Penang 2

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As I write this, we’re on a train to Thailand. It should take about 9 hours to reach Surat Thani, a city in the South which is the gateway to all the islands on the east coast. We’re going to Ko Samui, but as our train arrives too late to make the ferry crossing tonight, we have a hotel booked for the night so we can do it in the morning instead. Also, we are sitting next to real monks! WOW.

We spent another day and morning in Penang and spent quite a lot of time just relaxing and taking lots of naps. On Friday night, we found this great food court and ordered an Indian which was mouth-wateringly yummy. It was the only place we could find which sold beef strangely enough and after finding bones in his chicken a few too many times, Terry wanted beef.

I haven’t really explained what a food court is yet so I’ll explain. It’s basically a big open space, surrounded by tiny food stalls, all selling different things. In the middle are loads of plastic tables and chairs. You sit anywhere and someone comes along and takes your drink order. You decide what to eat by jut walking around and seeing what’s available. Usually there are no menus but most stalls have a few photos of food with prices and an English/Chinese/Thai/Malay translation of the food title below. So, you just sort of point at photos and say your table number and the food arrives 5 – 10 minutes later. This is how everyone eats in Malaysia. You don’t really get restaurants, although there are some aimed at tourists and on first sight, the food courts can look kind of dirty. You’d never buy some Chinese of the roadside in England then sit on a little plastic chair and eat it outside would you? Here it’s ok, and they’re all packed with locals so that’s testament to the reputation of these places. Also, they are so incredibly cheap. Last night, me and Terry were a bit poor because every time we withdraw money from an ATM, we get charged so we try and withdraw only once or twice per country/currency. Dinner for two (Chicken Rice) with two cokes cost RM13 (£2.60).

On Saturday, we decided to go to Batu Ferangghi, which is the upmarket tourist beach resort. The lovely, clean aircon public bus cost 40p each and took us straight there. Unfortunately, we were both really disappointed with the place. The sea wasn’t very clean and hardly anyone was swimming in it because there were so many water sports going on. The sand was quite dirty and then it decided to rain! When it rains here, it’s really nice because it’s still 30+ degrees so it feels refreshing. However, you can’t sit on a beach in it. Terry also fought his ongoing battle with flip flops. He just can’t seem to operate them! Hopefully we find him some sandals in Thailand that make him comfortable without making him look like a 50 year old tourist. Both of us were surprised at Batu Ferangghi, as we sat just in front of the Hard Rock Hotel which probably costs about £100 a night and the beach is exactly what the people staying there are using. We both thought that the beaches in Dubai were 100 times nicer and decided to go back to Georgetown. On the way back, there was this girl on the bus wearing shorts who had really hairy legs so I spent most of the journey wondering what drove her to let them get so bad! After Skype-ing Terry’s family last night, we watched a movie called “The Invention of Lying” which was a lot better than I’d expected. Download it people!

We checked out today and set out on a mission to get a little Thai Bhat so we could pay for a taxi to our hotel tonight. We still had some Singaporean dollars knocking around so we got rid of them. Most places you stay want a deposit for keys/aircon remote etc so when you leave, you get a little cash you need to get rid of before you go to another country and the currency changes. Today, we took our RM50 (£10) and decided to splash our cash on lunch in an actual indoor restaurant....it still only cost £3.50! We’ve spent the rest on snacks for our journey and a taxi to the jetty. The ninja crisps probably won’t be available in Thailand so were both a little bit upset about that. I comforted myself with a dairy milk bar instead.

Our guesthouse has been really good and the only thing which we didn’t enjoy was the screaming kids next door who woke us up this morning. They provide breakfast, which is only tea, toast and cake but its £12 a night for a room so no complaining! They did our laundry yesterday which was a welcome relief as we only have about 4 outfits each and I actually had to wear a bikini yesterday because I ran out of bra and knickers! Travelling is totally worth it though. I’ve decided that the worst part so far has been squat toilets and the best part is a tie between the cheap yummy food and getting to wear summer clothes every day. Neither of us can believe that two weeks ago Terry was sitting his last exam. The time is passing at snails pace which means we still have lots of travelling to do and loads of amazing things to see. I hear Thailand is nice.....

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