We hadn't really got on with Bangkok, so when Saturday came round so quick, it certainly wasn't a disappointment. We had a train booked for 3 o'clock that afternoon, so we had some time to kill in the morning before we had to leave. We had our usual toast for breakfast and made sure to scrape every last slither of Marmite out of the jar before we discarded it. While getting breakfast, Charlotte cooked up some tuna, sweet corn and pasta to take with us on the train. We filled up our handy plastic bowls that Donna had got us for the Trans-Siberian and we even froze some bottles of drinking water to keep them cool from the oppressive Bangkok heat. While sitting drinking our coffee after breakfast we were accosted by a rather loud American chap, who greeted us with "I just flew in!". "Well done you", I thought but I held my tongue and instead went through the normal pleasantries. Mercifully, the receptionist saved us by taking him to check in, so we made our escape to pack our bags and check out. We still had to wait downstairs afterwards for a couple of hours but it flew by while we watched the afore mentioned American making his way round every person staying in the hostel and greeting them with "I just flew in!". The time came and we left the hostel for our short, 5 minute walk to the train station. From previous experiences, we tend to get to train stations far too early and sit around for hours waiting for our train to start boarding. We got lucky with this one though, we got there just over an hour before departure but our train was ready and waiting for us on platform 5. We made our way to our carriage and we settled in to our seats, checking out the unorthodox sleeper train setup. Rather than cabins containing 4 beds, it was an open carriage, with bunk beds running down the length of it on either side. It was different but we were happy to give it a whirl. The hour flew by and the carriage was only half full by the time we slowly pulled out of Hua Lamphong Station. That didn't last for long however, we made regular stops through the suburbs of Bangkok and before we knew it, there wasn't a seat to be had. We passed the time by reading and watching the world go by until it was time to eat our cold pasta dinner and get some sleep before the Malaysian border crossing the next day. In order to go to sleep, we had to flag a carriage attendant down so he could make our beds for us. He had them made and our curtains up in the blink of an eye and we clambered into our cozy looking bunks for the night. If only the sleep quality was half as good as how they looked. We both had very limited sleep. Probably due to the very bumpy train ride, constant noise from an open carriage and the light from the carriage seeping in through the rather translucent curtain. The overall experience was still much better than sleeper trains we had been on in China though, so it wasn't too bad.
Sunday
With the morning came the border crossing from Thailand to Malaysia. The problem with an open carriage is that your bags are there for everyone to see and anyone could do anything to them while you sleep. The other problem was the that we were entering Malaysia, which carries the death penalty for smuggling drugs. I will just say now that neither of us are smuggling drugs, or anything for that matter, anywhere. We had a quick look at our bags, knowing they would be fine and they were, the border was smooth and easy. We got back on the train and continued on for a few more hours until we reached the final destination, Butterworth. We got off the train and headed for the ferry port, which runs between Butterworth and George Town, which was where we were headed, on Penang Island. The ferry only took about 15 minutes, and then we were off on the short walk to our hostel. We couldn't check in as we were too early, so we headed off down the road and found a gastro pub to have some lunch. Fish and Chips and Mushroom Soup later and we were back at the hostel, lugging our bags up some pitch black stairs to our tiny 4 bed dorm room. In previous places we had been guilty of arriving and not heading out straight away. We were conscious that we only had a day and a half to see the town, so we allowed ourselves half an hour to cool off and then headed back out into the late afternoon heat with our map in hand. We wandered through Little India, took some snaps with the clock tower in the centre of town and then wandered along George Town promenade. It was surprisingly busy with lots of locals sitting along the prom enjoying the cool sea breeze that was on offer. We didn't hang around long though and made our way past the cenotaph and through some quiet streets before stumbling across a random wrought iron sculpture bolted to the side of a building. It proudly claimed that this was where the world renowned shoe designer Jimmy Choo had started his apprenticeship. We took a photo and forgot about it when we found a number of souvenir shops dotted along a road. The first one we went in had exactly what we were after, pin badges with Penang written on them. The only problem was that they came in a pack of 5, along with ones that said Malaysia and featured pictures of Kuala Lumpur. We asked if they would just sell us the ones that said Penang but we were told they only come as the whole set. We said we'd think about it, hoping single ones would crop up as we wandered round town. The rest of the souvenir shops and stalls proved fruitless but we knew where we could get them if we were desperate and we still had the whole of Monday left, so we were positive. We turned left down a road and it was pretty clear we had entered China Town by the endless street food vendors and Chinese writing on the shops. It was getting dark at this point so we decided on a route back to the hostel and followed that pretty uneventfully. We paid a quick visit to the 7/11 just up the road from our hostel and noticed another one of those wrought iron sculptures attached to the side of it. This one explained about the area being popular with backpackers and depicted a traveller being offered a massage by a hotel receptionist. Again, we took a photo and didn't really think much of it, not knowing what an obsession they would become. After a short rest back in our room we found a place to eat of Tripadvisor and hunted it down not far from our hostel. Trying to stick with local cuisine I went for the Malaysian chicken curry, which wasn't that dissimilar from the Khmer chicken curry I had throughly enjoyed while in Cambodia. Charlotte plumped for a chicken and mushroom dish, despite the rather hefty price for a beer we both enjoyed our dinner. We tried Skyping the Hosie family when we got back from the restaurant but the Wifi was so bad all we really got was dalek noises coming from the speakers. Eventually, we gave up and headed for bed.
Monday
We didn't really have a plan for today and decided over our complimentary toast breakfast to just wing it and see what happened. Penang Hill seemed like a sensible destination, despite being an hour and a half away on a busy we walked to the tourist information centre to see what our options were. We got the nice and early and asked how to get to the hill, the man told us but then said that the funicular was closed at the moment, which gave us the impression it wasn't worth going at all. We picked up a fresh map here and left to see if that could give us any suggestions. We stood outside deliberating for a few minutes and the map gave us oor answer. The wrought iron sculptures. The map showed that there were 52 around town in total, giving information about where they were and what happened in the past. Well we had a spare day so decided that how we would spend our time. Our first stop was one by the port marked on our map as number 11. Before we got too far from the tourist information centre we decided to go back in and buy a natty pen to tick them off as we went. On our way out a pot that had 'pins' written on it caught our eye and it contained 2 pin badges with the flag and name of Penang on it. That tourist centre turned out to be a goldmine for us. Finally, we could start our trail around George Town, heading in the direction of number 11. Well boy did we look and look but we just couldn't find it. We started to worry that this would be the general rule and we would be giving up by our third attempt. We set of and tried to find our next one but at first that seemed to be a hopeless exercise too. We stood in the street looking for it for a short while before Charlotte noticed we were standing in the wrong road. We backed on ourselves and turned down an alleyway and there was the first sculpture we'd actually been looking for. We took a snap and set off with renewed motivation for our task. We rattled off 15 or so before stopping off at a cafe for an early lunch. Charlotte enjoyed her burger but my ramen noodles were nothing compared to the basin sized bowl we enjoyed so much in Tokyo. With lunch polished off we carried on our iron quest. We passed a few along the road we walked to our hostel on and were surprised we had missed them as they were fairly large. They took us to all corners of the town and we learnt a lot about the history of the area, what professions worked on which streets and about the 5 foot alleys built around town, so people could walk through them and avoid the searing tropical heat. Half way round our second stretch was the second one we couldn't find. As we approached where it should have been we could see there was a new building under construction, we deduced that it had been moved away while the building was constructed, although we still hunted high and low just incase we were being stupid. We marked it down as more than coincidence that it was number 13. Frustrated we finished off by doing about 25, then treated ourselves to a cold drink and a rest in our hostel, just to get out of the endless heat. By the time we headed out for the final stint, it had cooled slightly and the sculptures were situated so close together it took us less than an hour to rattle them all off and had everything ticked but the 2 we couldn't find. Now we deemed ourselves experts in what we were looking for, we decided to head back to the first one by the port to see if it genuinely wasn't there or was just us being stupid. Charlotte could see it before we even got close. Located up high on the side of a building, it was probably the largest one of the lot. We'd stood across from it earlier in the morning, scouring ground level, how we'd missed is beyond me. It meant that we had 51 of 52 but one definitely wasn't there for us to find. We had had a great day, saw loads of the town, learned a lot and considered it better than the hill would have been. On top of that, it was absolutely free! We plodded home and were hugely relieved to give our tired feet and sun ravaged skin a rest. We found another local restaurant for dinner, just up the road from our hostel. The Penang Curry I had was a slight let down but I think Charlotte really enjoyed her butter chicken.
All in all, it had been a worthwhile stop on our adventure. Any longer and we may well have been slightly bored but it was nice and quiet and a very walkable city. It would be off to the capital of Malaysia tomorrow, Kuala Lumpur.
James and Charlotte
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