Day 25

Left Samui this morning for the worst journey we have done to date. Our journey looked like this-

Left hotel in Samui 6.30 am for 8am Ferry to mainland Thailand 'Donsak', had a 1 hour coach trip to Surat Thani to then be left in a roadside cafe until 12. Got in a very small minibus with 12 people and drove to Hatyai (still Thailand), which took 4 hours, the whole time of which we were stuck in the back seats like sardeens. Swaped minibus in Hatyai to an 11 seater then another hour drive to the border. Took a further 1 hour to cross the boarder from Thialand to Malaysia.. Back into the minibus (that again was full) and eventually arrived into Penenag at 10.30pm that night!

Malaysia are an extra hour ahead so we are now GMT +8. Thankfully we found a Guest house really quickly and as we had only eaten crisps all day grabed dinner in a local night market near by the guest house.

Day 26 & 27

After our meal at the night market on our first night we went on for a few drinks in a local bar, we thought we deserved them after our long journey! We are staying in George Town, Penanag so spent most of the day exploring the area. We found quite a big shopping mall 'Prangin mall', where we saw our first Christmas tree this year. It made us laugh when we heard some of the stores playing christmas carols, it just seemed odd walking around in shorts and tshirt listening to 'silent night' LOL. We then came accross a road called 'The Street of Harmony', along the street there are various religious buildings located in close proximety, illustrating varius communities with different cultures and faiths. Within no more than about 200 meters of each other we saw a Church, Mosques and Temples. Our exploring took us through the whole area of George Town and found ourselves at the edge of Penang looking over into mainland Malaysia. Penang is connected to the mainland by a huge bridge over sea. After just a day here we have noticed how different Malaysia is compared to Thailand. It seems to be so much more developed here, certainly the areas we have seen so far anyway. Having said that we stayed in a room yesterday that cost us £5:) We were sold when told there was a shower in the room (which is not always standard) but what we didnt think to ask was wether or not there was a tolilet.. which there wasnt!! Oh well you get what you pay for, and its only 1 night.

Penang is a great place and we'd reccomend to anyone visiting Malaysia. The people here are really friendly and you seem to get good service everywhere you go. This morning we moved on to another Hotel for our last night in Penang, which we had found yesterday while exploring George Town. The hotel is only a 10 minute walk away from the ferry port, which is more conveninent for us as we are cathcing an early ferry over to langkawi tomorrow. Our new hotel has wifi access in the room so spent most of the afternoon cathcing up on emails etc. We are now staying near a small area known as 'Little India' so planning on going for curry tonight.