Well our time in George Town, Penang is coming to an end. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Butterworth (OMG I love these Malay names), then train to Chumphon in Thailand – 14 hours – arrive at 4.00am then have to find our way to the pier to be on the 7.00am ferry to Ko(h) Tao. Of course this is going to all proceed very smoothly because I don’t have to refer to a “map” (please refer to various previous blogs) I was going insert hyperlinks at this stage but I’ve had a few beers and can’t be shagged, and also I don’t know how to do it. But can’t be shagged was first. On the subject of few beers, went to the loo half way through (squatty – definitely not conducive to taking newspaper or book to read) but somehow 50% of a 100% (duh) managed to find it’s way into my bladder the moment I got up to leave, I mean seriously WTF? Other 50% went straight to my head – can’t piss it out – so it’s still there. Ohh hang on, does verbal diarrhoea count? Because in that case, welcome to today’s blog. Sorry, totally lost train of thought for a moment there, although clearly not as long as MH710 has been lost. Anyway. Have loved this island, very chilled people, food fantastic and, I’ve think I’ve gotten slightly fitter due to sprinting across the roads because that’s the only way to get across safely – thank goodness for car avoidance training in Wellington & Levin (I’d mention Waitarere & Foxton but there weren’t enough cars to warrant skills crossing the road). In Penang we once again hired a scooter (this is because bottoms do not have a brain and therefore no memory of previous scooter hiring experiences). We (I) had an itinerary mapped out of sights to see for the day. We saw one. But we did see lots of the island in trying to find that one. Yes, I had a map. And I am a very slow learner OK? To be fair this only took about an hour longer than it should’ve, and 375 U turns. Eventually we found the Snake Temple, first stop on itinerary, it was sort of underwhelming but had taken so damn long to find it, we went in anyway. Yay, there were snakes, they looked plastic so Big J touched one to check – they were not plastic. Having built up his courage from past good experiences with snake touching he decided to pat them, this was before we saw the sign saying don’t touch the snakes. I suggested caution as they had the triangle heads which warned of venomous bites, but he was well into his Snake Whisperer mode so ignored me. We went to room next door and had our photo taken with a large python (tame and non-venomous) then continued to the snake farm. There we learned the wisdom of my words, yes the snakes in the temple were venomous, and yes they would bite. Pretty sure he’ll stick to Cat Whispering going forward, as for a Maori he looked pretty white when told. Spent a fabulous evening eating chocolate & chips & drinking cheap whiskey in our room whilst watching Deadwood on the lappy with our new cheap speakers. Intrepid as bro! Today we decided to do a bit of walking and suss out some landmarks. I was most impressed to see a church that was actually beautiful, to hold on to that thought we then avoided all mosques, Chinese & Indian temples which generally leave the churches in their (metaphorical) dust. We went to the Museum, which was great, but when we came out the Rickshaw driver whom we’d passed a couple of words with earlier was waiting for us. Guilt trip successfully executed we got into the Rickshaw to go around the corner – with the weight of us both it would’ve been quicker to walk, but never mind, when in Rome and all that. Went to the Art Gallery with very little time before it closed – not an issue as it took approx 10 minutes to walk around the room (singular). Into our Rickshaw and onwards to Little India to try the chocolate (recurring theme?) roti we had spotted a couple of nights earlier. Nope, too early – really? How can it ever be early for chocolate? So we thought we cool down with a beer first then return for the roti. Well we had the beer. Hence this post.
karmacuzzies 