Monday arrival in Cambodia By Katherine

After my dads persistent knock on the bedroom door, I hauled my self out of bed at 5:30am to be presented by a much needed cooked breakfast to fuel our flight to Kuala Lumpar and then onto Siem Reap.

To my surprise the plane was less than a quater full on both legs of the flights -- no wonder malaysian airlines are in trouble! Whilst Joseph and Ellie excitedly rushed to find programs to watch on the TV, I decided to catch up on my much missed beauty sleep. 

Disappointedly,  I was again awoken my my dad frantically flapping two visa forms in my face which took forever to complete. Once arriving in the airport we were yet again faced to fill in more forms which we did  quickly in an attempt to beat the queue at passports. 

Feeling Smug about out quick exit, we were met by a spaciousn mini bus that is to drive us around door the next few days (one of the pupils At Nics school has a relative who runs a tour company and he arranged this as a present) 

 We arrived at the hotel hot, hungry and thirsty. Dad, Ellie and Nic decided to walk to the local street stalls To buy some food whilst the rest of us got ready for a swim. After an intense game of piggy in the middle in the refreshingly cool pool, we decided to go to the centre in search for food in a tuk tuk  led my a motor bike. 

The town had a lovely joyful atmosphere with the friendly hasstle from locals adding to the excitement of being in a new country. We eventually chose one out of thoulands of places to eat on one of the quiter streets. Due to it being quite an eventful day; dad Joe and Ellie had a lush foot massage whist mum and I took picture and Nic explored a market. 

To cap the day of there was an electric storm and heavy rain just as we arrived back at the hotel.

Sunday - last full day in Penang

Up early for the girls last day in Penang after a 23 days and the end of our 4 day stay.

By 8.30 we were in the  Penang National Park in the N W  tip of the Island. We walked only 6 km or so through rain forest tracks that followed the coastline but it was amazingly hard work in 80% humidity.

On the walk we saw some colourful birds and an eagle as well as butterflies, spiders and monkeys.

The walk destination was a peninsula lighthouse which we climbed to the top of and were rewarded with great views and more importantly a refreshing breeze.

From there we retraced our steps, noting an insect eating pitcher plant on the way down to an area called Monkey Beach from where we caught a boat back to the National Park car park - as we got on the boat there was a brief heavy shower, the first rain we had seen, but it did clear the humid you slightly.

Then it was back to Nics to do some washing in preparation for packing for Cambodia and a refreshing swim in his pool.

In the evening we went out to a Hindu Temple of fine art which supports a number of street food and medical projects. Essentially they have a restaurant that serves dimple but delicious vegetarian Indian food and in return you pay as you see fit to support their work.

Then back to pack.

Up at 5.30 tomorrow we have booked a taxi to take us to the airport but it sounds scarily vague so I do hope it turns up and, if it does it is genuinely a mini bus taxi that can accommodate 6 of us!

Jim summarising Saturday

Little to add to Joseph's excellent summary.

Lest it all appears to be about food, a reminder that food is very cheap here and  many Malaysians eat out rather than cook.

Breakfast for us today therefore consisted of "street food" - we walked 10 mins down from Nics flat to an Indian run street kitchen where we hat various rotis (bit like chapatis) some with egg, some with cheese and some with banana. It all came with Dahl curry so in effect we all had a bit of curry for breakfast. Kids washed this down with freshly squeezed juice, and Liz and I sampled the local Teh Tariq which is essentially tea with condensed milk - actually quite refreshing.

Then it was a walk (uphill) back to the flat and a trip to a mall to experience a 3d IMAX movie which note of us had done before so was enjoyable.

The next task was to get som lunch (sushi) as stated by Joseph and we were amazed at his bravery in giving new tastes a go. The best thing was the gallons of Chinese green tea we rehydrated on.

Then there were further tasks of getting some flip flops for Joe and Liz ready for Cambodia and getting visa photos as will be needed for our Cambodian visa.

After a swim, we went off and got some street food - a bit pot luck some very nice, some never to be repeated tastes (especially some of the fruits we tasted)

Tomorrow we plan to go for what is likely to be a sweltering walk in the national park about an hours drive away.

Joseph summarising Saturday

 
    Today we had a look around in a mall, which believe it or not.. it was actually cold(ish)!

While me, Nic, Liz and Jim went to the cinema; Ellie and Katherine had there own little wander. When the film had finished, we walked by some massage chairs, we had a massage and went to another mall.

  In no time at all it was already 2:00. We were all starting to get a little bit peckish so we tried a sushi restaurant. Unfortunately they were full. We continued with our search for food and we then found another sushi restaurant. Thankfully, there was a place to sit here.

When we finally got home, me, Ellie and Katherine went and had a swim. When we got out of the pool we went to the flat had a drink of water. Then everyone wanted to go down to the pool! We all got ready and headed down to the pool. Eventually, we had to get out, otherwise we won't have eaten tonight! We went to an area where there were lots of kitchens together and you could order from anywhere you want. Liz had an extremely strange flavoured fruit salad. Jim had a noodle sturfry with vegetables, he was annoyed because he thought it came with rice, not noodles. Katherine and Ellie shared a mee suang noodle dish. I had a pizza margarita although here they call it Neopolitan and a coke.

Eid Mubarak in Penang

An early awakening from the mosque but we were so tired we continued to sleep until got 9am.

Then back onto the Grand Prix circuit and a race [drive] to Georgetown, the old colonial settlement.

Penang has expanded by more than 30% in both population and land mass and Georgetown was very much the same. We walked (or more accurately sweltered) through Little India, Chinatown and the commercial areas. Much was shut for Eid.

Nic had the bright idea of taking us to a chocolate museum (Malaysia grows 5% of the world cacao) not because we are that interested in chocolate production but because it was air conditioned and saved us from collapsing.

Lots of free samples of chocolate but we felt a bit bad about not buying any - but who wants Duran flavoured chocolate in 30 degree heat!

Then on for a another steaming stroll and arrival at an artisan restaurant where Joe ate...... spaghetti bologneise! And the rest of us rehydrated with pints and pints of water!

Then back to Nics for a swim in his pool (and a quick nap) before a planned outing to a night market for some more grub....


Photos to follow!

Arriving in Penang

Arrived safely in Penang and reunited with Ellie and Katherine following a slightly hairy car journey from the airport. Rule of the road appears to be simply about getting from A to B as fast as possible, made more hairy by being undercut and over cut by motor bikes.... Before of course the race stops at the next traffic lights. To help the Grand Prix feel at some traffic lights there is a countdown timer just to help the drivers and motorbikes get ready for a speedy start (to the next lights).

We wondered if Nic would be better off driving in a Mario Cart outfit!

It was great to meet up with the girls in Nics car park as they even volunteered to help carry our bags to Nics super snazzy apartment.

It's a 17th floor all mod cons apartment 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and an American fridge vital for keeping water cold as it's very very warm in Penang 30 degrees and high humidity.

E, K immediately took Joseph off for a swim.

After that we went out to a banana leaf restaurant which we had longed for as one of our best memories of Penang from when we were last here in 1993 was fabulous curries eaten directly off banana leaf instead of a plate. The roti was particularly delicious.

From then we were keen to sleep, and collapsed into bed knowing little else until woken by the mosque at 5am. It's Eid today so a public holiday.

There may be no photos until we return as we are taking photos on a camera and there is no obvious way therefore to upload on to the IPad where I am completing this blog

Next Stop Malaysia and Cambodia - getting there

Well after 5 months of planning the time for our next adventure is almost upon us.

Ellie and Katherine jumped on their planes and successfully negotiated changes in Dohar and Kuala Lumpar to arrive in Penang on 26 June and we are now packed and ready to join them

Our journey was probably the most relaxed travelling experience we have ever had involving air travel,  perhaps because there were just 3 of us not 5 and also because E and K had trail blazed the path and Nic had arranged to meet us at Penang airport.

Our next door neighbours are not only kind enough to feed the cat, but alo to give us a lift to Leeds station from where we took a train to Manchester Airport in good time for the flight to Qatar.

Our flight left bang on time at 20.05 arriving in Qatar 8 hours later, by which time J and L had watched  The Grand Budapest Hotel (highly recommended and worthy of its BAFTA) and J had caught up with Big Hero 6 and The Hobbit.

We arrived in Qatar at  the equivalent of 3am UK time, then had three hours in a semi awake state to wait until our onward fought to KL. Qatar airport is the poshest airport I have ever seen, a huge shopping plaza in the middle of the desert and as a demonstration of how cheap (immigrant) labour is, not a minute goes by without a cleaner passing by, every loo has a cleaner on perpetual duty (etc).

Then it was back on the next plane to KL a further 8 hours. This flight was pretty turbulent in places, especially over monsoon ravaged India , so the seatbelt sign was on for long periods but we were exhausted so slept most of the time, before watching The Theory of Everything  about Professor Stephen Hawkins (also highly recommended) and Joseph went back to his old favourite Harry Potter (for the 77th time!)

We arrived in KL feeling pretty awake at 8pm at night (local time) the equivalent of 1pm UK time so we were pretty wide awake. KL is another massive airport, concentrating on shopping so exiting the airport baggage reclaim and immigration is only reached through rows and rows of shops which is a bit frustrating if your plan (like ours) was to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Then it was a simple transfer to a cheap and cheerful airport hotel for the night as we arrived in too late for the last scheduled Penang flight.

A reasonable nights sleep as we were exhausted despite  going to bed at the equivalent of 4 pm and slept through till 8am local time (1pm UK time). The good news was that after a  basic hotel breakfast there was still  time for a refreshing swim in the Concorde Inn pool before catching the hotel shuttle to KLIA2 a separate airport terminal predominately for Air Asia. from there a 45 minute flight to Penang .

In  summary a pretty straightforward journey, but just long!