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We started Saturday bright and early and trekked with our bags down to the pier, stopping en-route for breakfast of toast, freshly squeezed OJ, coffee and Muesli, fruit and yoghurt, whilst Sarah took the opportunity to rest from feeling a bit queezy (thanks to the dreaded malaria tablets!).
We arrived at the ferry in time for the 9am departure and found it very hot and busy. The journey to Krabi took a little over an hour and a half and we were in a slight panic about missing our connecting mini-bus, which was taking us down to Penang in Malaysia, especially as there was a fight to reclaim the bags which had been (un)strategically placed in the middle of the boat! Luckily the bus was still waiting and we relaxed on the 4hour journey to the boarder town of Hat Yai where we changed mini-buses to cross the border. By this time we were starving and still had some Thai Bhat which we wanted to spend, fortunately at the border we managed to secure a few sausages (after a kind fellow brit had shared half his salami sandwich!).
The journey through Malaysia was quite quick and we took the car ferry over to the island before being dropped off on the road we wanted to stay on. We quickly secured some cheap accommodation in the Blue Diamond hostel and headed out for a wander, stopping for supplies including a milkybar and berries chocolate bar in the local minimart!. By this time we were drained and headed to our 5 bed dorm (which we had to ourselves), without setting the alarm to wake us!
We woke to some more people arriving at 10.00am feeling refreshed and after another muesli and toast breakfast and a low down on Penang from a local we hit the streets.
We walked around the small city taking in the mixture of buildings, ranging from Indian style mosques and Chinese temples to high rise modern and colonial British buildings. We stopped en-route at Port Cornwallis, the Esplanade, the clock tower, little India (as if we haven't had enough of india!) and Khoo Kongsi (a beautiful chinese temple) before heading towards the tallest building in town the 'Komtar'.
We took the lift up to the 60th floor and admired the views of Penang and the Malaysian mainland before enjoying a complimentary cappuccino (well two actually, and some iced tea and two cups of ice cream and orange juice! - well the man said we could so who are we to refuse!). After a while we headed down for a look in the disappointing shopping centre before finding a much better Mall across the road, which we vowed to return to tomorrow!
On our way back to the hostel we sampled some more street food which we warmed up in boiling water before dipping in Satay sauce - very nice! And we are hoping for more of the same at the night market we are visiting tonight.
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