Today we planned to go to the Beach, but during breakfast (at a new place - Sunday most are closed!) decided to take a bus to Kek Lok Si Temple. It is around 8km out of town near Pekan Air Itam. We walked the 400m to Lebuh Chulia and as luck would have it a bus came within minutes. We paid 2 Ringgit each (40p) and sat in the air conditioned luxury (of a public bus). It took around 35 mins and the bus driver generously informed us of our stop. It was steaming hot ...

We have now settled into our hotel - the Star Lodge, I got to inspect the room first before we took it. My checklist includes a/c, wifi, cleanliness, a western toilet and somewhere to plug my hairdryer next to a mirror. I asked the dour Chinese hotel owner if any of the rooms had a mirror and he wearily said "No, this is a budget hotel". Well...what do I want for £9 a night? As Chris said on the message board, we could turn this into a book - if we did...

Here we are in Georgetown, (or Pulau Pinang) on Penang island! Enjoy the photos, most from our walk this evening in Litle India and Chinatown. It was so vibrant and alive as July is the month Georgetown celebrates its UNESCO heritage. The place has a great, friendly multi-cultural feel unlike any other. We slept last night in Malaysia Hotel, but swithed today to spend a week in the Star Guesthouse - at around £9 a night - with aircon and wifi. It is clean and ba...

The next stage of our journey was by sleeper-train from Bangkok to Butterworth, then a super cheap ferry (24p each) from Butterworth to Georgetown, Penang (an island off the west coast of Malaysia). When I say 'sleeper' train, I use the term loosely. What an adventure. We arrived to find our seats well and truly taken over by a couple of girls who had obviously done this trip before. They had packed enough food (a lot of it very smelly) for a week on the train, t...

Thanks for the messages. Keep them coming. We have been in Pattaya on a whistle-stop tour and have not had much time to blog. Our travels have now taken us by bus from Pattaya (where I got my best haircut ever - £2 - neck massage, cut, powder, Cold towel and ear/brow shave!) to bustling Bangkok. We took a Baht Bus (basically a small open truck with 2 bench rear seats and hand grabs!) to the Coach station then an a/c bus (£2.20) the 120km to Bangkok..... Sweet j...