Blogs from Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 13

Our journey to Penang could be a whole blog in its self as it felt like it took us days just to get here, we left the perhentian islands at around 11 am by speed boat , now I read in the guide book that these boats should only carry 12 people max so after doing a quick head count we had 22 people in ours plus everyones rucksacks so I was a bit nervous also it didn't help that our driver saw a mate in another boat and they decided to race each over!!Anyway we arrived safe and sound at the dock and met up with two guys from Amsterdam and shared a taxi to kuala Besut which is a little town where we where getting our coach from. Our coach was at 10:30pm, so ... read more

Viel gutes haben wir über Penang gehört und wir wurden nicht enttäuscht. Schon auf dem Boot nach Penang sprach uns eine ältere Lehrerin an, welche uns helfen wollte, damit wir uns nicht verlaufen. Sie führte uns zur Busstation, wo Jan einen gratis Bus fand, welcher in der Stadt herumfährt. Mit diesem Bus fuhren wir nach China Town, wo wir unser Guesthouse gefunden haben. Da wir am FR ankamen, waren viele Guesthouses schon ausgebucht. Wir hatte Glück und bekam das letzte Zimmer mit 2 riesigen Doppelbetten (wir haben nur eines gebraucht) und der Preis war sogar günstiger als bei anderen Guesthouses wo wir gefragt haben. Perfekt für Jan, um sein Chaos wieder einmal ausüben zukönnen ;-) Eine Kollegin, welche wir in Koh Lanta kennen gelernt haben, hat uns das Red Garden Food Paradise empfohlen. So machten wir ... read more

I realize the heat and humidity theme is getting a bit tiresome but never in my wildest did I think it would be so insanely hot... much to my shock and chagrin of course. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into since I had already been to both Thailand and Malaysia in April and May way back in '06. I was sadly mistaken... I really should have published this entry before arriving in Sumatra as it is pleasantly cool here. $US ≈ 29 Thai baht (B) ≈ 3 Malaysian ringgit (RM) Koh Samui Accommodation and food I decided against reserving a room in advance and checked out a few places in Lamai before settling on Ninja Place which had justifiably good reviews on Tripadvisor. The bungalows were located on the main road but ... read more

So, finally the opportunity to travel again, only this time with my ‘husband’ We spent a few nights in KL at a different Guesthouse, Birds nest, a good place to say it was fan only. Also cheap at RM35 per nt for a double room. We then took the bus (5hrs) to Penang and he slept all the way here!! Lol, scrap that I think it was me; at least I had a good pillow J He passed the time watching his oh so loved animation. We finally arrived and then had to take another, long bus ride into Georgetown and then we walked from Komtar to Red Inn Heritage Guesthouse. He was not impressed, he carried most of the bags, and we had LOTS of them; all the way, see what a nice guy I ... read more

Our exploration of Malaysia lasted about three weeks and was limited to Peninsular Malaysia. Due to weather conditions and a beach-overload in Thailand, we chose this to be a cultural exploration focused on cities. Where better to do this than a country where Malay, Chinese, Indians and many other ethnicities live together. Food adventures, people and history abound. We travelled overland by bus from Thailand to Georgetown on the island Penang, to Melaka and to Kuala Lumpur. The difference in prosperity between Thailand became immediately apparent when crossing the border and became greater with every place we visited. These were our last stops in six months of travel crossing the Eurasian continent, just before creating a temporary nest in Western Australia. This blog comes mainly in pictures and is bilingual. Enjoy Malaysia's multitude of faces!... read more