3rd March - Penang to Taman Negara

I can't believe it's the third of March!!! Time is flying! I remember being just a few days into our travelling when we were in Kanchanaburi. I was asking myself how was I going to do this trip, it just seemed so immense, but now it's just so normal. If I had to stop now and go back to reality it would be so disappointing. It's mad how you settle in to something so new.

We're on the bus to Taman Negara at the moment. Its a 10hour journey, six hours on the night bus, then we arrive somewhere at 4am and have to arrange our own transport onwards to Taman Negara so who knows how long or even how we will get there, but there's always a way!

Today we relaxed. I read the paper, Luke edited his photos, very nice to actually chill out. We need to start allocating more time for that in our journey. When we get somewhere we feel you have to go everywhere see everything but they the days you have to yourself are just as important I guess.
I leave Penang with a different view to when we arrived. Although it is shockingly built up in still has some beautiful architecture and wonderful people. I'm excited to get moving again though and check out this rainforest.

Going to try get some sleep although the gear box on this bus sounds like it could explode at any minute. Better dig the ear plugs out of my bag and hope for the best!

March 2nd - -Penang

We've been trying to arrange to get to Taman Negara over the last few days. It's the third oldest rainforest in the world so we definitely need to see it. Again, getting information from people is impossible. This was supposed to be out chill out day but we have to get the ferry over to the main town of Butterworth and sort out our bus ticket from there.

As we were waiting for the bus to the jetty a Pakistani man started talking to us. That's one thing I've really noticed here. The people are more brash, especially in markets and shops, they really in your face which isn't so nice but on the flip side, the more elderly people are super friendly and are always mad for a chat. We've randomly ended up talking to lots of people like that since arriving here and they all speak so positively about life, what lies ahead of us etc. Very cool.

After a while we realised we were at the wrong stop anyway so said our goodbyes and walked there instead. The ferry system is very efficent and we were on it within minutes. We bought our ticket to Taman Negara and made our way back to Georgetown. As we set off we could see dark menacing clouds rolling in from the horizon. Before we knew it we were right in the middle ofa thunder storm. There have been so many storms since arriving here it crazy. I love lightening spotting though, so thrilling.

We got back to Georgetown, completely soaked and headed to little India for food. We have gone there every night and each Indian dish we've gotten has been amazing. I am in my eliment with the food!!

The fall from grace!

The fall from grace!!!!!!!
Thought it would be funny to show you a picture of where we're staying now compared to where we began! We're propper backpackers now!!

The Civillian's Inn, Penang

Shanghai mansion Bangkok

Tuesday 29th February - Penang

happy leap year!

Yesterday when we were travelling up Penang hill we spotted a huge temple near by. We knew it would be very special to see so we set off today to find it. We got the local bus there and arrived at Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple  within twenty minutes. You can't enter the temple from the front, as you would think. Instead you are lead up this cave of nick nack shops which climp and climp and continue selling all this gaudy merchandise.

Eventually after about ten minutes of wandering through Aladdin's scrap yard we got to the entrance of the temple. It was REALLY impressive. I've never seen so many colours, shapes and decorative patterns merged together. We were both completely snap happy, as you can see!

 We were baffled by the massive pressence of the Swastika symbol which addorned EVERYTHING in the temple. I googled it when we got back to the hostel and learned that the Buddhist symbol means "may you prosper and have good fortune." The Thai word for hello and goodbye, 'Sawasdee Kha' is actually derived from this. It crazy how a symbol that signifies such evil in the west has such significane here.

We spent about three hours meandering throught the different sections of the temple.
We left and headed down towards the street vendors for some food. One of the guys working at the guesthouse reccommended we try some Leaksa, it's the native dish of Penang. It's basically a fish broth with chilli and other vegetable added. We both had about three mouthfuls then left the dish, whilst the locals around us devoured theirs! I felt quite bad so we made a quick escape!

We met Melinda and Ian at the guesthouse again so had a few beers with them and chatted about everything and anything. They are pretty big health food advocates so it was really ineteresting hearing them talking about how they eat and the crap that is pumped into the foods we have become so accustomed to.
I have vowed to eat more fruit and less chocolate...gotta start somewhere I guess!!

sunday 27th February Krabi - Hat Yai - Penang

We left at 6am this morning for Hat Yai, this is the closest train station to Krabi.

Luke is still asleep!

We were filled with dread as we sawe ANOTHER mini bus pulling up to take us away. After our journey to Trang we thought nothing good could come for this. How wrong could we be! Driver put the two of us up front with him! Leg room, seat belts and air con blowing right in our faces, epic!! The journey took about six hours and was pretty uneventful. Every now and then we'd pass an entire family squashed onto a scooter...or an open back pick up carrying a massive cow!

We got to Hat Yai and headed for the train station to sort out our journey. We got talking to a monk in the station, really cool guy. I was a bit anxious at first becuase I wasn't sure if he could speak to me but he was chatting away fine. We talked about his Monastery up in the North, compared North and South Thailand, discussed the consumerist western world and spoke about home. He said he'd love for us to come stay with him in the monestry and experience the simple life . We swapped details (was quite strange actually, I went to hand him my notebook and he just stood in front of me limp, eventually explaining that I needed to pass it to Luke and he could hand it to him. Monks cannot accept anything from women!) I hope we get to visit him, I think it would be a great experience.

The train to Butterworth was full so we opted for a bus straight to Penang instead. We met a really nice couple who we were sharing the mini bus with, Ian and Melinda from UK and Oz. They had been to Malaysia before so were filling us in and calming our nerves as we approached the first boarder crossing! We were pretty anxious about it but it turned out to be absolutely nothing! It's really well organised. You get your exit stamp from one office then drive down the road and get your entry visa to Malaysia. We had heard a lot about corrupt officials looking for bribes so it was nice to avoid that.

It was crazy the minute we crossed the border the road was smoother, people drove cars instead of scooters, housing estates lined the orderly highway....big big changes from Thailand! As we got closer to Butterworth the changes were even more evident. Huge supermarkets, fast food chains, chic hotels and colossal sky skrapers....we thought we were going to an untouched land, even more remote than Thailand - probably should have done our research before fleeing Krabi!!!!

We crossed Penang bridge (a huge 13.5km long!) and arrived on the 'island.' I can't explain how shocked we were!! We have been staying on islands that have little electricity, bamboo shacks, white beaches...this island resembled London, no joking!

Penang bridge in the distance

We left our mini van, walked the streets for a while and found a reasonably priced guest house to put us up.