Wandergaels: Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Bahru (Malaysia)

Getting to Penang

To save a few euro (being the money-conscience backpackers that we are), we decided to travel from Ko Samui island in Thailand to Penang (specifically Georgetown, which is an island that can be accessed from the mainland by road) by bus. So, after our few days in Ko Tao, and the morning after a great night at a beachside bar in Ko Tao with the two Irish girls we met on the first ferry we took to Ko Samui, we ferried ourselves back to Ko Samui for one more night (we got to enjoy more of the lovely grub in the food market near our hostel). The journey to Penang was probably the longest and most eventful day of travelling we’ve done so far. After rising at 5am to be collected from our hostel by a minibus, we were brought to a bus station near the ferry port, where we transferred to a large coach bus that drove straight onto the ferry. Because Koh Samui is so small, the journey from our hostel in Chaweng on the east coast of the island to the port on the west coast only took around 45 minutes. After a short search for our coach (with some other people headed our way – all the buses on the ferry park in a nearby car park once they drive off the ferry – it helps to remember what your bus and driver look like!) we hopped back onto the coach and headed for Surat Thani city on the Thailand mainland. The real fun began once we got into Surat Thani; we were the last two people left on the coach and were first dropped off at a petrol station just outside the town – all good. After that, we were picked up in a six-seater coach which brought us to a small office looking out onto a small backstreet somewhere in the city – not so good. After taking our bags out of the six-seater, we were met by a small round woman behind a desk in the office. She took our receipt for our Penang bus-ride and nonchalantly informed us that we needed to pay 2000 bhat (around €50) at the Malaysian border if we wanted to cross over. After we told her that we knew we didn’t need to pay anything at the border (we had checked), she told us that if we didn’t give her the money the driver would leave us stranded at the Malaysian border with no way to get to Georgetown. So, stuck in a small office off a dodgy backstreet in a city we had no clue of, we reluctantly decided it was best to pay and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we had no money on us at the time, but that was no problem for our new friends – I was scooted by one of their associates to a nearby ATM and back to the office as quick as a flash (the bus driver was waiting on us, apparently). Once we had our tickets (and our border ‘fee’ paid), we got back into the six-seater and brought to another so-called bus station, which was really just someone’s house with an open front onto the road. We sat in what was probably the sitting room of the house, which had an open front looking out onto the road, complete with a desk and chairs to make it look like a reception and waiting room. After about 20 minutes, we got into another minibus (complete with seat-shaking garage music pumping out of the speakers, as well as a really fidgety driver), where we were joined by an English couple that were living in Ko Phangan. They told us that nearly all first-timers busing from Ko Samui to Penang get scammed like we did, which gave us some sort of reassurance that we weren’t the only ones to get caught out. We eventually reached the Malaysian border, and we passed through easily (there were no queues), and after another few hours we eventually reached Georgetown. We gladly arrived at our hostel at around 10 pm after a short on-foot search along the street.

Georgetown, Penang

After arriving at our hostel on the first night, we dropped our bags off in our rooms and headed out to meet Noeleen (who kindly put us up in Singapore two months ago), who was luckily in Penang on work and staying in a hotel only five minutes up the road. We eventually collapsed into our beds at around 2 o’ clock that night and didn’t stir until 10 the next morning. We spent most of our first day in Georgetown finding our feet (i.e. doing nothing other than go to a nearby shopping centre for a gander at some very real-looking knock-offs), after which we headed back to the hostel for a not-so-nice pizza. The next morning we rented some bikes and went for a tour of the famous street-art around the town. Our little cycling excursion also included us getting completely lost and ending up on the side of the motorway out of the city. In the evening we went for a visit to a local market. The next day was the big day – Aisling’s 30^th birthday, of course – so we had a good day planned out. In the morning, we headed by public bus to Penang National Park, locarted in the north-west corner of Penang island. From the entrance of the park, we headed on a trek through a jungle to Teluk Duyung, also known as Monkey Beach due to the abundance of crab-eating macaques.

After around an hour on the beach, we headed back to the entrance of the park via the water on a taxi speedboat, and made our way back to our hostel on the local bus. That evening, we headed to an ‘Irish’ reggae bar (that’s right – you heard me) called O’ Marley’s, where we treated ourselves to some lasagnes (we like rice and noodles, but we were glad to get a break from them for one night). Despite the fact that the only Irish thing about O’ Marley’s was the ‘O’ in its name, the food was good and there was the added bonus that ladies drank for free, so Aisling had the extra birthday present of free gin and tonics for the night (I doubt that policy would last long in Ireland).

Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru

We took the hour-long flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur (with Malindo Air) and took the monorail to the main city area near our hostel, which was just beside China town and very near to a large shopping and food area called Central Market. We only had one full day in Kuala Lumpur so we headed out on foot. Among the places we visited were Chinatown, Little India, Masjid Jamek (one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur), and the KL music museum. We then headed to Johor Bahru by bus where we stayed with Tara, a friend of ours who is working there, for a couple of nights. Then, the three of us headed off to Borneo.