Yesterday I checked out of the hostel in Kuala Lumpur, and went to the bus station to take the bus to Penang.
The bus station in Kuala Lumpur was actually one of the nicest bus stations I have ever seen-looking more like an airport. I went to the first available agent to buy a bus ticket-she had a name tag on that said "trainee", which I let out a sigh, because I knew that means that (a) she will take an inordinately long time to issue my ticket (b) do so but need to find her supervisor to correct the errors issuing my ticket or (c) worse-send me to the wrong place.
Anyway, the answer here is (c). When I told her I wanted to go to Penang, she barked out two different stations in very broken English. I noticed that the hostel was located in a place called Georgetown-so I told her I wanted the station near Georgetown.
She issued the ticket, and I went downstairs to the waiting area. I noticed that the bus leaving immediately before mine was also going to Penang, but a different station. I also noticed two blond girls with backpacks (no nose piercings or strange tattoos that I could see-but otherwise they looked like backpackers probably going to some tourist area/hostel), getting on. I then looked at the directions for the hostel from the bus station-it was only a ten minute walk from the bus station THEIR bus was going to.
I went back up to the ticket window to see if I can exchange tickets-but they said no. So I decided to take the bus I was ticketed for.
The 5 hour bus ride was actually pretty comfortable-minus the dad whose kids we're playing around and fighting the seat immediately in front of mine-and he seemed to be more entertained then anything else with it. Unlike Indonesia, the bus travelled on modern 2 lane highways (in each direction) , so there was few traffic, traffics lights-etc
When I finally got to Penang, I learned I COULD get to the right bus station. But first this required a shuttle bus to the ferry. So I took the 10 min shuttle bus, and got on a ferry which took me across the harbor-that ride was about 20 minutes.
After the ferry, I found out I had to take a bus to the right bus station. So I took a 15 minute bus ride to the right station.
There was a shopping mall at the bus station, with a Starbucks. I went there so I can access their wifi and Google Maps to find the hostel, which I did.
I checked in, and later ate multiple dinners down the street from the hostel at the food stalls.
