner of Jalan Penang. We queued and watched as the guys working the hot plate dished out piles of rice, different curried chicken legs, vegetables and sauces. Most of the people had rice, veg and chicken but I was ravenous and eager to try everything so I had rice, chicken, omelette, vegetables, sauces and some bizarre thing that the guy serving us recommended I try. We sat down and started and hardly a word was said between us. Although Arula only had rice and sauce she was clearly enjoying it as much as I was my mountain of food. The rice was perfect, filled with spices and fried onion and garlic...although the taste was a bit overpowered by the strength of the variety of sauces I'd been given. The chicken was a little cold but nonetheless delicious as was the omelette. I ate one of the two pieces of 'stuff' I'd been told to try. The small sausage shaped thing tasted and felt poached. I asked a guy passing what it was and was told 'fisheggs'. The first piece was eaten as it was still warm, the second piece hidden under thigh bones. We wondered back to the guesthouse and planned each planned our individual trips. It was already 6pm so we wouldn't eat again for a while.

At about 9.45pm we decided to go out for some more food. We had been told of a place that had been open since the managers mothers time that was very popular but didn't open until 10pm. We wondered down an found the queue had already started some time ago. There were easily a hundred people either seated or queueing for service to start. As we patiently waited in the still growing queue amazed at how popular this place was, the police rolled up in a van and two motorbikes and started moving parked cars on. Unsure of what was happening we asked the guy in front of us what was going on. He told us that the cars were being moved because the minister for tourism was coming to eat at the restaurant. Bizarre as it sounded an hour later a black car rolled up and out hopped a short lady in a white and pink long jacket with a very plainly dressed entourage. She of course got to jump the queue, even after I'd joked with the guy in front that she was going to have a long wait for food an was seated at the back. We waited an-hour-and-a-half to get to the front of the line and receive our food. I was starving and like early wanted to try a bit of everything. Again my plate was piled high and again a mixture of all of the sauces were scooped onto my plate. It was great - chicken, squid, beef, vegetables and plain rice. The rice was bland but the meats and sauces more than made up for it.

After paying the princely sum of RM10.50 (£2.10) for my meal, we headed back to the hostel. I was exhausted and was keen to get some shut eye. My ankle had been bitten again and had swollen just as it had in India to the size of a small balloon. I climbed onto my top bunk, propped my ankle up on my bag and drifted off to sleep.

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