Well I made it to Penang! As did my bag!

After wandering through Singapore airport for the best part of seven hours I finally boarded at 10.20pm, sitting at the back of the plane in a window seat. I arrived seven hours before the plane took off and still got landed with the worst seat! I ended up sitting next to a little man who insisted on picking his chin for who knows what. I was annoyed because of the whole flight fiasco anyway, and then on top of that the seating, so of course I was constantly annoyed by his pickings. I could see him doing it out the corner of my eye as I tried to focus on Sudoku, but it was no good, I had to keep slamming my book shut and looking around the room an irate manner. Once he stopped the chin-picking he moved onto his eyebrows and their hair! As we took he off he thankfully fell asleep, but my pulse rate was already up high because of him.

There was a thunderstorm over Singapore as we flew, so I watched in amazement as someone kept flicking the lights off and on in heaven via the lightning. It was quite brilliant, and I forgot the fear that it had evoked as the plane shook after take-off. The rest of the flight flew by, so to speak, and we arrived in Penang at 12.20, as scheduled. I passed through immigration and nipped to the toilets before looking for the hostel pick-up, only to find a disgusting set. They looked like they hadn't flushed for days, were soiled, and sombody had clearly been sick in the sink. It wasn't a great welcome, but at least they provided soap.

Annie and Raj from the hostel were waiting for me at the gate when I collected my bags, and drove me the forty-five minutes back to the hostel. I coughed and sniffled the whole way back, but fought back yawns as they tried to converse with me about what I was doing here and where I was going next. As we drove an abundance of motorbikes appeared every now and then, taking over the roads and forcing Raj into the gutters. Apparently they're all seventeen or eighteen and meet up on weekends to go riding, wearing only their helmets for protection. I couldn't believe it as they weaved in and out of the traffic in herds of at least ten at a time. So kamikaze.

We arrived at the hostel at 1.30am, when I was shown to my room with bars on the window and no blanket. I whacked the fan on full power and stuffed in my earplugs as the lining sheet I'd been carrying made an appearance. Unfortunately the toilet next to my room wasn't great either: no toilet roll, no soap, no towel, and a strange tap that you had to hold in place when using. Great start. For eight pounds a night I shouldn't moan, and was just glad to rest my weary head after an unexpectedly long day.