Missing the early ferry to Langkawi
(This is a brief Description, to find more intricate stories you will need to take me out for a beer on arrival home)
The time had come to leave Pankor island and move on to my next destination which was Penang and it's capital Georgetown. I wasn't sure what to expect from Penang as it was the second largest city in Malaysia, I wasn't daunted as I had already been to Kuala Lumpur and that wasn't as big as I thought it would be. I think the main problem was the fact that I was leaving this quiet little island Pangkor which I really enjoyed to take in a more city like landscape.
On the morning I woke up in time to take on some breakfast that consisted of fresh fruit being sold at a street stall, I also got a lovely refreshing coconut drink with pieces floating about in it and packed full of ice. You see I never got how the locals will sit there at 10am eating spicy noodles it's beyond me. I ate the refreshing breakfast by the jetty where I was expecting my boat to come in, after doing so I went back to the guesthouse packed up my things and headed down to the jetty minus my expensive Ray Banns :(
I boarded the boat with my return ticket I had purchased earlier in Lumut and took a seat. It was safe to say I've never been attacked my as many flies as I had that day, it's like they know how to annoy you and they do by landing on you constantly.
The ride back to lumut was straight forward and quick, after landing at the Jetty I went straight to the bus terminal and bought a one way to Butterworth in Penang and took on as many fluids and basically food substance I could find as this was a 4 hour journey again for about £4. Having boarded we set off in a really intense heat as we travelled through the winding roads I couldn't help but snap picture after picture of the tropical scenery. After this beautiful nothingness came the skyscrapers of Penang as we came to the terminal I could see I needed to get another ferry that would take me over to George town.
I paid my 1.20 R and boarded a much larger ship that I was used to I didn't do my "I'm the king of the world" routine when I get on anything that's bigger than a trawler as it had limited access to the hull and I was more interested in the hot dog stand on board.
As we came into George town I could see that it was a developing city full of skyscrapers and bustling movement. Earlier on my trip from Lumut I had picked a guesthouse from the guide book and decided to wing it and choose this one ( The star lodge ) On arrival to the guesthouse which I can only describe as roads full of British influence I was greeted by the old manager. He was a great guy and very helpful all the time I kind of felt at home here as I knew they liked a drink and kept the tv warm for the football games at night something I had been missing a lot.
After checking into my room at about 40R a night I finally had two windows and a balcony, all be it a balcony overlooking a wood saw shop that came with five stray dogs who fought tooth and nail over this one b**** ( I mean that in the dog sense, but she did put it about to be honest) After settling in I went out after dark and found this city a whole lot more alive than I expected, I was always tired after a day of travelling so didn't expect to last long that night, that was until I got lost! It must have took me at least an hour to find my way back using skyscrapers as visual aids but how can you get lost when you are travelling?
In my time being lost I found great little street vendors and basically got to size George town up, in doing so I encountered several lady boys who took a shine to me and a lovely old Chinese man who happened to have a 9mm in his back pocket apparently they have a very bad problem with the Indian population who tend to mug and rob.
I got back to the guesthouse and gave off a sigh of relief and headed out closer to the Reggae Penang a nice clean bar / hostel in which I got chatty with the bar man who plied me with pints of Carlsberg at about £1.61. After having a few I bumped into a Brit in the toilet who invited me down to a table full of backpackers who had all just met but seemed like they knew each other for an age I suppose that's the way it is. They were a friendly bunch mostly Brits but one German, we decided to take a walk down to the sea while drinking beer and chatting about what eacother had seen, we walked the tiny roads which helped me get used to the area itself as tomorrow I would really go mental and take in the sites.
Most of the group went to bed as they lacked rock N Roll statuses and I decided to head to a burger stall I had been to that day with two others. The 14.9 % beer one lad had been drinking then took it's toll on him, you could have robbed him blind in the state he was in not a great idea to be honest.
I headed back to the hotel and was greeted by a reception with people watching the football it must have been 2-3 am. I got involved it was safe to say and got a couple of beers in and chatted to a German lad who was stopping there we all chatted about the football. Whilst staying at the star I warmed to an Australian man who was probably about 50 odd but a great chat who loved a drink, we argued and chatted in general about the football which was great.
At about halftime me and the German lad decided to walk into downtown to get some food at a place where it showed the game and stayed open all night. I hate to keep calling him the German Lad but I forget his name, he had walked all the way in his bare feet while we got wolf whistled by ladies of the night we simply looked like a walking dollar sign. On arrival we got some food , I wasn't a fan of the food from dingy places it all tasted the same and a bit dry but I went along with it. The highlight was the young Indian lad who was sat in front every time he saw Cesc Fabregas for Spain he woul jump up and do a little Indian shuffle which after a few beers got me going.
We walked back at about 5 am and I wished the "German lad" luck in his journey to Kuala Lumpur and we parted never to meet again, never to cross paths again... I retired and waited for another day to dawn.
The next day I got up feeling a little rough and had to back my backpack that at the best of times was very hard to do but I did it. I walked downstairs and straight out into the town I had loved so much the night before and went into a western looking cafe only to get a lovely "English breakfast" at the time I thought this is a bad idea before a rocky trip to Langkawi. I came back to the guesthouse about 11-12 to check out and asked for a taxi to take me to the jetty were the boat to Langkawi would sail from. "No No... one boat only 8:30" Damn I had missed it thinking there would be more than one to a popular destination...But no there wasn't, there was one boat only a day towards Langkawi and that was at 8:15 , bugga! I checked in for another night and didn't really mind to much as I like the place I was staying and the people who owned it and yeah of course the Aussie too!
I decided to do something with this last day and decided to go off to the sea side resort of Batu Ferrenghi on the west side of the Island, I wasn't ever going to get the bus so decided to hire a scooter from the hotel. After going through a map of the island for 20 mins I decided to set off with a full tank, the thing is that there are so many one way streets in Penang so to get somewhere that looked like a straight road you had to wing it and follow the traffic.
The ride over was great I enjoyed taking in some great views but also negotiating some aggressive drivers to say the least. Once there It took about 30 mins to find the beach and when on it I was not happy... I was disserted and pretty much not worth taking it, but again I had this extra day and needed to so something away from George town.
Having thought about it I wished I had of took Penang Hill in and the surrounding with the amazing temple but I didn't I did not want to take in a long journey in which I had no clue where to go. I spent about 2 hours near the beach looking for hooky Ray Bans after I lost mine and eating and sunbathing also took up my time before I had to get the moto back. I decided to head back about 5ish, I think the scooter belonged to someone who worked three so the thought of smashing it was always on my mind... Coming back was a lot more stressful than the ride over to two factors, 1) I didn't ask for the directions back and 2) I didn't take in that it was rush hour... After about an hour and a half looking for land marks and asking random people I found a away home.. I was pouring with sweat and fear! Rush hour over here isn't like back home, people don't mind running over you and more importantly they don't mind getting out of their cars to film you in pain on their Iphones. When I started to see friendly landmarks I remembered I could finally smile and have a little sing song on the bike. I pulled up at the Hotel at about 6:04 not bad going to say I would be back at 6 and basically had to stay alive for an hour and a half... On arriving I had a bit of banter with the owner about getting lost and sunk about 4 big bottles of Chang ( That Everton sponsor rubbish ) I had to I was shocked to be back alive, I sat outside the guesthouse most of the night watching the bikes come and go and life generally pass. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the trip over on the bike and the sites I got to take in, also the feeling of being part of their traffic which I usually only watched. The fact that I had been stuck in London type rush hour and had to fend for myself only furthered my love for lone travel.
I met up again with the Aussie who had set up residence in the bar of the hotel so I talked a lot of the night with him and decided to head out on my last night to a bar about 5 mins walk I stayed for one beer, It must be the heat and lack of company I have but I felt tired and couldn't fight back the tiredness and decided to head back once I knew the 7:00 wake up alarm I had asked for along with the 60 Ringgit boat ticket to Langkawi needed to be followed through and could not be lost to cheap lager as nice as it was at the time...
I went to bed once more in a room hotter than the sun, naked as the day I was born ( Mental image for you that want to see) with the fan on and doors open and covered in 100% deet to fend off the Mossies...

Next stop Langawi
Neil