23/05/2009 - 27/05/2009 Penang

23/05/2009
So bus left an hour late, we stopped at a realldodgy looking place en-route.. stopped for diesel again while full of passengers and engine running, seems to be the normal thing over here.. went thru a couple of roads blocks, one of them plain clothed police came on looking for a fugitive, all good fun..
Arrived at the long distance bus station and shared a cab to Georgetown with a couple of girls, we fixed a price but the guy still tried to squeeze us for 2 drops as agreed, he got nothing, I swear I'm gonna slap one of these f*ckers soon...
Arrive at the Hutton Lodge, was lovely.. we had shared bathroom but it was so clean that you didn't really notice, was lush and cost 60RM, nice staff and TV where I could watch F1 and last day of the Premiership tomorrow...
They have a guy who does a Thai visa service so we arranged that for Monday
We had a wander round near to the hotel, had beer for a change at D'joint watched the grand Prix qualifiers Monaco, Button pole, Lewis crashed out, had food at the Red Garden Food stalls, was really good, BBQ Butter Prawns, Thai bit, veg, Satay... excellent.. they had some singers on, was hilarious..

24/05/2009
Good nights sleep..
Went to get photos for our Visa with Stephen and the 2 girls Bianca and Mand who were getting there's too, it was a proper photo studio place, we got 12 done and a CD.. there is an excellent free bus in Penang round the main parts of the city, don't get any cabs!! while they were being developed Stephen took us on a mini tour then when we had all the photos he got us to the 101 bus, the 4 of us went to watch the International dragon boat racing, he hadn't told us how far it was, took about 3/4 hour then we had to walk on what must have been the hottest most humid day on record up to the lake, its fomed by a damned river... we watched the first race fter a water stop, met some Ozzy guys who were over for 5 days from Perth, its only 5 hours for them.. her mate goes to Bali on a days shopping from Perth apparently, its only 2 and half hours, lucky buggers..
we headed back after the first race, we weren't all that interested in seeing more of the same...
Went for a pint, then back to hotel, I watched the F1 then the football.. I loved it.. nic stayed up til about 10, she didn't do too bad... I waited for the Liverpool goals after the game and went to bed at about 0130... the guy I was chatting to was a Spurs supporter which made it sweeter, 3 - 1, who cares if Keene scored against us..

25/05/2008 - Our Anniversary
Had to go with Stephen with our 4 Passports on the back of his moped, I don't think this was part of the service, was funny tho, I had to pretend to be the girls uncle.. hee hee
I had to go back with him in the afternoon so me and Nic just went for lunch and a coffee close by, all very un-romantic.. then I had to go back and get the passports..
For some silly reason we had arranged to go to the big night market with Stephen and the Girls, left at 6pm on the free bus, went into a couple of Chinese family Jetty's they live all together, a bit like the Malay long houses but obviously not exactly, we saw the Chew's and Li's, went into one of the houses as it was a relative of Stephens, shews had there own Temple on their's.. wandered down to the market had a couple of Satyays and a sweet corn and got the bus back... we intended to go back out but we weren't all that hungry so se cracked open the bottle of Pirates 24RM Rum and ended up sitting there and drinking the whole bottle with diet pepsi, we had a good laugh, met a few other people and got very drunk, there are few good pics to go up of all that...

26/05/2009
Had a proper look round Geogretown, got the free bus about... had lunch in Little India at Sri Ananda Bahwan, vegetarian place, North India special Thali was lush... walked thru and had a coffee at same place as the day before, nice to have proper brewed coffee... we walked past the Eastern and Orient hotel and then stopped on the way at bar Thirty-Two which has a little beach terrace, we had a quick drink at happy hour, I had beer, Nic Mohito... we wlked back past a place we were thinking about going for tea, Local Peneng cooking is Nonya so we thought maybe we should try on our last night... we didn't in the end but it looked good...
walked down the hotel, got cleaned up, went down to Red Garden again, at least we knew what the score was down there, we had Dim Sum then Nic had Chicken Curry in bread and I had the set BBQ pork, rice veg and soup.. we well over ate after such a good day yesterday... there were lots of older couples about at tables just drinking water, seemed a bit strange until later on when the Ballroom dancing started, was really good, the old folks loved it..
we walked back and I got a little bottle of Brandy, what an alcy, was about 3 larges ones wort, was about the same as one beer at the hotel, was just ecomomising I told myself.. Nic went to bed I finished me bottle chatting to the Manchester guys with the 3 year old who had been out and bought the same maharaja cheap Brandy, think we had started a bit of a trend there...

27/05/2009
0830 shuttle bus to Hat Yai in Thailand - hopefully we can decide our route thru Thailand from there...