Big tropical raindrops
We did find somewhere to stay, eventually, which allowed us to get down to the important Bangkok task of eating lots of Thai food.
But we couldn't stay long - we bought tickets for our last overnight train of the trip - from Bangkok (Hualampong) to Butterworth in Malaysia where there was more eating to do. We discovered that Thai trains are the most comfortable and roomy of all. We also discovered, in Hualampong station, a friend, Ram who we'd met in Ulan Bator and who was one of our companions for our Mongolian road trip. We'd last seen him in Beijing shivering under a beanie in the barely heated Leo Hostel telling everyone what a great and warm travel destination his home of Malaysia is. He invited us to stay with his cousin's family which was a lovely change from our usual accommodation.
After Butterworth, we stayed in Georgetown, Penang for a couple of days wandering around the crumbling colonial streets, dodging rain storms and drinking iced tea by the bucketload. We discovered that Mandarin is widely spoken among the Chinese population there, which would have been really useful if we'd bothered to learn any ourselves.
We took the funicular to the top of Penang Hill (800m or so) where there was a huge tropical rain shower occurring. We waited out the storm in a cafe which sold iced tea for about 20p, then went for a walk in the jungle and watched a family of wild monkeys going about their business in the canopy above.
The next day we took the most luxurious bus in the world to KL where we were meeting Ram again. Our guidebook (actually his guidebook) advised taking a blanket on the bus, as passengers are considered to be perishable goods in need of refrigeration - it was true. In KL there was a huge tropical rain shower occurring. We waited out the storm in a Starbucks which sold us tea for much more than 20p.
But we couldn't stay long - we bought tickets for our last overnight train of the trip - from Bangkok (Hualampong) to Butterworth in Malaysia where there was more eating to do. We discovered that Thai trains are the most comfortable and roomy of all. We also discovered, in Hualampong station, a friend, Ram who we'd met in Ulan Bator and who was one of our companions for our Mongolian road trip. We'd last seen him in Beijing shivering under a beanie in the barely heated Leo Hostel telling everyone what a great and warm travel destination his home of Malaysia is. He invited us to stay with his cousin's family which was a lovely change from our usual accommodation.
After Butterworth, we stayed in Georgetown, Penang for a couple of days wandering around the crumbling colonial streets, dodging rain storms and drinking iced tea by the bucketload. We discovered that Mandarin is widely spoken among the Chinese population there, which would have been really useful if we'd bothered to learn any ourselves.
We took the funicular to the top of Penang Hill (800m or so) where there was a huge tropical rain shower occurring. We waited out the storm in a cafe which sold iced tea for about 20p, then went for a walk in the jungle and watched a family of wild monkeys going about their business in the canopy above.
The next day we took the most luxurious bus in the world to KL where we were meeting Ram again. Our guidebook (actually his guidebook) advised taking a blanket on the bus, as passengers are considered to be perishable goods in need of refrigeration - it was true. In KL there was a huge tropical rain shower occurring. We waited out the storm in a Starbucks which sold us tea for much more than 20p.
posted by Wednesdays at 9:11 PM
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