Problems in Penang

After our last post a lot and then not a lot has happened (if that can make sense?).  Basically at about 3am on Monday I felt fairly ill, a slight bit of Asian both-end-itus.  At about 4am I was in so much pain that I was being driven around town in a random taxi, firstly to an unhelpful clinic and then to A&E at the general hospital.

After much more sick, a couple of drips, about four injections of stuff and a small bag of drugs (about 3 hours later) Carly was told to take me away.  A fairly hectic morning all in all.  I still felt dreadful, but at least the stomach pain was dull enough to sleep with – which I did for the next 2 days.  (At which point Carly recovered from the trauma and started to get a little bored!)

I’m feeling much better though now!  So, we’re off to Bangkok today, a small alteration from what we were originally doing so that we try and avoid any potential monsoon.  There are storms in south Thailand at the moment.  We will come back there at the end of the south east Asia part of the travels.  After Bangkok we’ll head north to Chiang Mai and then Laos etc etc.

Penang, Malaysia (Happy Birthday Dad Eady for the 11th)

From the Cameron Highlands we headed (this time by standard bus) down to Georgetown on Palau Penang.  A short ferry took us across the small stretch of water separating the island from the mainland.  We got to our room in Hutton Lodge and where extremely grateful of the air conditioning, the heat really gets to you when carrying your backpack on buses and around town – especially when there are no paths and you have to walk on the edge of the busy roads everywhere!

We initially set out to find a ferry across to Sumatra, but quickly found out that the ferries don’t operate on the days we wanted to depart and return.  So unfortunately, as we’d already booked trips and accommodation in Sumatra we had to opt for the budget airplane operator (a turbo prop plane, so I was excited… Carly was less so!).

After all this was organised we saw the main sights of Georgetown.  The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, aka The Blue Mansion, Kuan Yin Teng temple (a temple where people burn lots of things), lots of random street scenes and Fort Cornwallis.  All have been really interesting and it’s turned out to be a good place for a detour before hitting Sumatra.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

On Monday morning we headed out of Kuala Lumpur in our ‘super VIP’ bus from the bus station out to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands.  It took about 4 hours in our semi-luxurious coach along the initially good highway and then the windy roads up to the hills.

On the way we saw some wild monkeys, which was really cool.  It’s a really lovely area to visit, surrounded by the Malaysian jungle.

The reason we came to the highlands is because it’s the home of some of Malaysia’s tea manufacturers.  Obviously, with Carly being a tea connoisseur, we had to make a stop off here to see and drink the local brew!

The next day we headed out to the local bus station to try and get to where you could walk to the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate factory and shop.  We managed to find the rattly old bus and for a bargain price of 2.50RM each (about 40p) we were taken the 15 minutes down the road and dropped of at a junction and told ‘keep walking straight and you will get there’.  Ok then!  We were surprised as we walked around each bend to see the hills covered with low lying tea bushes, with the odd worker in-between plucking leaves.  We have never seen so much tea (not even in the tea aisle at Tescos!)

After about an hours walk we reached the factory and were shown around the drying and fermenting process area before sitting down for a spot of tea and scones for lunch overlooking the estate.  All very colonial!  We both loved the tea and  it made a very relaxing day in the much cooler hills of Malaysia.

After our walk back to the main road we stopped at few fruit stalls to pick up some supplies for our next long bus trip to Penang.  Carly put her haggling skills into play and got us some dried strawberries and oranges for half the original price (plus she got some dried melon for free too!).

All in all it’s a very pleasant and relaxing place, well worth the almost sick inducing windy roads to get here!  Off to Georgetown, Penang tomorrow!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After an 11 hour flight, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur last Friday night and the first thing to do was sleep!

The following day we tackled the city transit system, which seems to be very efficient and the trains turn up regularly.  Our first stop-off was little India, which has many market stalls, most of which appear to sell gold!  Then we walked to Masjid Jamek, which is where you can visit the oldest mosque in Malaysia.  Carly was told to cover up her hair and body and chose a pink head scarf.  She said she was very hot with it all on!

Then we went to Merdeka Square, which is where the old English government house was.  It’s also where independence from Britain was declared.  There are some very British looking tudor-type houses.  Next we went to the National Museum.  It was a long walk in the heat, but worth it, as the museum was quite interesting and we found out about the complicated history of Malaysia.  Afterwards we went to the museum cafe for our first taste of Malaysian quisine.  We must admit it didn’t look entirely appertising, but once we had chosen a couple of noodle items it tasted better than it looked!!

We headed on to China Town, which seemed to be a huge market containing all sorts of fake CDs, DVDs and branded clothes!  It was interesting to look around, with everyone trying to sell us fake DVDs!  This chaos was nothing in comparison to the bus station.  We had to go and buy our tickets for 5th October and weren’t quite prepared for the hustle and bustle of it all!  In addition, once we returned to the hostel we realised we had got tickets for the wrong day and had to go back again!  It’s all sorted now though and we didn’t get double charged which was good.

Today we have been to the golden triangle and Petronas Twin Towers complex – the face of modern Malaysia.  We were shocked by how different this area is to the rest of KL.  Full of posh hotels and designer shops – nothing like the other bits we had seen and, although the Petronas Towers look really cool, the shopping mall could have been anywhere in the world.

Tonight we are going to go up the towers which should be fun and tomorrow we face the chaotic bus station again!