Thanks for your comments. Nice to know our stories our actually being read. Oh-and Eric's comment about me disliking the Markets...not true. Just cause I don't enjoy them at the same level he is, doesn't mean I don't gain value out of them, the people, the experience, or the joy of seeing him enjoy them himself.
Our arrival in Penang, we find our Guesthouse quit simply. A nice change of pace. Back to private rooms. Here more cost effective than staying in a dorm. The rats still endure, but only late at night in the walks to the communal bathroom. This is also a World Heritage City. We stroll through CHinatown. Gorgeous buildings. Tour Khoo Kongsi, a CHinese Family's Hall of Worship. We are learning and seeing the true effects of the trading that developed these areas in the first place and why there is such diversity here in the previous port cities we have been. THe influences of the CHinese, the Dutch, The Indian, the Malay, the THai (SIamese), the Portugese. In the architecture, the food, the clothing. We are also learning how to distinguish (ever so slightly), the various characteristic differences in Malay, CHinese and Thai facial structure. I love the patterns here. Have I mentioned this already yet? I hope I can retain some of them stylelistically upon return.
We make our own walking tour through the historic parts of Penang with food as the medium. From Breakfast Coconut pastries to Pandan wraps, fry bread and eggs to Nnonya sticky rice treats. We make our way to the Penang Cultural Museum to get out of the sun. We seem really beat this day. The sun a menace. Maybe the sun-sensitivity of the Malaria pills is really kicking in. The museum, great! But only to discover 1/2 hour in that a storm is brewing outside. How quickly the weather changes. Stretch our time in the ac museum now and rush back to our room. Good time to take a breather and figure how exactly we will get into Thailand.
We spend one day heading out of the city to the West of the Island. A small little fishing town. We stroll really. Nice to finally have slow pace day. A first I feel like. FInd a random food stall with no signs on what they serve. and no english. The two ladies pleasantly shocked we know what to order and in enough broken Malay to make it work. We enjoy our fruit and noodles and coffees and stroll back for our bus back into town and over to a night market for more food.
The next day, bright and early 5:00am we catch a bus for the THai border. This bus we are told (because we specifically ask, "only 1 bus, right") will take is to the border, wait for us to properly exit Malaysia, cross to Thailand, wait while we cross there, stop in Hat Yoi for lunch and then take us to Krabi, Thailand. We opted for the bus option as opposed to taking a ferry or flight. Cheaper, many people are doing it and we are told that it is safe now. Hat Yoi, there is no coup. ONly Southeast of there, and we are skirting the edge. The bus driver flies. We are the only white people on the bus, and after the border, the only people. Upon arrival in Hat Yoi he tells us to get out and wait for another bus. What? How long until then? 1 and 1/2 hours. NO WAY! I am not getting out of this bus until the other bus is at least here. We have no clue where we are or that the other bus will even come. We are not at a bus station mind you. After many frustrating tries to communicate to a driver that by all means is friendly, but speaks no English, that we were told 1 bus, he takes me, while Eric waits in the bus across the street to a small travel agency where someone speaks English. He tells me that this is his bus company and we can wait in his shop. He writes me a new receipt and ensures me that we don't need to pay anymore money. Reluctantly, we follow instructions. All in All, It turns out ok. Everything so far, turns out ok. We read about so many horror stories of scams and ways for touts to get tourists in positions to rip them off or steal everything or even in a situation where you empty your bank account, we can't help but to be cautious. It is a shame a few people have to ruin what most of all Thais are so nice and friendly and courteous. The onward ride to Krabi picked up a few more travelers and away we went. It took so long though. This driver was on his own schedule. He stopped whenever he wanted for whatever he wanted. We wondered when he stopped at a liquor store and went in for a spill. Luckily, he only came out with cigarettes. So around 3 o'clock we arrived into our leaping point for the Adamen Sea (the beaches). A long day!
Since our timeframe got a little shifted, and only spend a small amount of time on the beach, we opted for a nicer area, not the cheap backpacker area. We went to the area of Railey. Which actually, isn't an island at all, but a peninsula, that because of the forest, can only be reached by boat. We booked a place at a resort ( their cheapest room) for two nights. No rooms tonight though so we spent one night in Krabi. This was good though. Bought a few things we were needing at this point in our trip and had a great seafood dinner for first cheap, $3 for fresh crab and cockles and sausage and rice for two.
Railey is actually famous for the climbing because of the cliffs around. THe beaches were white and soft. The water warm and blue. The sun was hot and the breeze cool. I had my sun and Eric had his shade. The early morning swims with no-one of the beach was made of dreams. The only down part was leaving soo soon.
Back to Krabi to catch a night 10 hour bus ride to Bangkok. The seats so small. Poor Eric and his long legs. The guy in front of him couldn't even put down his seat. We arrived in Bangkok at 5:00 in the am and chill at the bus station till the MRT line (subway) starts to run to get to our home for the next few days. Funny, how we now call our guesthouses our 'home' when referencing our plans for the day. "Let's go home now."
