Selamat Detang (Welcome in Malay)

After our afternoon nap, Mel took the scissors to my barnet and seemed to be chopping away for ages but when I looked there was not much missing we kept going a bit longer before my bottle went and I could take no more and called it a day!!!

Afterwards we met up with Matt and Josie for a meal. Matt and I decided on the traditional Steamboat meal (see picture) It is like a chinese fondue, they bring all the food out to you uncooked and you cook it in the broth in stages. We opted for Tom Yam broth which is a bit spicy but very tasty. As you will see from the picture there was plenty of food for 2. We had prawns,chicken,fish balls,quail eggs,noodles,bean curd,crab etc..

The whole process took ages but the food was tasty and it worked out at 2 quid each!!!! As we are rock and roll it was back to the hostel after the feast for our scrabble game to pass away the night. We played a mixture of rules and the first game breezed by with a victory for me followed by a poor show in the second which was won by Josie.

We were both feeling a little under the weather partly I think because we have not been sleeping too good on wafer thin mattresses and partly because the temperature change from boiling hot to chilly has given us the sniffles, so went to bed early to prepare for the early start tomorrow.

After breakfast we left from the Bus Station bound for Penang the journey was 7 hours and we had to come back the way we came so it was another 2 hours of rollercoaster ride down the hill getting thrown around in the bus as well as nearly hitting a truck and a couple of stray dogs as well. We narrowly missed a JCB and were glad when we started going in a straight line for more than 30 metres without hitting a hairpin or bend in the road.

Once at Butterworth we took the 15 minute ferry ride across to Georgetown the main town on Penang then a quick cab ride found us at our hotel, yes everyone we have checked into a hotel for 4 nights but it worked out the same price as the hostels. Only 12 quid a night for an ensuite room with hot shower and sofa plus TV and refrigerator and they throw in breakfast a right bargain.

Will be in touch tomorrow after we have had a chance to look around and see what the place has to offer.

Selamat Jalan (Goodbye in Malay)

Lots of Love

M & M

xx