Day 21 (Monday 6th November 2006)

We made it to Penang! Our taxi from the hotel arrived a little late so we were fretting for a few minutes, but when the driver turned up he sped like a demon to the ticket office and then on to the airport. In fact he did so well, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

We boarded our plane to Kula Lumpur and then connected on to Penang with out any fuss, although Marc's language skills have made no improvement...thanking all the Malaysian cabin crew in Thai!!

When we touched down in Penang we had no where to stay, nor did we have a clue, so thank God for Frankie! Frankie, some funny little Malaysian dude, just kind of popped up from nowhere at the airport and offered us a ride to where ever we wanted to go. Now we know what you are all thinking, here they go again, but we did not jump in to his car until first telling him we wanted to speak to the tourist information centre within the airport. Frankie, in hot pursuit followed us all the way and seemed to know a great deal more than the woman at the desk. When Marc asked where the best snorkelling sites could be found, it was Frankie who appeaed to be informing her.

Sarah did feel the need to point out to Marc that this was more than just a snorkelling trip around the world, but she needent have bothered...Penang has absolutely no snorkelling/diving to offer. Marc, who's obviously not moaned once about the fact that he hasn't snorkelled now for five days, was now on the verge of a nervous breakdown! But Frankie was quickly on hand to help and pointed out some offshore islands we could visit.

Quite content with his authenticity, we were warming to the little fella, so we hopped in his car and he took us in town to visit another, more extensive information centre. Once again Frankie followed us inside and just as before, he seemed to know just as much as these guys, if not more. The staff at the information centre were, shall we say, hardly the centre of information and we left with only two valuable things to note. First, and he only informative thing they said, was that it's monsoon season on the east coast...so that ruled out a chunk of our itinerary. Secondly, that Frankie was indeed the most helpful and knowledgable man on the island.

We checked out prices of the boat trips to the coral reef, but they were only day trips and over priced, so we between the three of us we conjured up a plan. Frankie proceeded to drive us right up to the north coast of the island and for all his hard work, driving and expert advise, he charged us just 60Rm...that's like 8 quid! He also handed us his business card. There's nothing the clever litlle man dosen't do...health - success to wealth and happiness, essence of natural herbs, health care, disease cures and lives saved, local and overseas tours, sight seeing, hotel vouchers, air tickets, bus tickets, ferry tickets, taxi's and limousines, houses, land, factories and plantation estates...he does it all! He dropped us off at Batu Ferringgi which is a nice place with sandy beaches where we'll spend one night and two days. Before we arrived we told him we wanted low budget accommodation and he told us he knew exactly where to go. Sure enough he took us to Ali's guesthouse, a place Sarah found on the Lonely Planet website just a few nights ago.

And low budget it is! This is our first taste of proper travelling. The place is nice enough but we have to share showers and toilets with other travellers. A room here costs just 7 pound a night.

Tomorrow night at 22:00, good old Frankie is coming back to escort us to the bus station, where we have booked tickets to take us in to jungle territory, in the heart of Malaysia and the second stage of our trip. Ironically we have to change buses at Kuala Lumpur, the place we were in just a few hours ago...did we need to come to Penang?!

All those evenings planning our trip...so far we've been unable to follow any of it! Oh well, it does make it kind of exciting I suppose. Any way, that bus ride leaves about 23:00 and drives through the night, so we don't need somewhere to stay and the trip is just 3 pound each!

There are so many national parks with virgin rainforests and abundant wildlife, so we'll wait and see what is offered to us in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. We'll base our trip around our chosen national park and then book a bus ride through the night for Saturday down to Singapore. We'll explore Singapore on Sunday before flying to Bali that evening.

Miss you all xxx

PS Hope Stevie had a good Birthday and that Amber didn't have too much of a crisis over bonfire night!

Last night we thought Thailand was giving us a huge send off but it turned out to be an annual festival, Loi Krathong. They threw lanterns in the sky, lit fireworks, everything! The meal they threw us was exceptional, with all kinds of amazing Thai dishes.

Well done to Spartans...we're gonna' win the Hampshire Cup!! Who scored the goals?

Well done to West Ham also, although Marc's not sure how they managed to skank that! Go on Wenger!

Day 22 (Tuesday 7th November 2006)

Last night has got to be up there with some of the worst night's sleep we've ever had. The unfortunately placed mosque just behind our guesthouse was kind enough to start wailing out the most horrendous religious songs in the early hours of the morning. Well this got the cockerels going, who began cock-a-dooda-looing along too and before you knew it, the whole of the Malaysian bird kingdom was cherping along to the beat! 

Things were getting worse for poor Marc who, after first overcoming the dreaded sars virsus and still battling his dogged ear infection, is now convinced he has contracted bird flu from the chickens!! Contemplating who he'll leave his DVD's to in his will, he now has excruciating toothache and a swollen tongue (not too swollen that he can't moan about it though). Spare a thought for poor Sarah, it looks like his wisdom tooth is coming through. As with everything in life, she tries to put a positive spin on everything...with Marc not being able to eat, perhaps it will holt the rapid expansion of his belly!!

We treated ourselves to a refreshing cold shower downstairs before paying the guesthouse a little extra to delay our check-out time. It was a good job we did, because after breakfast came an almighty thunderstorm that shook the whole of Penang. 

We had banana pancakes for brekkie and returned upstairs to our balcony to watch the storm. It was as if Jack Johnson had written his song just for us:

"Eating banana pancakes,

pretend like there's no world outside.

Yeah we can pretend it all the time.

'Cause can't you see that it's just raining,

there ain't no need to go outside."

We sat on the chairs with the blinds pulled low and listened to the rain crashing down around us. There's definitely something magical about a tropical storm; you can even smell it in the air (or was that just Sarah's fear?). The thunder was deafening, the cricket ball-sized raindrops relentless and the lightening vivid even in the hazey daylight.

Nethertheless, with Marc sucking on a tube of bonjella, occasionaly removing it to swallow another pill for any number of different ailments and Sarah busy scratching away and covering herself in tiger balm from head to toe, it wasn't quite the serene moment we'd have you believe.

Tonight Frankie delivers us to the bus station and then who knows where we could be by tomorrow night. 

We probably won't find any internet access for a while, so rest assured Marc's busy chasing jungle bugs and Sarah's being eaten alive.

Thanks for your message Monty. Sarah said that she may look like Bob Marley but at least she doesn't look like Wayne Rooney! Best of British??!