Farewell To Paradise

Our final day today, in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, was spent as the previous days were; total relaxation! We’ve realised that in nineteen years of being together, we have never had such an extended period of doing practically nothing. Usually, when we’ve had a “beach holiday”, we’ve got restless after a couple of days and hired a car to go exploring but this hasn’t happened here. On Penang, there is the main town Georgetown, there is a funicular railway up to a tree-top suspended bridge on Penang Hill, there is a monkey beach; every time we considered doing any of these we thought about it for a second and then decided Naahhhhhhh!!!

So, in a nutshell, for the past few days we have:

1.Stopped in bed until the afternoon.

2.Watched the entire season 3 of Dexter

3.Gone to a beach café for lunch

4.Gone in the pool

5.Gone onto the main street to the night markets and the eating places

6.Watched the most spectacular nightly lightning storms we’ve ever seen from the balcony in the hotel (they were happening over the sea and lit the entire night sky up – even tried to get pictures of it until we realised the wisdom of being in a high place holding a metal tripod above our heads in an electrical storm!)

7.Repeat as above

The hotel has been possibly one of the best we have stayed in, and had nice touches such as free bottled water delivered each day, a free English newspaper each day and, best of all, the “cookie lady” who brought us a couple of free four inch cookies every night, wrapped in ribbon, which served as our breakfast the next morning! Another plus for the hotel was the ridiculously easy-to-crack internet system. The rates for internet usage were ridiculous, but we paid for an hour on the first day, my pc then blocked the automatic log off that should have happened after the hour expired and hey presto! Free unlimited internet for the rest of the week!!

We’ve really relaxed and loved Penang, but are now getting “twitchy” to get back onto the road. We’ve needed the break, and it’s recharged our batteries, but we cant wait to start ticking off places again, not least Australia in ten days time!

We go to Genting Highlands tomorrow, heading south again, which is a casino resort situated just outside Kuala Lumpur on a hilltop above cloud level. We originally had booked a flight back to Kuala Lumpur from Penang, but have found a much more cost effective coach journey to get us there. So, an early start tomorrow, and a five and a half hour bus journey to our next stop!