Our trip from Thailand to Malaysia was long, hot and full of Mosquitos, starting at 5.45am. Our van driver kept answering his phone and reading emails which peeved me, more importantly he had the longest pinky nail I've ever seen...it was truely disgusting. The other van got a flat tyre and was really late to the hotel so we didn't get out for dinner till after 10pm (with lots of grumpy tired faces).
I could see the difference as soon as we crossed the border, it's nice to be in a new place. It was really pretty with mountains and windy roads. I lost count of the number of police check points we went through, some guards were armed but luckily didn't seem interested in doing much checking. I've never seen so many Proton cars in my life, I think this must be where they all come to die.
Out hotel for the night is like something out of an old horror film, the walls painted in fading blue, yellow and pinks in no particular pattern. I didn't pay too much attention to the carpet because I knew it was bad, my flip flops stayed safely on. For dinner we headed to the night market with a live band singing Abba and Westlife, I was a bit disappointed when I ended up with a bowl of meaty greasy looking soup with a few noodles and shrimps hidden away and a chunk of meat on the bone. I ate the noodles and was convinced I'd be sick in the night, my stomach must be getting used to things because I slept like a baby in my grubby bed.
Thismorning we all went on a tour by rickshaw, which is basically a little old man who should be retired but instead is cycling us lazy tourists round for 2 hours in sweltering heat. It was fun and scary weaving in and out of the traffic, our driver was quite bossy and kept screaming at us we should be taking photos, whether we wanted them or not. To be fair, I did get some good pics, there was lots of street art which was really cool. My favourite bit was the Che Clan Jetty, floating village. Lunch cost me 20p, samosas off a street seller who shouted at me for not having any smaller change...I would have told him to shove his samosas if I hadn't been so hungry, they were annoyingly good. That was all the time we had for Penang, now to the Cameron Highlands.