This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Crash Penang Wallop

After checking the weather reports we escaped the grey skies of Kuala Lumpur and headed north east to the island of Penang in the Andaman Sea. As Joanne mentioned in the last update we had a great bus and it wasn’t too long before we were crossing the colossal 13.5 Km Penang Bridge (currently the third longest bridge in the world) that joins the island to the mainland a few miles south of the town of Butterworth.


After crossing the bridge I spotted a large Tesco supermarket and I was suddenly transported back to my troubled youth when dodgy nights in even dodgier bars & social clubs of Pollok seemed to be an all too regular occurrence. Worse still was the soundtrack to all these rubbish nights out seemed to be supplied by the awful Rick Astley, Sinitta and the rest of the Stock, Aitken & Watertorture clones. While still at school I packed shelves at Presto’s while my friend Gerry worked on the cheese counter at the local rivals Tesco. For some reason I was always invited along to their nights out, he probably thought if he had to endure them he might as well share the pain with someone else. Luckily I was saved from a life of dubious perms, leather ties and caterpillar moustaches by Stuart Murdoch (lead singer with Belle & Sebastian) when he handed me a flyer at the Barrowlands whilst watching The Fall. The flyer proclaimed that the Wasp Factory Club would be playing all of my favourites at the time; The Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, House of Love, The Wedding Present and countless other exotic names. Naively up to this point I had never associated socialising in night clubs and bars with good music so this revelation changed my life and most weekends for years after I haunted the Indie clubs of Glasgow. Luckily soon after Gerry got a free transfer to City Bakeries the upmarket eating establishment in the heart of Glasgow and I escaped Prestos when it was closed down after shoplifters outnumbered consumers.

Anyway back to Penang and we pulled into a large bus station only to find that we were still forty minutes away from Georgetown the main settlement on the island. So with our full rucksacks we struggled onto a local bus where I nearly concussed a small lady as I tried to swing my pack into an empty seat. We arrived in Georgetown and we made our way to Chinatown and the 75 Traveller’s lodge which had been given a good write up in the Lonely Planet. They didn’t have a en-suite room so we were ushered into a small room that seemed very familiar, I’m not sure if it was from Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape or maybe The Shawshank Redemption but it did seem dreadfully recognizable. I’m not saying that the walls were thin but we could hear the person in the next room breathing and I could almost make out the colour of his shirt through the gyproc.

We headed out for something to eat with the notion of maybe looking for somewhere else to stay the following day. We ended up in the Blue Diamond Café which sold tasteless Mexican fayre and I’m sure the chef would have great difficulty in telling the difference between Aston Villa and Pancho Villa. After scouting out a few more hotels and guesthouses we soon realised that for the money 75 Travellers lodge was probably as good as Georgetown got.

We had a good walk around the town and found many interesting but slightly rundown buildings from the town’s colonial past. Penang is the oldest British settlement in Malaysia predating Singapore and Melaka and was acquired by Captain Francis Light on behalf of the East India Company in 1786. One of the most notable differences in Malaysia from other places we have visited in South East Asia is the social mix; there are large Indian, Chinese & Muslim communities living seemingly quite peacefully alongside the Malays. Sitting alongside Georgetown’s colonial buildings and churches are numerous Mosques, Hindu Temples, Buddhist Temples and Chinese slop houses.

After our initial misgivings about the 75 Travellers Lodge we soon found out why it sits so favourably in the Lonely Planet guidebook, the owner Mr Low is one of the friendliest owners we have came across on our travels. Not only is he very funny, he also is a mine of information and is very helpful and honest about Penang’s attractions and the easiest way to travel around and off of the island.


The hostel also has a few tables at the front entrance for sipping teas and beers and is a great place to meet other backpackers to exchange stories and advice. On the first night we met two young Aussie guys who are on a whirlwind trip of SE Asia before they move to London. We also met a few girls from various parts of England who all support Manchester United and had travelled down from Thailand. The weather still wasn’t the best so we were thinking of maybe moving on in a few days, and after talking to Laura (one of the girls) we decided to maybe head to Krabi after she recommended some good beaches. One slightly disturbing thing about sitting out the front was the numerous rats that seemed to congregate nearby. We also saw quite a few in Kuala Lumpur and have now seen more rats in Malaysia than we’ve seen in the rest of the trip put together.


Next morning we went for Breakfast in the café next door and met Louise one of the girls from the previous night along with a German guy called Alex. After breakfast we caught the local bus to the beach at Batu Ferringhi about 45 minutes from Georgetown. As we got off the bus we also met Andrew and Guy the two Aussies from the previous night who were also looking for the beach. Luckily the sun had come out and we spent a nice afternoon on the beach chilling out and soaking in the balmy sea. That night a group of us headed to an Indian for dinner, which although was very nice was a bit expensive in comparison to most places in Penang.

We headed back to the hostel for a few more drinks; where we got talking to an American guy called Barrett who works in Bangkok. Barrett was down in Penang on a visa run as without having a proper working visa you have to leave the country every 30 to 90 days. Barrett also lives quite close to and is also going to the Bangkok Music Festival. After being tipped off by my brother about the festival and with him being able to book online we are now the lucky owners of tickets to see Franz Ferdinand, Oasis & Ian Brown on the 18th February in Bangkok.

On Wednesday we had another early start and were supposed to be picked up at 5am at the hostel, also waiting outside were Guy and Andrew who were on their way to Phuket and would be sharing a minivan with ourselves and another half a dozen people travelling north to Thailand. The van eventually turned up at 5:30 and we arrived in Hat Yai on the Thai side of the border at ten o’clock. We then transferred to another van and had another five hour trip to Krabi.

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