Blogs from Penang, Malaysia, Asia - page 80

Well, I left off planning on heading from Tamen Negara to Penang. However, as mentioned earlier, all of Malayasia seems to be going on vacation, so I had a change in plans. I made it to the bus station in Temeroh (approximately near the middle of nowhere) and asked about a ticket to Penang. I soon found out that all the tickets where booked . . . for the next 3 days or so. So after that, I inquired on tickets to Kuala Lumpur, and discovered these were sold out too. I found a ticket to KL at 8 the next morning and snapped it up immediately. I went to a nearby internet cafe to google "hostel temeroh" and came up with nothing, similar result on a search for a hotel. So, I swung my backback ... read more

We arrived in Chinatown, Penang at about 2pm this afternoon. It was hot and muggy but the the island was full of life! We managed to get from Butterworth with no problems on a ferry which only cost 1.20 R ( about 20 pence) when the taxi driver was trying to charge us 65R- I guess we still have 'mug' & 'gullible' written across our backpacks! We then got a taxi to Love lane (where the cheap hostels are) for 8R another bargain esp since we managed to share it with 2 girls which we met on the boat. We checked out a few hostels/hotels before deciding on the Crystal Guest House, Chulia Street (50R) which was relatively new, had AC, 2 very clean beds and wait for it..... had hot water! I think my days ... read more

21st Feb Goodbye Highlands. Steph and i head out together for PENANG/Georgetown and as soon as we got down the mountains it was bloomin hot again. Damn. The bus ride had really good views of the mountains and it was quite scenic which was nice for a change. Once being dropped off by the bus in Georgetown we start walking to where we have some accommodation prebooked. We were heading in the right direction until Steph asked for directions (even though i reassured her we were going the right way! Hello indiana here) We ended up being told to go another way which ended up being the wrong way. So we walked more then we had to and once arriving at the (back)packers we find out that even though we had prebooked our accommodation from the ... read more

February 6th - 12th 2006 We have decided to try a new approach to our blog. We will update the things we have been doing recently as well as updating things from the past couple of months that we haven’t gotten to. A word of caution, some of these pictures are pretty graphic! Phil and I just got back from an amazing morning at the Thaipusam festival; I don’t think you can get any more current than that!! Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrating “the birthday of Lord Murugan and his defeat of the evil demon Soorapadam with a lance.” There are several websites that have better descriptions of the festival, I would highly recommend checking them out of you are interested. The festival is basically a celebration of good over evil. Some devotees prepare themselves, ... read more

On route from Taiping to Penang I was spied and kidnapped by the cyclist thief, David. He is an avid collector of cyclists and had already captured a Dutch couple the day before. Later that day he also captured a couple from Wigan, Jan and John...It was a good week for him. David's hospitality was astounding. He allowed us all to stay in his home free of charge and his wife cooked us a fantastic Indian vegetarian (on my account) evening meal and breakfast the next day. ... read more