Another day, another dollar, another drama every day! After last time we (i) wrote we were heading to Malaysia via Hat Yai. Just before we went to get the flight i decided to have my nails painted, very girly of me but they were looking like a 5 year old boys nails due to the trecking up north. Whilst i was in there ash thought it would be fun to have some 'natural blonde highlights' in his hair. He showed the thai lady what he wanted and explained that we didnt have much time because we had to catch our flight. So after she put the stuff on his hair and then took him upstaires to wash it off he came downstaires and gave me a pretty big shock. He looked like a cross between slim shady and chris evans, his hair was bright orangy yellow and looked disgusting! i just pointed and shouted slim, he looked mortified, and when the lady asked him 'everything ok' he replied, 'not really, my hair is bright orange' we refused to leave until it was sorted, she was going mad saying it was our fault and telling us we must pay! we told her where to go and refused payment until his hair was bk to its natural mousey state. After she put another colour on it, it looked almost normal, yet slightly reddish. I sung a few eminen songs at him and then we left paying half the quoted price.
At this point we were running very late and had to flee to the train station where we then caught the train but got off at the wrong stop, which resulted in us running to the airport , backpacks in tow, it was like something off homealone, except we could both qualify as Kevin. Once there we got our flight smoothly, and arrived in Hat yai pretty late. We had been warned by Liz that the place was pretty grim but on first appearances it seemed ok. we didnt have a clue where we were staying but luckily i made friends with a middle aged dude on the bus into the centre and he told us he had booked a very reasonable and nice hotel. We got out with him and true to his word the hotel was lovely. He even gave me his business card and told me i could go and stay in his house in Bamgkok which i felt was very nice of him, except he looked like a Thai Jack the ripper so i may give that one a miss. We hit the local town, the time being approx 10pm. It was ok-ish but we were being stared at left right and centre and it was uncomfortable at times. In the end we just left and went to bed with knowledge that we were hitting Malaysia the next day.
After a very slow bus and even slower train, one ferry and 8 hours we arrived on the island of Penang on Fri evening. We were very unprepared with this one and didnt really have a clue what we were doing or where we were staying. It was so late by the time we actually arrived and we were so shattered that i ended up having a massive go at this idiot taxi driver, getting out of the taxi and walking down the road in a huff. We got picked up and taken to Georgetown, the main centre. All the hotels we found were mega expensive (for Malaysia) so we had no choice but to pay. After another bad start i was ready to move on in the morning, but ash didnt want to so we compromised to move to another part of the island. we went to the beach resort and found a nice little family run guesthouse called babas. It was much nicer here, quite westernised but we wanted to chill out anyway cos we had been so busy. So we hit the beach for the next two days and did lots of watersports and climbing (geeky i know). One the first day we nearly got washed away by swimming too far, we fouind some rocks but ended up cutting our hands and feet because they were so sharp, and then my lilo popped as i was trying to escape some massive crabs! scary stuff!! We nearly got done over again too, but this time we were too clever. We wanted to go on a jetski and bartered 40 mins for 80 rinngit (approx 10 pound). we asked the guy how we would know when time is up as we didnt have a watch and he showed us some little anologue clock he had, yeah right i thought!! i just knew what was coming! so it was 5pm when we went out, it was absolutely brilliant although ash pooed himself when i went too fast. Then the guy (who obviously didnt own a toothbrush) started waving his flag to let us know time was up. I knew it hadnt been 40mins but sure enough he was showing us the clock saying it was 5.40pm. So i asked a passer by to confirm the time and there in black and white it was not even 25 past, he had put the clock forward by over 15 mins!! I said to him 'come on mate you've put it forward', 'no no i dont know what you mean, that is not possible' he replied, 'whats not possible is us paying when u are ripping us off we said, so with persistance we were 'allowed' ten more mins. We insisted on having the clock on us and not to be outdone we changed the clock mid ski, but this time back, so we actually got longer. We ignored the flag and came back in our own time and let him know 'it wasnt possible to change the time', he really didnt know what to say! Another thing that happened on the beach was when we decided to climb these really high rocks and not only did i rip my shorts so my bum was on show, but we also got stuck and couldnt get down! typical!! We met some more friends, one was from Denmark, i told him my friend liz used to go out with a dane called emile, he replied 'my name is emile', yikes i said, you didnt get dumped on skype recently did u?' luckily it was not him!! We have spent today making our way back into Thailand and are now in Krabi. We are getting the boat to Phi Phi early tomorrow morning.
I havent been able to detail this as much as id like because the guy in our hotel is telling us we dont have long. I hope everyone is well, Lots of Love Kim (slim shadys wife) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx