Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Why we decided to stay up until 6am finishing a bottle of whiskey off when we had a train to catch the next morning is beyond me. It's not the first time this kind of thing has happened either. Many a time when it's our last night in a place we seem to want to give it a good send off. Most folks would have an early night so they are nicely sorted for the following day....we seem to do the complete opposite. God knows why we do this but hey it happens, we are idiots abroad for sure.
So feeling well and truly hungover and tired, we pulled our bags together, downed a quick coffee from 7-11 and then grabbed a taxi along to Hua Lamphong train station very much the worse for wear.
Hua Lamphong is much like any other train station you will come across in Asia. It has more than it's fair share of those less fortunate than ourselves, those who make the station their home as they have nowhere else.
Between getting out of the taxi and walking the short distance to the station we had passed a poor guy laying flat out with his gentleman portions hanging out for all to see. This guy obviously wasn't in a good way at all and to be fair his neighbours weren't much better off either.
After parking Dani up with the bags near the entrance I ran over the road to collect our tickets from the booking office we had used. Picking my way carefully through the station residents and stench of stale piss as I went, trying not to tread on any of the poor souls that were splayed out on the floor.
With our tickets sorted we scampered our sweaty back-pack laden way to our platform where our train was waiting and boarded our carriage. We had just made it in time. With our bags sorted the best we could in the aisle and finally sat down in our seats the train clunked and groaned and slowly eased it's way out of the station.
Leaving Bangkok by train is an interesting experience in itself. You pass so many small communities that live by the tracks. Parents holding their little ones up to wave as you roll past. Basic stalls and shops that sit mere inches from the carriage as you clunk past impossibly close.
It took about an hour before we finally escaped the dusty city and started to see some lush green Thai countryside. We settled in for the long 19 hour journey ahead of us.
The train was amazingly comfortable. We have taken an overnight train in Thailand before, from Bangkok to Chang Mai and these trains are great. Compared to back home they are amazing value for money. They are comfortable and well looked after by a whole team of staff.
Each carriage has it's own guard who makes sure their carriage is clean and well looked after. The guy from the restaurant car pops his head in every hour or so as well to try and get some early orders in for dinner, wafting the menu around like it's his favourite stage prop. This bloke loves his job and appeared to see it as a stepping stone to nailing a part in the next tour of "Lady-boy's of Bangkok". He was quite the character.
There is also always at least one police officer on the trains here as well. Yes, I know Thai police are known for being a tad corrupt and not the most eager to help you at times. But it's a different situation knowing you have one on your overnight train. You know you aren't going to get some drunk idiot trying to rummage through your bags or kicking off during the night and there is just a general all round happy atmosphere on these overnight sleeper trains. It's a nice experience.
We trundled on South through the beautiful Thai countryside. Stopping every hour or so at some random station in a random town where many a hawker would hop on to sell you drinks or food. It's decent stuff as well that isn't overpriced.
We grabbed a small portion of noodles for about 50p, safe in the knowledge that there was no additional tourist tax added. A good little tip is to watch these vendors when they are selling their wares to the locals. See how much is handed over then you know how much to give without having to ask first and being told twice the normal price. Most of these vendors on the trains are decent honest folk anyway who wont rip you off for a few extra Baht.
It was a really pleasant journey to take. The added bonus for us is that despite the signs saying you will be fined hefty amounts if caught smoking you can still go to the end of certain carriages to grab a quick smoke. Either follow what the locals do or in our case we just asked the policeman who pointed us in the right direction. It doesn't impose on anyone else either as your generally hanging out the side of the train anyway, passed the closed doors at the end of a carriage. I like how relaxed everything is.
As the sun headed down we wondered how to convert our two facing seats into bunk beds for the night. However we didn't have to wonder for too long though as the guard for our carriage soon appeared and methodically made his way down the carriage converting every set of seats into bunk beds. The guy was some kind of bed ninja, performing the transformation within seconds. Even able to take calls on his mobile as he nimbly performed the task at break neck speed with just one hand.
With our beds now sorted we settled in and watched a couple of films together in our cozy little curtained off den before getting our heads down for the night.
We both slept well, Dani on the lower bunk and me above. All of a sudden I was woken by Dani frantically shaking me to say we were at our stop.
Bleary eyed I jumped out of bed as quick as I could and checked out the window. It wasn't our stop at all! We still had another hour or so left until we reached the end of the line at the Malaysian border. I could have used that extra hours sleep given the lack of it the night before. But hey we were both awake now so we got ourselves sorted and our carriage guard had the bunks back to two seats within seconds.
The Thai/Malaysian border crossing is a train station at Padang Besar. You get off the train on the Thai side, go through their immigration then 10 yards round the corner you pass through Malaysian immigration and on to a Malay train. It only takes a matter of minutes and your sorted, nice and easy.
They Malay train from Padang Besar to Butterworth near Penang is a modern clean carriage a bit like our metros back home. I prefered the Thai train. It has a bit more character and also has toilets. Given the train to Butterworth takes over 3 hours and it was early morning, I really would have appreciated some toilet facilities! I crossed my legs and held on for dear life. Eventually around lunch time we rolled into Butterworth station in the baking hot sun.
Georgetown in Penang was our final destination for this leg of the trip and we had read up on the cheapest way to get there from the station. Penang is a large island not far from the mainland and we were originally going to catch the cheap public ferry across the water then grab a taxi or hop on a bus up to Georgetown.
As we were just about to head off for the ferry an old guy in his car (unmarked taxi!) asked where we were headed. He hadn't had a fare all day and offered to take us over the ridiculously long bridge and right to the door of our digs for the same price that we were going to pay to make our own way there. With our bags weighing us down and pouring with sweat in the mid-day sun we gratefully took him up on his offer. 20 minutes later we were outside our digs in Armenian street, Georgetown.
Before we left Bangkok we had emailed Narelle, the lady that owns and runs the LASSie animal shelter in Langkawi that we have volunteered at many times before. We were always going to go and see the dogs in Langkawi on this trip as well as a few friends that we now have on the island and Penang is on the way. It's an obvious place to stop off at to break the trip up.
Narelle also has dogs at a few of her properties in Penang that we have cared for in the past as well and she very kindly offered to put us up for a few nights at one of her places in Georgetown. It was nice for us to go and see the dogs there and get them out and about for a few walks while we were there.
The digs we were provided with were great. A nice rustic Heritage Malay house in the heart of Georgetown. Just a stones throw from all the wonderful food and art that this area is known for. We couldn't have asked for anything more and are extremely grateful to Narelle for her generous hospitality.
We have been to Penang before, a couple of times. It's a really vibrant area of Malaysia. Renowned for it's Heritage buildings, amazing variety of great food and art scene. We stayed there for 3 nights this time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Each day we would head out for some lunch. Usually amazing Indian or Chinese food. After a wander about and a bit of time cooling off under the aircon in our room we would then take the dogs out for a walk and spend some time with them before heading out for yet more gastronomical delights. We've certainly had worse days.
Come sundown we would head round to one of the best and most definitely the cheapest place in Penang to grab a drink........Antarabangsa Enterprise. Antarabangsa is a Chinese owned shop that has been running for a few generations. Antarabangsa literally translates as International and given the amount of both locals and travelers alike that frequent the place the name is certainly fitting.
It has to be one of the quirkiest and best places we have drank at during our travels. It's a small, cramped, scruffy run down looking shop that sells booze, nothing else, just booze. Booze of all descriptions and it is easily the cheapest and also one of the busiest places to drink in Penang. They have hundreds of plastic stools, tables and umbrellas that they drag out for people to sit at on a night. More people arrive, more stools magically appear from somewhere. This little boozer is fantastic.
We got to know a few folks during our few days there. A mix of locals, a guy from Jordan, an American girl. It's a great place to meet new people and have a craic on over a few beers.
We knew we were only staying for 3 nights as Narelle had a booking for the house we were staying in and we sorted our ferry tickets out to get us across to Langkawi. The ferry was an early start. Having to be at the jetty by 8am to make sure we didn't miss it.
We said we wouldn't drink the night before, but guess what? Yep that's right we were out again at Antarabangsa drinking and having a good craic on with the folks we had met. Once again we decided to give a place another good send off the night before leaving. One of these days we will wise up and go easy the night before traveling, but you only live once right?
