Note 1 – Monday 30th May

OK, two major changes of plan!

Firstly, mine. While I was booking into the hostel, the guy on reception was showing me the different services they offer, including onward transport. I asked about the ferry to Medan - he told me that it didn’t run anymore. What? No! But yes. Air Asia was too cheap, the company couldn’t afford to run the service anymore, it finished in June last year. Recently enough, alas, to not yet to be mentioned in any guidebooks (not that the Insight guide would have bothered anyway, mind you), barely be mentioned on the internet, and having been here all day, generally still be advertised in the windows of travel agents. But I’ve double and triple checked, it definitely no longer exists. Balls! So I’m reverting to the initial plan, and heading back down south to Singapore in a few days instead (yes, via Kuala Lumpur!). I think that’s our (well, “my”) first double, double back.

Secondly (chronologically, I should add, not in terms of importance!), having arrived, unpacked, and popped out to get something to eat, I came back to the hostel to be greeted by a just arriving Paula! She couldn’t face another few days in Kuala Lumpur, so decided to make the bus journey up to Penang as well (which is actually only four hours, as Malaysia’s roads are as good as ours), to spend her remaining time here instead. With me! I’d like to think it’s partly because she likes me, as opposed to just disliking Kuala Lumpur!

I had an excellent bus ride, incidentally. The comfiest bus seats yet, I reckon! Which more than made up for their aesthetically dreadful design, and almost made up for the fact that they didn’t tell me when they were dropping people off at the ferry jetty (a short local transport link to Georgetown), and took me on to the main Penang bus station instead (a long local transport link to Georgetown). And it didn’t have to make up for the fact the bus left Kuala Lumpur half an hour late, because it appeared to be on account of us waiting for a late passenger, and I think that’s really nice! A random observation: I noticed that the guy in front of and to the left of me on the bus was chatting to his girlfriend (or a friend who was a girl, perhaps) on his phone, Skype style (or his sister). I didn’t know this technology was around! Is it, generally? Is this how everyone is communicating back home now? Am I going to feel like Michael J Fox going forward to 2015, upon my return? Are kids doing tricks on hoverboards instead of skateboards now? Well, I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

First impressions of Georgetown are fantastic. I’ve only had a brief wander of some nearby streets, but the air is clear, the sky mostly blue, and there seems to be a real character about the place. Relaxed, but not too remote, which is exactly what I was after for a few days, to do some blog updates, sightsee for a couple of hours a day, and eat lots of nice food. And the hostel, Old Penang Guesthouse, is perfect for that plan too, it turns out. So much so that English comedian and writer Will has been here, writing, for about six months! It’s an old, restored Chinese shop house, simply but elegantly designed, that revolves around a wonderful, covered, indoor courtyard, extending the full two storey height of the building, with a corridor / balcony looking down over it. With a TV, couch and comfy chairs, as well as a few sets of table and chairs, it acts as a breakfast, social and internet area. It’s spacious, light, airy, plus the sleeping areas have air con and the bathrooms are spotless and modern. Free breakfast, free wifi. I will be happy here!

Note 2 – Thursday 2nd June

Paula left last night after a bum-twitchingly late pick-up from the hostel, to get the last possible bus in order to make her flight tomorrow. A half eleven pick-up, supposedly, to be taken to the bus station for its midnight departure, so little wonder we were asking questions at ten past twelve. But the car came to collect her, and she didn’t come back to the hostel, so I’m assuming all is well!

Talking of the hostel, having only originally booked two nights at Old Penang, I got chucked out yesterday, as other advance bookings meant the place was full, but I’m booked back in tonight, for another three nights. Which meant a single night over the road at Love Lane Inn (not in any way seedy, the road is actually called Love Lane!). A cheap room, with no air con and no window, but it meant not looking any further and not carrying my bag too far (close enough, in fact, that I made three trips instead of bothering to pack my bag in the end, much to the amusement of the receptionist!). Anyway, I’m glad I had to move, because, randomly, they had a set of scales, so I had the opportunity to measure myself for the first time in months. The answer was eleven stones and five pounds! And the following morning, after a nights sleep and, ahem, a bathroom visit, it dropped further to a fraction of a pound over eleven stones! My god, I think that takes me back to university years, and it’s a good two stones less than this time last year! Wonder how many twelve inch Canada Grill pizzas and Asian Fusion kahari fish tikkas it’ll take to get back to that level?... I look forward to finding out!

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean IV last night, probably Paula’s last cinema trip before we get back to England! And what a terrible film it is! Pure laziness on the part of the writer, who’s clearly just decided that signing up Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz and spending millions on special effects will be enough to get everyone who saw the first three back paying to watch again. In fact, it was so bad, I’m going to google, name and shame… hang on a minute… Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, two writers, you lazy gits! There’s no story, is there? You just thought of some bits you’d like to stick in it, and did exactly that, just stuck them in it! It doesn’t make sense, your plot is stupid! Lazy, lazy, lazy! But the comfy seats and air con were nice.
Feels a little weird, the thought of travelling solo for the next month or two (I’m not sure how long, it depends on what Paula’s doing and how long a visa I get for Indonesia). When we’ve headed in different directions previously, it’s always been for just a week or two, and it’s been to do quite specific things (as Paula has again, of course), but this time I’ve got several weeks with no real plan. Exciting, though! And no doubt it’ll fly by, but at the moment it just feels like unchartered territory.

Note 3 – Saturday 4th June

Update from Paula, she has arrived in Kochi, Kerala state, India, and it’s an amazing place! Incredible colours, wonderfully friendly people, and she’s on a high, despite rain running so deep through the streets it’s soaked her up to the ankles, never mind the stuff falling from the sky onto her head. But if you want to know more, I’m afraid I’m just doing headlines – you’ll have to ask her yourself!

I was going to comment earlier on something, but never got around to it. I will now, however, as I’ve been reminded of it, and have also worked out the explanation for it. Every other shop in Kuala Lumpur, and a great many here in Georgetown, has a sign up advertising for staff (often specifically for a “sales girl” as well; equal rights sword bearers would have a field day!). So I meant, but simply forgot, to mention that anyone in retail back in England, who’s unemployed and struggling to find work in these difficult post-recession times, should consider coming to Malaysia. You’ll get a job, easily, they’re crying out for people (small clause, you might have to be and speak Malaysian, but I don’t know this for sure)! Anyway, I’ve worked out why. It’s because they’re all so crap at maths! Now I think of it, it’s been the same for as long as I can remember, in Thailand too. That’d probably be a prejudiced comment, were it not for the fact it’s so completely true. Seriously, any shop, they’re utterly lost without their calculators. Something costs eight ringgits, you give them a ten note. Into the calculator, ten minus eight. Two items at five ringgits each, hand them a fifty. Into the calculator, two stages, five plus five, equals ten, fifty minus ten. I’ve seen the panic when the calculator has been mislaid or isn’t working! And when something costs forty-one ringgits and thirty cents, and you give them a fifty note plus one ringgit and thirty cents, they look at you like you’re stupid! What are you giving me more than fifty for, when I’ve just told you it’s less than fifty? I tell you, it astonishes me every time. Anyway, that’s why there must be so many jobs, they must keep having to fire them for being crap at maths. And for not knowing that “sir” isn’t unisex. Girls don’t get called “madam” here, they’re just “sirs” as well! Ha ha!

In general, though, I should say do have positive feelings about shops here, useless employees aside. I just love the fact they’re all different, have character, and therefore give character to the streets they sit on. Obviously there are exceptions, with the famous 7-elevens, and other global brands edging their way into the shopping centres, and gradually beyond, but for the most part, you’ve got your very specific shops for each product and service. Your tap shop, I noticed today, next to the mirror shop; the sink shop; the ubiquitous book shop, of course; the bedding shop; the spirits shop. With each one’s own, distinct character reflecting the individual owner and his or her product range. It’s such a refreshing contrast to our increasingly bland, identical high streets back home, never mind the soul destroying horrors like Tesco and Asda, of the opinion that they might as well just sell everything and save the need for high streets at all.

Tried to get money out from a Standard Chartered ATM today. I thought if they charge some interest, at least some of it might go towards trying to raise the funds to buy Ashley Young from Aston Villa. But it didn’t let me; I had to use HSBC instead. Oh well, more fool them, I was good for it.

Note 4 – Sunday 5th May

It never ceases to amaze me when I read about famous noodle dishes of South East Asia, and then I see them, still in their packets, sitting in piles on food carts and in restaurant displays! Delicious spicy “mee”, made from boiling and then frying a packet of supernoodles! It reminds me of when, on the subject of cooking, people sometimes say, “oh, I do good pasta”, “I make good pasta”. What, you mean you can open a packet of pre-mixed and formed flour and water and boil it for the correct length of time, as stipulated on said packet? Brilliant, well done, mightily impressive. That’s not cooking! You don’t put an Ikea coffee table together and call yourself a carpenter, do you? I don’t know why the supernoodles thing amuses me, because I guess most restaurants, anywhere in the world, probably don’t make their own noodles, and in fact do get them out of packets. But can you imagine the reaction if a noodle restaurant back home had packets of Batchelor’s supernoodles in the window? Yeah, I guess they’re just being honest here, so maybe no bad thing!

My last day in Georgetown, Penang, today, and the purpose of my stay here, to catch up with my blog entries, has been a resounding failure! I’ve caught up a bit, but a country mile from completely. I blame it on my fellow hostel mates! Will likes to chat. Also, Rebecca from London, and her friends, American couple Keith and Julia, from Oregon, have been dining and hanging out companions over the last couple of days. So it’s all their faults; in no way whatsoever have my preferences for eating, talking or wandering, inability to get down to typing been to blame. We all went to see X-Men First Class last night (they made me), though, and that was well worth wasting the potential writing time. Great film. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, that’s how to do it.

Right, that’s all from Penang, then. My overnight bus leaves in a short while, destination Singapore. Which I’m told is bloody expensive, so, beer and extravagant dining out of the question, I should have some more catch up time in the evenings there. I’m sure there won’t be any distractions…