Penang Delights

On March 11 we flew from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur.  We arranged a bus from the airport to the train station and hopped onto an overnight train to Penang.  Actually the train took us into Butterworth on the mainland, just opposite Georgetown in Penang.  The whole trip was so incredibly easy.  The train was spotless with AC all for the equivalent of 16 pounds.  We arrived at 5.30am and walked to the ferry.  We then took a bus from the ferry port all the way to Batu Ferringhi to meet Malia.  For anyone who doesn't know Malia, I moved in with Malia when I was 13 and lived with her for four years. Malia was in Penang with her family for her cousin's wedding.  It was the end of their trip after the wedding so we got to hang out with them for a couple of days.  Malia's Aunt is from Penang so she knew the good spots for food and could tell us the traditional foods and give us tips of where to go and what to do.  One of the amazing (and weird) dishes we consumed was something called ice kachung. I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong, but that's how it sounds.  The dish is a mixture of sweetcorn, red bean paste, fresh coconut strips and a sweet sauce all over shaved ice.  It sounds weird, and it was, but it was also an interesting mix that I can't imagine you would find many other places.  We frequented the many hawker centres and enjoyed being amongst people we knew, some by association, but enjoyed their company all the same.  We visited the butterfly farm on Penang which was totally unexpectedly amazing.  We spent about three hours wandering around the enclosed (hot!) main area with butterflies walking all around us.  There were so many different kinds of butterflies, scorpions, centipedes, koi, beetles, grasshoppers, snakes, and many other types of bugs that I can't even remember.  We did some good old shopping in the brand new shopping mall that like many others in the world reminds me of home.  It's kind of sad that that happens, but it's true. Catie and Lindsay, our Australian friends whom we met in Malaysia, gave us inspiration to buy some travel speakers.  Now we have music wherever we go, which is really nice. After Malia's family left she moved into the same guesthouse as us, and then there were three.  Again. We heard there was a new Thai immigration rule that if you arrived in Thailand by land you only got 14 days so we decided to get a Thai visa in Penang which allowed us two months instead.  We took the bus into Georgetown  and after a long walk we arrived at the Thai embassy.  We met two Italian travellers on the bus who we tried to tell them about the new law and to come with us.  They decided after we got off the bus that it was a good idea and we saw them there after about a half hour.  We dropped off our passports and walked into the center of Georgetown to await the return of our passports, which was going to be about 4 hours. We didn't manage to walk all the way, it was a little farther than we thought and it was very very hot, as usual. We had a delicious meal at an Indian place.  It was the first time that I really looked forward to (we have discussed this the night before) and then enjoyed eating Indian food (it was really good Indian food) since we left India.  I knew that this feeling would return, but I didn't know how long it would take for it to come back.  Now every time I eat Indian food I can look back to our trip there. We walked around little India and then Chinatown a little bit. While we were in town Alex decided he wanted to have a sheesha (hookah) to travel around with.  So we searched high and low for a little travel sheesha.  We would've been far more successful in India! At least more so than in Malaysia. We ran out of time and had to go back to get our visa filled passports.  The Thai embassy decided to take an hour break just when the half hour window to pick up passports began. The two Italians we had met that morning had to leave to pick up their stuff from a travel agent who would be closing. I should mention that these two Italians prefer not to pay for accommodation. They travel with hammocks, which they string up on beaches or in parks and leave their stuff with other travelers or with travel agents or their preference is 7 Elevens which stay open 24/7. So We got the passports (ours and the Italians, I guess we look trustworthy) then returned to town to resume our search, as we got a tip just before we ran out of time.  Although the tip turned out to be misinformed, we did run into three different guys that we saw at the embassy.  We ended up sitting down with the two Kiwi guys traveling together and an Englishman who's 61st Birthday it was that day. Alex went to pick up a sheesha, which was slightly overpriced because it was the only one in Penang for sale. We had some drinks with William, Karl and Sam, (the two Kiwis and the Englishman, respectively) then went back to Batu Ferrenghi to reunite with the Italians. The next morning we took the boat direct to Langkawi. We left one of the Italians, Alessandro, behind to take a language test for his Australia Immigration, he met back up with us later. Davide came along with us, and we also saw William and Karl on the boat. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, although we weren't aware of it yet.