so another day was spent travelling. we had to get a mini van from our hotel in Ko Lantre across to the main land. we stayed on the bus the whole time as Ko lante is a group of islands so through a series of bridges and barges we somehow made it to Trang on the mainland. here was another wait for a bus to hat yai. another lengthy wait and we were finally on the bus to penang in malaysia.

Crossing te border went without any problems thankfully, other than i left my immigration card on the bus and realised just as i watched it drive across the border so i had to fill another one in, typical!

Penang is an island and is connected to the mainland by a bridge that at over 13km claims to be the longest in asia. we didnt use this however, our bus drove onto the barges that seem to be popular around here. its almost like a chunk of motorway with an deck stuck ontop to drive the thing.

straight away we realised how friendly malaysians are, we spent the journey with the captain and his crew and they even let me pull the horn, haha!

Penang is the oldest of the britih colonies here, older than singapore and melaka so there is quite a bit of history here. the diference between thaliand and malaysia is huge. fair enough the malay alphabet is the same as english so they have an advantage but their english is far superior to the thais. the cultural mix if fantastic, malays, hokkien chinese and indians and althought there is divide, mainly through religion  and to a certain degree, class, there doesnt seem to be tension or segregation. there is alot of mixing of cultures. but then again, what do i know, three days isnt very long to decide that but thats the impression i get.

saying that, there is a clearer sense of rich and poor. while you cant deny malaysia is more developed than thailand its seems there is more poverty as well. like alot of pople have been left behind whereas in thailand its not necessarily got there yet!

this being the first major city weve been in for a while everyone had something they needded to buy or fix or do so we went shopping on the first day. and then got a public bus to the bottom of penang hill to get the fenicular railway up to the top, about 500m, where you can see out over the city.

the bus there was hilarious, an other clapped out fifties bus that when we first got on was jam rammed with muslim women and school kids in the full dress playing bangra music(what public bus plays music). four of us plodded on in vests shorts and flip flops. if looks could kill! turned out to be mroe our concious than reality, within five minutes the music had changed to some happy hardcore dj pulse 'rippin' it up on the f***ing decks yo' - i certainly think this was for our benefit as i dont think any of the other passengers had ripped up any decks lately!

its quite a bussling little city and from what ive read is well on the backpackers route, apparantly not! we went out that night to where the clubs were, being a muslim country, alcohol is so expensive. it costs over 2 quid for half a lager which when im paying less than that for my room is seems a bit ridiculous. what this does mean however is that the clubs are relatively nice and the people in them are fairly wealthy.

what they all have in common are some asian cover/pop group. think 5.6.7.8's in kill bill.

the outdoor club had a bit of tina turner prancing around the tables and the others were 'originals'. there whole club scene seems to be stuck in the nineties with cheesy dance routines and bands in 'cool' outfits singing and dancing on stage. really good fun though! everywhere shuts by three but there seems to be just as much of a street scene as in bangkok.

ended up talking to these thai guys who had been sent to study here cos they were drinking too much in bangkok, haha! im guessing they were all well off as they had a selection of western accents gained from the time they spent at school there. one of them gave me his belt buckle, to be fair i did say he could dtay at ours if he was in england, and gave him my number, oops!

i thought everyone else had gone but i found one of the girls in the toilets talking to three chinese guys that were teaching her to count in about 5 different languages. eventually managed to make it back after talking to a selection of bin men, Shell IT consultants in Kaula Lumpa, prostitutes, a kid and just a wierd perve.

on our first night we got a trishaw to the atm, most of the cash machines shut here at midnight. soon realised why and that we had got off lucky. peop[le were getting taken to cash machines and then robbed by the trishaw drivers or his friends when they had withdrawn. we happily got in our and trotted round town until we found a 24 hour one.

i did pick my trishaw driver out of the gutter the next night though. he was completely off his head with his trishaw on its side and everyone was just walking past. whether he was too wrecked the night before to bother robbing us or it was because we ewre with two girls and he had some decency i dont know, but i tihnk we got off lightly! maybe he was just one of the nice ones!!

doing some last sight seeing in penang today, the snake temple and botanical gardens and then heading to the perhentian islands tonight. i was suppose to be going last night but all the buses are full so ive ended up being stuck here. our hotle guy has arranged for his friend to take us in the car tonight but its cost us 25 quid each, skank!