Blogs from Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 14

Hello again, I hope you are all healthy and happy. Here are a few pictures from our time in Malaysia, I hope you enjoy looking at them. Take care, Miss T... read more

The heat is oppressive, unrelenting, surreal. It takes your strength, appetite and will. You can’t fight it, there’s no reason, you can’t win. It’s a thick heat, the humidity is so high.The moisture peels the paint from the walls and then peels the stucco until the red brick shows. You tie a ribbon on your fan so you’re sure it’s still moving. You try to sleep, but the heat gives you strange dreams. Dreams of jungles and strange voices you can’t understand. Your clothes stick and you dread walking. You learn to survive in the morning before the sun comes or in the evening as it subsides. You learn to find relief in anything cool, a breeze, an umbrella, a cool drink. Anything to survive for a few more minutes. You curse the people who block ... read more

This morning, we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out exploring. Since my arm got burnt through the window on the awful bus journey, I had to keep covered up. And the weather was so hot! We stumbled upon Fort Cornwallis, the largest fort in Malaysia, and decided to check it out. The fort was named after the late 18th century governor-general of Bengal, India, Charles Cornwallis. It was originally built from palm trunks in 1876 by Sir Francis Light, to protect Penang from pirates and the north-western peninsular state of Kedah. In 1804, however, it was rebuilt using bricks and stone, reaching completion in 1810. There was once a moat surrounding the structure, but due to a malarial outbreak in the 1920s, it was filled in. In its entire history, Fort Cornwallis never engaged in ... read more

Ah, the romance of the train. The clickety-clacking of the rails, being gently rocked side to side as you fall asleep like a newborn. The romance of waiters in white uniforms serving our wonderful meal on crisp linen tablecloths and sparkling china while we clink our wine glasses to the end of a perfect day. After a peaceful night’s sleep, going to the restaurant car for steaming cups of coffee and freshly-made croissants. That’s what we saw as our train passed the Singapore to Bangkok Orient Express going the other way. Now the reality of the 2nd-class sleeper. After leaving our beautiful apartment in Bangkok, we caught a cab. We had heard that the traffic could be miserable, so we didn’t want to take any chances. We got to the train station with two hours to ... read more

We were both excited to be entering a new country and experience a different culture, but first we had a long day of travel ahead of us before we got to Malaysia. We were picked up by mini van from our hotel in Koh Lanta at 7.30 am, along with a couple from Finland, and once it had made several stops to pick up the other 7 passengers and organised the luggage for the 3rd time, we made our way to the vehiecle ferry to cross over to the mainland. Then it was a 3 hour drive to Trang, where we had to swap to a different mini van, before continuing on to Had Yai. Once there we had a 2 hour wait until we got in the last mini van of the journey which would ... read more