We boarded the ferry to Georgetown and it was beautiful, sunny and sailing on clear waters. It had taken an age to get a taxi and we'd even asked in Kentucky Fried Rat if they knew of any place to find one.....no was the answer...but shortly after, Mrs. lady came out and told us she'd drive us there!!!!.....I said I'd pay her, but she said no !!!.........how's that for friendliness. When she brought the car round, there was no way we'd get in. her boyfriend was asleep fully reclined in the front and it was..as our American friends say...an iddy biddie li'l car...as luck would have it a taxi came round and we opted for that, we thanked Mrs. Lady profusely for her kind offer and she was fine with us taking the cab. On arrival to Georgetown we got a taxi and told him we wanted to go to a nearby cheap hotel so as we could sit on their beach front and get a coffee. He said he knew just the place. 10 minutes later we pull into an Hotel so Grand it beggared belief. The entire staff were lined up in neat Black and White uniforms, some with silver trays holding glasses of Champagne. The manager was wearing tails. I looked at the name of the hotel and knew exactly what was happening...remember we passed the Eastern & Oriental Express last night? Well it was about to deliver it's rich and famous guests...the hotel was The Eastern & Oriental Hotel. The staff were probably expecting Rod Stewart & Sir Mick Jagger to arrive. Who fell out of the taxi....Billy the tramp and Seasick Steve..The staff even took our bags. I thought it best to nip it in the bud and spoke to the manager, who was a lovely chap and I explained that the taxi driver was an idiot...I told him what we were trying to do and he even said we could use their buffet on the verandah if we liked. Very kind, but I saw imminent bankruptcy. He told us to walk down the road for 5 minutes and we'd find what we were after. Indeed we did. We found a sweaty man in a van selling cold drinks by the seafront and had tables set up with umbrellas. That was more our style.

We later hopped on a free bus and took a quick tour around Georgetown. The last time we were here was years ago when we caught up with our good friends, Danny, Elaine, Naomi and Harriet who were on holiday here. The last time I hadnt thought much of Georgetown but now we saw some wonderful architecture and thought it a lovely place. We then got the ferry back to Butterworth and had to wait 3 hours for the train to Bangkok. It seemed like a lifetime...and in another life, perhaps we'd have been wined and dined at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, fed copious amounts of Gin & Tonic, then later poured from the Rolls Royce onto The Eastern & Oriental Express. One can but dream.....Lord Gibbs would have loved to have been here for this.