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Published: October 27th 2012
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Remembering to take with me an abundance of warm clothes I had a successful sleep on the night bus from Kota Bahru to Penang. Like many of the busses in Malaysia it operated a team of staff that was three fold; 1
st the driver, 2
nd the person to sell you a ticket and 3
rdthe person to rip your ticket. The system works well if maybe a little over staffed but then I’ve heard on the grapevine that unemployment in Malaysia is a mere 3%!<(MISSING)br>
The great this about night buses is that they provide you with a place to sleep, the bad thing is that often this place to sleep will get to your stop at 4:30 in the morning. But this was fine as it meant the temperature was still cool and I could walk from the bus station to George Town which was around 7km (30km if you believe the taxi drivers). So this is what I decided to do, however after about 2km a man on his way to work pulled up and offered me a lift, I was grateful and accepted as having walked 2km with my rucksack I began to question whether
or not I should have Just got a taxi. The man gave me a lift to where the hostels are in George Town on our way he informed me of the percentage split between Chinese, Malay and Pakistani people in Penang and also pointed out a small group of lady boys.
I decided to take a dorm room at 75 Travelers Lodge, the room was a bargain and they let me check into the room at 7am which was nice, until then I just lay on a nearby bench and took a cautious nap! The hostel also had in its possession a hot shower which is a real treat as so far they have been quite few and far between (if you ever go to this hostel it is the first shower on the right on the ground floor!)
The hostel in itself provided a decent experience for Penang with an eclectic group of residents, featuring (I can’t remember names just the facts):
A welsh man who could have been the best teacher in Brunei if only they would have given him the visa but instead spends his days copying out
sheet music in really neat writing.
An American who runs self help meditation classes over the internet based for 9 months in a Thai fishing village and then the other 3 in 75 travelers Lodge. He was a very relaxed sounding gentleman who has given some hopefully good advice for a place to go for a monastery stay, if you want to go it is Buddhist Hermitage Lunas in Sayadaw Sunanda, Malaysia. The positive features where that you could stop and start the trip when you want and that the monk who runs it use to be a dentist and has very good English.
A man in his 80’s from California who has come here for retirement as you can’t beat the price! Really nice guy though after soiling himself in an early afternoon nap proceeded to lie in the dorm stark naked, though if it’s your retirement why not!
I met two other Lads Frenchy from london and Majiec from Poland, and we went out to explore around Georgetown.
Around Georgetown there are some great things to see and do.
Great things to see
are the street art, the markets, a 33m reclining Buddha, Fort Cornwallis, the Police busy at work during the sun then stopping work as soon as it rains and how everyone appears to wear their raincoats back to front.
Great things to do include eating, eating and more eating! I think in Georgetown you could go up to any street seller and the food they would give you would be incredible! The food has a large Indian and Chinese influence and most the street sellers specialize in one or two dishes. You go up, say helo (malay for hello) and have a nosey of what they cook and then just eat it and pay! Sometimes it is good to question it though, in the interest of trying something truly new I had pigs ear in satay source, it was ok but Majiec loved it! It was also in here where I have learned a true appreciation for the coconut, on the street you can buy it fresh and they are full to the brim of coconut milk which when you finish leave a delicious snack of coconut flesh to eat! If offering both these things wasn’t enough
we also discovered a place where you could buy some coconut home brew which they serve to you in a mug or in a bottle inside a plastic bag!
A useful lesson I learnt at this stage of the trip is; If anyone ever tells you that if you want to get an extended visa from the Thai Embassy in Penang you have to wear long trousers and shoes that they are wrong (or possibly playing a joke!) This advice was passed onto Majiec by Frenchy which lead to us walking approx 4 Km in long trousers and shoes in hot heat to the Thai Embassy. All the way we imagined a really fancy building with air-con and big sofas and lots of desks with people gathered around to assist with visa applications, though on arrival it became clear it is a hole in a wall. Although granted it is behind a gate which a man parks in front of and will take passport photos for you in the back of his van! They certainly wouldn’t have been able to tell if you were wearing long trousers, let alone shoes! In the end neither of us bought
an extended visa as they cost quite a bit of money and you can get a two week one at the border for free.
On the way back a women gave us a lift in to a temple along the way pointing out her house (which she told us was in the posh neighborhood) a park where Chinese people exercise in the morning and evening, the school her children go to and a Temple with a lot of steps. We decide to get out and climb the temple steps and thank her for the lift, making a mental note of where the posh part of Penang is if we want to turn to crime!
On the penultimate day in Penang (I think I stayed here for 4 nights) we hired mopeds so that we could explore the rest of the island. This was excellent; we headed around the island in an anti-clockwise direction, on the way stopping off at Penang national park for a spot of jungle exploration, continuing round to the south to check out some beach. On the way back to Georgetown we took a cross
country route that was sign posted although possibly not appropriate for mopeds and it felt like we were driving through Jurassic park and many of the roads ended up being dead ends where the dirt track just disappeared. However after checking out most of the dead ends we eventually stumbled across the correct route, which also lead to the knife temple. There was no one at the knife temple except a few dogs but there was a terrific view over Georgetown! On our way back we pass loads of Chinese people doing their evening exercises (although this was not the park we were shown by the women who lives in the posh part of town)
As Majiec and I are going in the same direction we decide to travel together and so book a bus to Koh Tao in Thailand. We celebrate our last night in Penang with food from the street sellers and some coconut homebrew and prepare for the 5am Bus ride to Thailand in the morning!
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