Penang and the new year

We said farewell to Melaka as we packed Caleb's essential possessions into his car, and farewell to Caleb when he dropped us off at the Kuala Lumpur bus terminal.

My own experience and all the advice about buying tickets says to avoid touts, but after wandering around a dozen or so ticket counters looking for a bus to Georgetown, Penang and ignoring the persistant tout who was following us around we were finally told at one ticket counter to follow her in order to get the next departing bus.



Six hours and a few middle-of-nowhere stops later it was 10pm and the driver noticed we were still on the bus with some surprise and concern. After being hustled off the bus and talking with an English-speaking taxi driver we established only that we'd overshot our destination, there were no more buses that day and we had no map and no idea where we were. Penang is connected to the mainland by an 8km bridge, and I'm still not sure how we missed it... Anyway, we soon found a cheap Chinese hotel/restaurant nearby, and probably saved ourselves a tiring night-time hunt for accommodation in the much larger Georgetown.

The next morning we sat about ten metres around the corner from the bus terminal before realising our mistake and changing locations. The local bus back to Butterworth was dirt cheap, and from there we took an even cheaper ferry across to Georgetown - the bridge seemingly only popular with express buses and the wealthy.

Thanks to all of the above, on that very ferry we met Sidd, the Couchsurfer from Melaka! He and another fellow traveller, Alan, had made exactly the same mistake we'd made the day before, but earlier in the day and soon enough to disembark in Butterworth rather than 30km further down the road, so we all ended up on the same ferry. I love these kind of chance encounters with people travelling in the same direction, they happen much more often than you'd expect. We decided to stick together, found a good hostel (Banana) and went sightseeing.

Penang is not as well preserved or as charming as Melaka, and it's harder to find good food, but we were impressed by Sidd's ability to order two huge platefuls of rice and unlimited dhal for only 2 Ringgit (50 cents?).

We parted ways the next day and hopped on a bus to visit to Kek Lo Si, the biggest Buddhist temple in SE Asia. Still growing too. An interesting mix of old and new.

The turtles looked like they were part-way through the world's slowest jailbreak attempt, forming a pyramid to escape their confines.

For New Year's Eve we opted again to join a Couchsurfing gathering, this time at nearby Batu Ferringhi, the main beach resort of Penang. At the home of 'Chinchin', our gracious Chinese host, about thirty or so travellers gathered to welcome the new year. I spent most of my time chatting with Sidd, Chinchin, the lively Vietnamese Ian, the droll Indian born American Cal and the Belgian translator Joanna. Plenty of food, vodka shots, hugs and good cheer. Hozumi's first non-Japanese New Year, or in other words her first New Year not spent at home watching TV with the family.

On the 2nd we rented a scooter to explore the island and gain a temporary respite from being passengers. The highlight was finding an obscure local beach to relax at, and the low point was running out of petrol while the fuel gauge read half full... Actually no, the real highlight was a passing good Samaritan offering to push us the last 500m to a petrol station. I'm used to saying 'gasoline' as they do in Japan, but if you're asking around in rural Malaysia, 'petrol' is the word you need. It all depends on the dominant colonial power...