Penang to Langkawi

Well having spent an hour typing this blog I have just lost the whole lot and am having to restart from scratch. This may be a short version as time is running out. Our bus trip to Penang was uneventful once we realised we had been dropped off by the shuttle at the wrong bus station. Very helpful driver bussed us BACK to correct station in time to pick up correct bus to Butterworth where we needed to pick up a local ferry to Georgetown. After a 5 hour bus trip we were deposited within a 100metres of the ferry terminal - excellent. Next challenge was to buy the ferry tickets which is a little harder than you imagine because you require the exact money in coins not paper money. Did we have it.......no we did not! A quick trip for Gary back to the money exchanger (deja vue) and yes!.......we were through and eventually on the ferry. I wonder why I sometimes feel we are participating in the amazing race with all these curve balls/challenges that keep being thrown at us. Quite honestly it is weird but good fun all at the same time. Another taxi ride through the crazy streets of Penang and we are at our new lodgings - the Mingood Hotel. Foo and Neil aren't due to arrive until midnight so we are off to find some dinner from a hawker stand on the streets of Penang as they are plentiful and cheap..........so we are told. For those with a weak stomach best you stop reading here. Our first night in Penang we ate, and food in Penang became our nemesis thereafter, a stack of eggiebread smothered in maple syrup, topped with 2 chicken sausages individually wrapped in a fried egg, topped by m&ms and jelly lollies, once more smothered in tomato sauce and then mayonaisse and finally topped with a scattering of salad!!!!!!!! You like? How this happened we are still unsure but believe me the chef had a lot of fun making it as we did too, watching him. Eating it was a little different though. Foo and Neil arrived on cue and we cracked open a couple of beers to mark the auspicious reunion and headed for a well earned night's sleep on our concrete like bed. I swear that Neil had the only soft mattress in the whole place. Most of the rest of our time in Penang was spent exploring the part of the city that we were in on foot and we seemed to walk for miles. At this juncture Gary and I were greatly in need of good, spicy food and Little India was on our hitlist. Sadly to say we never did find it but I believe Foo and Neil did at a later stage. To be honest Penang was not the type of place we enjoy, it is hectic, crowded, noisy and very dirty however there is a certain appeal there as well which I am still to fathom. To save our feet, on what turned out to be our hottest day in Penang, we hired a driver who took us to places we would otherwise not have seen. We were with him for most of the day and saw beautiful temples, the butterfly farm, the spice gardens the botanical gardens, a very active and busy beach and Penang Hill where we took a cable car that literally ascended vertically. It was awesome and we managed to shuffle ourselves into the very back seats which gave us the most amazing views of Penang as we hustled uphill.....yes uphill I have it right! As I said earlier Penang was not a place we planned to stay for long so we decided to fly to Langkawi in search of Paradise number 2 and yes we found it. Langkawi is a dutyfree island so, first stop the duty free shop. Beefeaters gin, 6 splits, 6 beer, chocolate (plenty) and pringles for $NZ21. Next stop the hotel where our room was 2 mins walk from this amazing, quiet beach. Next stop the sea where we stayed for hours soaking up the luxury of warm sea water, rolling waves and excitement as we watched the locals making piles of money taking endless strings of tourists for 4minute parasailing experiences to the sounds of whoops and squeals from both the tourists in the air and the locals pocketing the money. We had 4 days on Langkawi and as we are all aware the rain has been a bit of a spoil sport for us from time to time so we decided to book a tour of the mangroves by boat. As it happens we picked the perfect day with the perfect people. We fed hawks and monkeys, walked through a bat cave (smelly, very) boated through a crocodile cave (still confused about that one), Gary fed huge fish by hand including putting the fish straight into the mouth of a huge stingray TWICE! ( because CathIe mIssed the photo op, or maybe she wanted to see me do a Steve IrwIn? ) We had lunch at a floating restaurant, the boat took us right out to sea and around the island and it was the best. Memories are made from days like these. We returned to our hotel tired but happy and we celebrated this enormous day with our $NZ8 bottle of beefeaters.... Apart from exploring on foot, buying a few small sticky feet for Molly as we felt we were leaving her out a little bit, relaxing, eating, swimming, drinking and talking to Harry (a very charming gentleman who could talk the hind leg off a donkey and who we eventually tried to avoid because he was so time consuming) we did little else except soak up the sun, kick back and relax. Whoever it was who said we would lose weight travelling through Asia with the heat, exercise and type of food........go wash your mouth out because it is NOT TRUE! Foo and Neil joined us for our last night on Langkawi and mmmmmmm............well we had a bottle of gin to finish and heaps of beers and the rest we will leave to your imagination....We did get our spicy, Indian food though!,,, So next day Gary and I head back to Penang and the good old Mingood hotel where we will be up at 4.15am to get our ride to Koh Samui to suss out our free7 night's accommodation that we won in Surfers! We have booked a van to take us over the border into Thailand and directly to Koh Samui by road and ferry. That, however, is another story in itself so I will leave you guessing as to the outcome and say goodbye for now and post this. To all our families we love and miss you. Stay safe and happy xxxxx