Monday 17th September
We leave the Perhentian Islands and head west to Penang. (Penang is an island off the mainland, which can be reached by ferry or a very long bridge - 13.5km). Lynda is also ttraveling there too, so we all get on the mini-bus that should take approx 6 hours. Lynda has been here before, so she as rrecommendedthe Hotel Mingood in Georgetown. (I have booked it through 'agoda'. It's about 18.00p a night including breakfast.)
We do the usual sight-seeing, the temples and we also find the very large 'Reclining Buddha' which is 33mts long. The wood carvings in the temple are 'amazing'!
We go to the 'Komtar' building, which is a big shopping centre, but if you pay 1.00p you can go to the 60th floor, where you can see a lot of the island from the veiviewingom.
On the second day, we wonder down towards the jetties. We pass through the older part of town, some of the houses are very colonial looking and some are very...old looking! There is an amazing small antique shop that was fantastic and also, what must be the smallest cafecaféer)! Unfortunately it was closed until noon, when we returned at 12.15 is was so busy, we couldn't get in!
The jetties were a surprising sprawl of timber dwellings, built on stilts over the harbour. There are so many tiny houses (and tourist shops) squeezed into a small space, you can hardly see the water below, although you can smell it at times!!
For supper we take a short walk around the corner and find a food court called 'The Red Garden'. There is so much choice! We eventually decide, after doing a quick circuit of the place. Two meals, one beer and one juice 25rm (5.00p).
We are planning on moving to Thailand, so need to sort out our visa's. The hotel staff offer to help us, they're brilliant. They sort our two month visa (30.00p) with no hassle! You can do this at the border, but you only get a 15 day visa. The staff also book us a mini-bus to Hat Yai, which is 4 hours away. I have booked our room there for one night. (My back has not been good, so we are trying to avoid long bus journeys). We book in at the 'Hat Yai Greenview' (via agoda) for 12.00p. It looks like the prices may be cheaper in Thailand, - great! We were allowing ourselves up to 20.00p a day in Malaysia, it looks like that can come down a bit!!
We get to Thailand with no hassle. We say our 'goodbyes' to Lynda, - she's going straight to Bangkok for a few days, before returnig to Oz.
The hotel is very good value for money, it's has a large double bed, air-con, full size fidge andfridge! We have a walk around this very busy travel hub! Lots of lady-boys to keep us amused!
(The currency is now the Thai Bart - 1.00p = .50 bart)
We start to get some prices to our next destination - Krabi. The first place we ask in they want 350thb (7.00p) the second place want 300 and the third and final place Cathay Travel want 250b! - it pay's to shop around!
We get to Krabi and find a mini-bus to take us to Ao Nang, a coastal resort. I have booked two nights at the Ao Nang Cliff View Resort for 600thb. The resort is slightly out of town, down a narrow road. The cabins are set admist palms, coconut trees and is very lush, green and jungle-like. It's really quite beautiful, with a lovely swimming pool and gym, which Matt did use, a couple of times! (What a bargain, for 12.00p).
We go down to the beach and watch the 'longtail' boalong-tailng people to the local islands and going about their daily work. We take photo's of the beautiful coast-line, with it rocky outcrops, only to discover later, that our memory card will not upload them. It has obviously been over worked in the last 7 months. Fortuanately,Fortunately putting the photo's onto a memory stick at regular intervals, so we have only lost a few!
We do a walk over the cliffs, it very pretty. There are usally monkeysusuallyapparently, but not today, it's even to hot for them!
We make our way back to the make the most of using the pool, then sit and watch the monkeys playing in the vines along the cliffs - who needs a telly?! As the name of our place suggests, it is surrounded by giant limestone cliffs.
On our second day here, monsoon rain starts, and doesn't stop! We had booked a boat trip, but have cancelled it, wecanceled be able to see anything! Because of our tropical surroundings, all of our clothes become damp, even the bedding feels damp in the morning. We both get colds on the 3rd day, so we ask if we can move rooms. We get a free up-grade for a night, it is definately time definitely and find the sun again.
Great place to come, but in the dry season!
