SELAMAT DATANG!
Trip Start
Oct 12, 2005
1
29
48
Trip End
Mar 31, 2006
Georgetown, Penang,
Malaysia
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
That means "Welcome to Malaysia"in Bahasa Malay. We remember it well from our last visit to Malaysia in 2001. Having had such a great time here on our last visit, we were very excited to return.
The trip to get here was another marathon of travel, rivaling the notorious Cambodia to Thailand overland trip. First leg was the ferry to get from Koh Tao to mainland Thailand. Needless to say, if you remember back to our ferry ride to get to Koh Tao, we were a bit apprehensive of the trip. But the morning of the ride the seas were flat and looked promising. We also made sure to book with a different ferry, not the HMS Pukeship Lompraya Catamaran, even though it made a boatride of 3 hours rather than an hour and a half
01 Kristy happy on the boat
. We ate a full, though not greasy, meal beforehand and took our dramamine. Once on the boat we choose the upper deck and payed the extra dollar to ride in the VIP area, which is frigidly airconditioned and plays movies. We choose seats near the rear door to the outside deck, just in case a quick dash to the siderail became necessary. In short, we had done everything we could think of to fend off seasickness. We boarded and crossed our fingers. Luckily, all our preventative measures worked and we had a very pleasant crossing watching "The Fantasic Four".Once on the mainland we were to take a bus to the train station where we would catch our overnight sleeper train to Malaysia. The thai-style "bus", an oversized pickup with two row benches in the back. Us tourists from the ferry started piling on. The seats filled up quicly. But no worry, they pulled a few extra benches out, sat them in the middle of the truck, and loaded on MORE tourists. By the end of it, practically the entire ferry was squashed into this little bus, with a few hanging off the back for good measure (see the picture). But it was not too long a ride to the train station where we got off and began to kill our 6 hours of time before our train arrived. We did some souvenir shopping, ate some dinner, surfed some internet, until about 9pm when our eyes started drooping. The train was no supposed to arrive until 10:45, so we headed back to the train station to sit and wait. Shortly it was announced that the train was going to be an hour late. Great. So we stretched out on the station benches, rested our heads on our packs and tried to read or doze, and ignore the scratching of the rats from nearby. Finally the train arrived and we wearily boarded, found our bunks and crashed out. A lovely night of sleep and no trance music to disturb it. In the morning we breezed through the border crossing and piled back on the train for the remaining few hours of the ride to Butterworth, Malaysia where we caught a cab and checked into out hotel in Georgetown on the Island of Penang
02 Clown Bus
. We had been to Georgetown on our last visit and been nonplussed, maybe becuase it had been the end of our trip and the weather was HOT. This time however, we loved it. Charming, clean, atmospheric, and such a wonderful diversity of people! Indians, Malays, Chinese, it was a great reminder our how much we like Malaysia. And the food is wonderful. For breakfast we had one of our favorite dishes, Roti Canai, crepe-like indian pancakes served with curry sauce. And, new to us, we tried Teh Tarik, hot frothy tea served with tons of condensed milk. Delicious though reportedly a major cause of health problems for the Malays, as we read in the newspaper.
We learned from our previous visit that this is not a city where you want to be walking around in the heat of the day. So for this visit we booked a private guided city tour in air conditioned luxury. The tour consisted of a visit to a Hindu temple, a Thai temple, a Burmese temple, an old Chinese neighborhood built on pilings in the harbour, the local museum, a Batik factory (national fabric style), and the botanical garden inhabited by local monkey troop. Not a bad days work!
We are now staying in a serviced apartment ( a nice hotel room with a separate bedroom, living room and kitchen) in Kuala Lumpur for about a week. We'll be sure to write again soon!
