Cheerio Malaysia, its been a blast.

  Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Monday, June 21, 2004

In Georgetown in Penang at the moment. Waiting for my train to Ko Samui, and there ends Malaysia I guess. Quite a long train trip - get in at 11:30pm to Surat Thani, so could be another re-run of Mersing/Tioman at this rate. But just can't face another damn bus.

Have run out of ringet, and am too cheap to get a few more out and suffer the huge transaction fees. Managed to afford breakie and this internet by selling off my treasured Malaysia Lonely Planet. It served me right to the end. Got a bit of money left for lunch and snacks, and by then I'll be back onto baht I guess.

Got out of the Cameron Highlands with, happily, little drama. I was definately Mr Boyscout. The queasiness was still hanging around a bit so I took an arvo bus, had a light breakie and nothing else, Stemetil'd myself up and grabbed the very front seat of the bus. It was once we were underway that I realised I had no sickbags, so wasn't quite perfect. But surprisingly pleasant triup down the hill range and thru those 653 corners. Even got to see the scenary. Definately the highlight pf the trip though was crossing the bridge to Penang island. At 13.5km, its the 3rd largest bridge in asia. Obviously I am avidly researching where the other two are, and you can of course look forward to reading about them in future travel logs.

Liz and Sophie had taken the morning bus to Penang so I had the day to myself. Wanted to actually do something in the Higlands, so wasn't keen to join them first thing in the morning on the early bus. Decided I wanted to see the Tea Plantations and sights uphill, so rented a motorbike. Not sure if this was the smartest thing. I have never ridden a motorbike. I do not know how to ride a motorbike. On top of these two, not insignificant, points is that malaysian drivers are maniacs, and they seem to send the worst to serve out their time in the highlands. They believe that if you complete an overtaking maneurvour by at least half-way thru a blind-corner, then that is sufficient. Somehow it seems to work. I have a feeling that God may indeed be Muslim. Not encouraging if you are not a muslim and intending to drive on their roads in very small vehicles. It also occurred to me the irony that I had been traveliing with a nurse for the last week, and this was the day I decide to rent a motorbike.

Had a potter around town getting use to it, and then headed up the hills. It was surpringly non-horrific. Conditions downhill of Tanah Rata are infinitely more terrifying than uphill, which is almost sedate. I had a lovely little ride to the tea plantation. Then I realised I don't actually like tea and this is really boring (although the factory tour did pull at those engineering heart-strings slightly). Then got the poor little bike up to the highest point in the highlands for some views.



So now in Georgetown, and have pretty much just been mucking around. Had a look at a few old buildings as you do. Not much point taking in any views as its pretty hazy here - apparently from the scrub burning in sumartra at this time of year. Not quite the vibrant town the LP describes, unless you count the rat population, which are prodigious and rival the cat population for body size. Quite seedy here at night too. I'm staying at a hostel on "Love Lane". Love is probably not quite the right word. Thankfully the hostel doesn't rent rooms by the hour, but it is a bit of a gauntlet getting to it. Lady-boys are very in vogue here. I'm not quite sure what their place in society is, although it seems to be to scare the shit out of tourists. Its a bit startling when you order from a good-looking barmaid, only to find that "she" has a barotone voice that would make pavorotti proud.

Been hanging out with an Irishman, a scot, a belguim and a Malaysian who is the splitting image of Saddam Hussein. Not sure what happened to the aussie girls, never caught up with them again after they hopped on the bus. Bit bummed actually as they were staying in a hotel with a pool apparently. Its quite amusing being out on the town here. Last night we were treated to dashing mixture of Elvis impersonations, air-guitair, moon walking (very good), country-western, lead singers who were intent on watching the TV at the back of the bar while they sang on stage and superman (no idea why either). Plus other stuff but it starts to get blurry. Hence no money this morning.

Nearly had no money at all for a bit. Went off to the other side of the island to wtach the dragon boat races (pretty so-so). Got back to Georgetown and realised my wallet was still on the bus . Hadn't seen which way it went so ran (faster than one should ever run in Malaysia) to the depot to see if they could get hold of the driver. That was a bust - they just kept asking me where I wanted to go (where my bloody wallet was of course). Was just giving up when my bus turns around the corner and sure enough, sitting on the seat is my wallet still.



Done my first domestic and got a haircut yesterday. Took a bit of asking around but stumbled into a very old-school barber shop. Cut-throat razors and not a power plug in sight. Apparently barbers are the only people in Malaysia who don't speak english, so had a bit of a job explaining what I wanted and how long. Then I said "number 3" and they went round back and pulled out electric clippers. There you go. Bit of a worry about what I would look like, but I figured at least I don't have a lot to lose. All very good until at the end of it he grabbed my chin and proceeded to wrench my neck. I heard about 5 cricks and sat there stunned mullet style while he did the other side. Then there was the shoulder rub down and the face massage. Awesome. All for 10 rm (which, as with everything Malaysian, was about 2x what the guy in front of me paid).

So there goes Malaysia. Quite like the place I must say. It smells alot and there is rubbish everywhere. When it comes to tourism, the people can't organise their way out of a paper bag. But you can enjoy yourself on the cheap, its easy to understand the place and they are friendly. The number of times I've just had sit-downs yarning to rickshaw and taxi drivers waiting for a fare. When we were in Melaka one time, we were looking suitably lost and a woman drove up in her car to see if she could help. She decided it was too complicated to explain so she got us to hop in and she drove us there. They're just always happy to give you a hand.