We caught the bus at 8am, and that was an interesting surprise - it was the cheap bus for locals, and therefore had an engine, some seats and a driver who thought he was auditioning for "The Italian Job" bus drive in the Alps. Two hours of being thrown round mountain cornerson our way down to the flats of Ipoh was not a soothing way to travel.
We had originally booked to stay a night in Ipoh, but from people's descriptions and trouble getting a hotel room, it was pretty clear it was a one-horse town we were best avoiding. So after arriving at the bus station on the edge of town, we set about finding a connection to take us to the ferry terminal at Butterworth instead so that we could be on Penang by evening.
As usual, one of us looked after the bags (JP) and the other went to find tickets (me). I wandered into the bus terminal and looked a little bewildered, until a helpful chap by the door asked me where I was going and pointed out the right row of booths. As soon as he did, the four ticket agents all started shouting at me to come talk to them from behind their booths. I didn't know who to talk to and am not good with ticket touts at the best of times, but I randomly picked one and bought two tickets.
The agent told me the bus number so I collected JP, who'd been laughing his socks off at the ticketing process, and we went to find the bus. The agent wasn't kidding when she said it was a "super-VIP" bus - it was double-decker, with plush armchair seating, only three to a row max, with mock wooden styling on the arms. After the bus in the morning, it felt like we were in bus heaven!
The journey was only a couple of hours and then we were dumped unceremoniously on a nearby roundabout to the ferry terminal. Throughout Asia we've had things like this happen - you get somewhere you think it's all organised, only to find you have to roll with the punches as chaos reveals itself. Thankfully a lovely fellow passenger from our bus helped us to find the ferry in the terminal - you'd think that was easy, but a ferry can be a tricky thing to find.
The view over to Georgetown isn't so very impressive, but as ever, I do love to arrive new places, so here's the view of G-town as we arrived, all gleaming tower blocks. There's lots of investment in Penang especially for tourism and electronics/computing - JP tells me it is the Silicon Valley of Malaysia.
Once we arrived on land, we picked a taxi and headed for our digs, a B&B slightly out of town, in a residential area. We normally pick places in the centre of town, but this one had great reviews on Trip Advisor, and we never ignore the sage advice of TA reviews! We weren't disappointed - it is a really lovely house, now converted to two apartments, and as the owners are away on holiday for a week, we have the run of the place for our stay, as they don't usually book it out but took a chance on us :)
Once settled, we headed out to nearby Gurney Drive (see lovely arty photo by JP of nighttime view over bay) to find some dinner at another fab food court. JP is working through all the available food options and there are plenty of local specialities to keep him happy for the remaining week. Tonight's option was toufu, which is pick-your-own noodle soup, and he managed to spend RM 12.00 on it - to give you an idea, any normal dish is between RM 3-5, so he really outdid himself. In it were chinese sausage, fish balls (ick!), chicken balls, squid plus more, so it was value for money, just a bit grim for the veggie sitting opposite him. The things we do for love... more food tomorrow :)
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