After a day of wasting time in Chumpuon, well actually finally getting our blog up to date! and drinking some poor lady out of coffee we finally board our train to Butterworth, mainland Malaysia just outside of Penang. We have sleeper beds sadly top deck, the bottom ones were twice the size and only about 1 pound more expensive so get booked up quickly. We were very envious of the people below us! After a comfortable night but not much sleep as the main cabin lights were on all night long, we arrive at the border crossing 8 hours later than our visa permitted - so trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves after reading signs that say scruffy people won't be allowed into the country we head to passport control, sadly the visa checkers were out in force and we end up in the naughty office sitting in a que and wait to part with our 500baht fine (about 10 pounds). With little cash in multi currencies we spend the remainder on a feast of spicy burger, some sticky rice complete with pork fluff and some banana cake for breakfast/lunch... We arrive in Penang and a short ferry crossing later we arrive in Penang.

Our first impressions are not good as the accomodation on offer leaves alot to be desired and it's expensive!! We settle for the Stardust Inn, as we are sat outside enjoying an arrival beer up the street walks Goose (a guy we met in Koh Tao on a visa run) so we agree to meet up for dinner and a trip to the cinema later. Dinner entails Penang's version of the chinese hotpot - Steam Boat, so we thow our random raw food into the boiling stock and head for possibly the worst movie ever, the spirit, loads of famous names, no story line as such, very random, not even funny, glad we only spent the equivalent of 70p!!

The next day we head out with Ayein a guy that works at the guesthouse Goose was staying at who hires a driver and says he will show us the sights for a day. (All on his day off, bless him!!) A visit to Penang Hill, home of the slowest fenicular railway and a gorgeous english style country house that served devonshire cream teas none the less! , Kek Lok Si Temple, the Botanical gardens and Ayeins beach bar later we are back and heading out for dinner local style, we sit on the side of a main road on little plastic chairs whilst Ayein orders a selection, including the obligatory Penang curry which was amazing and even more so Sweet & sour Red Snapper, so good that we ordered 2 whole fish! If we had known that Ayein was going to pick up the bill we probably wouldn't have gone so crazy on sampling the food, so feeling slightly guilty we repay him with a mini bar crawl and a few bottles of wine.

The next day brought with it buses, Butterworth to I-Poh prenounced ee-po but nether the less gave me hours of amusement and a day of only being able to say it wrong! Then I-Poh to Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands the slowest bus ever with the added extra bonus of cockroaches flying out of the aircon, nice! We did however meet Holly who we will spend the next few days with and checked into the smallest room ever, you couldn't even stand up as it was in the attic basically matresses on the floor. Feeling suitably like Harry Potter (living in a cupboard) we decide the showing of movie 4 is on the agenda during our stay thanks to the DVD room downstairs!

We then embark on a day of tourtastic fun and in one day manage to cover off....boh tea plantation (where we stopped for a cup of tea overlooking the tea plantations), strawberry factory (where we enjoyed possibly the best fresh strawberry milkshake ever), honey bee farm (lots of bees..), market square (where we enjoyed the sweetest corn on the cob, that didn't even need to be cooked), buddhist temple (to be honest I'm a bit templed out!!!), flower garden (where we saw blue vine dangly flowes, ladies shoe and loads more) and butterfly farm (loads of cool butterflys and we held scorpians and beetles). After a tiring morning of sightseeing we headed for the smokehouse another very english style country house with cream teas complete with smoked salmon sandwiches, so we while away an afternoon enjoying the sunshine. Back to our guesthouse to watch the best Harry Potter yet and to investigate buses to Taman Negara national park. Sadly today due to bad weather they experienced a landslide so severe that it rendered the road unpassable so we can't get there, glad to have not been on the road when it happened or to have got stuck there waiting for them to repair the road we initiate a backup plan and head straight to Kuala Lumpur.