After arriving 3 hours early for our ferry from Koh Phangan we managed to secure ourselves the best beds, a bunk each in the middle of the cabin away from the sardines sleeping on the floor. We were convinced we would have a better nights sleep than last time but we all seemed to be feeling a bit fragile, maybe as a result of the lack of sleep and partying over the last 10 days, and so arrived in Surathani feeling a bit worse for wear. On route to our bus to Penang we were dumped at a tour operator where we were told we would need to change our thai baht into malaysian ringit for the 300RM charge at the border. Conveniently the lady behind the desk would do this for us after her assistant had walked us to the ATM! Luckily Zaks brain was switched on at 6am in the morning and he soon worked out that the rate she was offering was no where near what it should be. As it turns out when we did eventually get to the border there was no charge to get into Malaysia.

We arrived in Penang after a short ferry crossing from Butterworth and found some cheap accomodation in China Town. Zak braved some more street food while Leanna and Nikki headed for the comfort of an Indian restaurant. Confused at first by the lack of plates we soon realised the banana leaf in front of us was not in fact a table mat and joined in with the traditional way of eating (although we didnt resort to using our fingers as most of the locals do!).

Next day started with a trip to Doctor Tung for Nikki whose bad feeling from the day before had worsened after another sleepless night. After seeing the sunburn on her lip he immediately expained why she had toothache, headache, fever and a mouthful of ulcers and prescribed numerous creams and tablets to help the pain. Thankfully they worked although she didnt look too attractive with bright orange lips and got fed up explaining to the locals that no she hadnt been in a fight with Leanna! In the afternoon we headed over to Penang Hill where we had intended to do the 3 hour walk to the top but slowly lost enthusiasm and opted instead for the train ride. After admiring the stunning views of Penang we headed back to Chinatown for another early night.

Nikki and Leanna were up bright and early next day for a trip to Langkawi, a group of islands off the west coast of Malaysia. Zak stayed behind to do some sightseeing around Penang and ended up attempting Penang Hill again with some fellow travellers we had previously met in Halong Bay. We arrived in Langkawi after a rough 3 hour ferry crossing and stumbled gratefully across starbucks. We headed to Cenang beach, found ourselves some accomodation for the night and set off for underwater world. Leanna had hoped to take a step towards overcoming her shark fear but ran screaming from the room at the sight of a great white. Nikki was left confused as she tried to work out what was so scary about the poster on the wall! She's one step closer though and maybe next time we'll actually get her to look at the tank.

Next day we got dropped at an oriental village and took the cable car up to the top of the Mount Mat Chinchang. From the top we saw beautiful views of Langkawis beaches, jungle and waterfalls, and braved the walk across the suspension bridge (see hair in photos for how windy it was!). In the afternoon we went to Eagle square to see the famous Lang eagle, the symbol of Langkawi. Probably a little over excited when we realised the word Langkawi included both of our initials we spent ages taking photos before grabbing another starbucks and getting back on the ferry. Back to Penang to meet Zak and our bus to Kuala Lumpur..