The salad, coleslaw and fries where just fine but the burger was the consistency of porridge that has been left to go cold and congealed. Made the Geoduck look appetising!
I slept well on my last night in Penang and in fact Malaysia for a while. My room is on the 14th floor of the hotel and I was treated to a spectacular firework display at around midnight, they must know I am leaving.
View from my hotel room
Breakfast once again was a 'fill your boots, you don't know when you will eat next" affair. Good it was too..
I need to check out of the hotel by midday, rather than paying a taxi to go across the Penang Bridge I was going on the famous Penang to Butterworth ferry, which is free, (despite losing around £ 3 million a year.
My hotel for Bangkok booked using the ever reliable Booking.com I decided to pop out for a couple of hours. I need some toiletries, postcards and nicorettes for the 20 hour journey.
Come 12.00 I was on my way to the jetty in a cab and across the Malacca straights on the ferry.
It was a roasting day again, rucksack on my back even the short walk from the taxi to the ferry had me sweating. That said, I am starting to get used to constantly feeling damp, especially in the nether regions due to extreme heat and humidity.
I suppose it's good practice for when I get older, am in a care home and my carer forgets to change my incontinence pants...
The ferry to Butterworth
The Penang to Butterworth Ferry
The Penang Bridge
Off the ferry at Butterworth on the Malaysian mainland it was a short walk to the railway station. The train to Bangkok leaves at 2.40.
When the train arrived, there were only two carriages and an engine. So I couldn't have been posh even if I'd wanted to.This time I was slumming it in second class on the Express train, slowly slipping into my backpacker role.
The train to Bangkok
Sitting across from me was a Japanese chap, travelling alone and doing the usual Japanese thing of taking photographs of everything. He was in the process of trying to take a photo of himself by placing his camera on a seat, setting the timer, running to the train, smiling into the camera, only to find he did not like the photo so off he went again, he must have done it half a dozen times. As he sat down he took out his stuff and a bottle filled with something the colour of urine. He kept taking a small swig of it.
As we pulled out of Butterworth the sky looked very heavy, we were in for a storm methinks. The aircon on the train was just right. Not too hot and not too cold.
It was like united nations on the train, Malay, Thai, Japanese, a charming Indian doctor who was a canadian national, a couple of Brummy chaps. They were all here.
Not far out of Butterworth the weather was atrocious, heavy rain lashed on the train as it meandered through the North Malaysian Peninsular. I'm not quite sure how the train got called the 'Ekspres Antarabangsa' as there was nothing 'Ekspres' about it. As we progressed on the journey it stopped at a few of the pretty station, decorated with flowering bourganillia, picking up passenger here and there, it also picked up a significant amount of luggage, mostly fruit, in no time we had more apples and pears than Pete Beal's fruit stall.
Travelling north the landscape changed from jungle to paddy fields to the west and mountains to the east. The on both sides there were huge island type hills springing up. We were treated to a spectacular shown of fork lightening in the faraway jungle mountains.
Approaching the border, one of the stewards came around with immigration cards. I was hoping it was going to be straightforward. As I had left Singapore I had been stamped as exiting but not as entering Malaysia. It turned out not to be an issue. As the train pulled into the border station we all disembarked, went through Malaysian immigration and customs, I had my passport stamped, the officer wrote in my passport that I had entered via the Singapore land border. Next we went through the Thai immigration which again was very painless, then back in the train.
Back on the train one of the Brummies minced down the carriage declaring in a voice as camp as an Easter bonnet.
' well that was surprisingly uneventful for Thai Immigration'
Been here before then? Hmmmm.....
The Japanese chap (who looked uncannily like a younger version of the old man in Karate Kid) was a bit of a faffer, for the first hour he was messing with a set of padlocks, then he spent the next hour playing with his money belt, then his case, then his passport, constantly taking a swig from the urine coloured liquid. I suspect it is alcohol of some kind rather than Urine.
Shortly after leaving the border station a smart Thai policeman came around checking tickets. Followed by a pretty Thai girl taking orders for both dinner and breakfast. Thank god for that, I thought I'd be spending the next 20 hours living on Water and Nicorettes.
I ordered dinner of soup, chicken stir fry and boiled rice followed by pineapple slices.
For breakfast I would have omelette and toast, fruit salad and coffee. The total for the lot was £6.00
As we stopped off at the next station, the first one in Thailand, a number of women got on selling food and drinks. I declined as I had ordered dinner. A young Thai chap further down the carriage offered me one of his, very kind. I must have been looking longingly at it.
Dinner was absolutely delicious, actually one of the best meals.
After dinner I set about putting the blog on the iPad, I walk around with a book and pen writing down things and then when I have time transpose it into the blog. While I was doing this the Thai chap came over and presented me with a polo shirt from the Thai food festival. That again was very kind (with my naive traveller head on) but 'what does he want' with my cynical savvy travellers head on.
Karate Kid has had his sleeper made up and is now playing with his phone, I'll wait till the steward passes and ask him to do the same with mine.
Oh no, KK has got his case and those fucking padlocks out again!!
Time for bed, the seats convert to sleeping compartments
This journey certainly beats going first class deluxe premier. There you get on a train, get in a box then get off a train, this is much more interactive....
More of the same for the rest of the trip.
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