From Bangkok we took a sleeper train straight down through to Butterworth in Malaysia. Compared to India the train was much cleaner and the sleeper beds were locked up until a man came round and lowered them, he then made the beds with fresh linen and provided pillows and blankets. All sounds lovely but if you are tall or infact just an average height for the uk then you might be cramped as the beds are only short, I had no problem! you do get a curtain to pull across you so more private and feels more secure than the Indian sleepers but we had the worst nights sleep because they kept the lights on all night and being on a top bunk it is right in your face.

Crossing from Thailand into Malaysia we expected the landscape to look pretty much the same but its quite different, the usual lushious flora but dramatic hills gave it a very different feel.

The  boarder crossing was quick and easy, the train has a scheduled 40min stop here but it is simply a matter of going into the immigration office on the platform station, quick bag check and a stamp and you’re back on the train.

We caught a ferry over to Penang which cost about 20p and doesn’t take long. We were both surprised by the size and skyline of Penang, even though I have been here before 7 years ago with the girls from Uni we flew in and in my mind it was a small island which is what I’d also told Sam, it is nothing of the sort. McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC signs meet you when you arrive, not really what we were looking for but we asked a taxi driver where the best place to head for cheap accomodation was and he suggested Batu Ferranghi. We caught a bus which took 1hr 20mins and again cost 20p, can’t remember the number but there are no worries here because everyone’s English is impeccable. At Batu Ferranghi we passed big hotel after another clearly a suitcase traveller destination but a local food seller pointed us down a street which led right to the beach and there are a few guest houses down there all at about 35Rm (approx £6.50). We decided on Shalini’s Guest House, a home from home it states and that’s exactly how we felt here. We had a nice clean room with air conditioning pure luxury for us! The owner is a lovely man and you can join him and his family watching tv or help yourself to making a brew in the kitchen.

The beach was nice and lined with bars and restaurants but take lots of money if you fancy a beer, a small can of the cheapest lager will set you back about 7.5 Rm (approx £1.30)! The area around here is all geared for tourists with street vendors selling exactly the same items as in Thailand but charging 2 or 3 times more, jet skies off the beach and fancy restaurants charging uk prices. But we kept it cheap by eating in local places where you help yourself to a selection of pre-cooked dishes, all very nice and a good choice such as catfish, stingray, chicken, veg and noodle dishes.

A good place to visit is the National park which wasn’t there last time I was here. We caught a bus to the fishing village 20p again! The national park is free but you do need to sign in before entering and tell them roughly where you are heading and return your ticket on leaving. There are trails to turtle beach where at the right time of year the turtles come to lay their eggs and also to a place called monkey beach where I had been before and we were swaped by the monkeys when we arrived by boat so we headed there.

The trail starts off a clear path but after an hour or so it is more like jungle and mosquitoes are a problem, worth it though because if you watch the shore line as you’re walking you can see monitor lizards in the sea and even sit next to them on one of the many little beaches you come across on the way. We stopped to watch little monkeys playing a game of pushing each other off the branches or biting each others tails until they fell into a stream, we’d never seen a monkey swim before I think we could’ve stayed and watched them all day really cool and they didn’t mind us being there.

We’d been on Penang 2 days and decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of red wine surprisingly only £5, and we sat on the balcony and watched the sunset. Already there was a lovely man called Wilf, he’d already had a couple of drinks before our arrival but we stayed up and chatted with him all evening and he has invited us to stay at his house in Malaysia, an offer which we gladly accepted. His wife Maggie, lives in Darwin and he bsaid he will also contact her and tell her about us, she will help us out he said after all she’s English and we’re a couple of pommes starting out how can she refuse! Wilf talked to us about an idyllic island called Ko Lipe very close to Langkawi which was our next port of call, water like gin he said so the very next morning we left and caught a ferry to Langkawi.