Penang Hill

This morning I met Kerrin at 10:30 outside my hostel and we walked to find a bus stop we had been told was on Union Street, outside a fancy church. We found Union Street no trouble, but there was no church. We asked a couple of people who have us varying directions and then set off down a street. We saw the number bus we want go past down the street so went to the nearest bus stop a couple of metres down the road. We weren't really sure which direction we wanted to go in but it turned out the side of the road we were on was the right side to be. The bus driver was quite grumpy and was getting stressed at us and others about the lack of small change we had, but eventually we were on the bus heading in the right direction. We chatted to an Australian couple on the bus who were also headed to Penang Hill.

After around 30-40 minutes we arrived at the last stop, which was the lower station of Penang Hill. Kerrin got a student ticket first and then gave me her student card to use, as student tickets were half the price. The ticket guy, who was the same guy that Kerrin got her ticket from, looked at the card for an awkwardly long time before sort of signing and giving me a student ticket. Then we got the train to the top. We sat at the back of the train on the way up, looking out the window at the view as we went. It was a short ride that offered us glimpses of the view we'd receive at the top.

When we got to the top we took pictures and wandered round looking at the view. From the top of the hill there was a really good view of Penang Island, although it was an tad hazy. After a while of admiring the view we got the train back down the hill and then wandered along the road to find food.

We reached a little food court type area and got some lunch. I had Wanton Noodles, which was very similar to the Wan Tan Mee soup I have last night,  only less broth. It was pretty nice. We sat for a while eating and discussing everything from politics to elephants, before heading back out to get the bus. As we started walking towards the station we saw the bus coming and hailed it down. We just so happened to be at a bus stop so it pulled up and on we got, back to Georgetown. We arrived back in Georgetown around half 3, heading to our separate hostels with plans to meet up for dinner, as Kerrin wanted a nap. I went back to the hostel and showered.

At around 6:30pm, Kerrin and I, along with an Irish girl called Tara went to the Red Garden food court, where I had dumpling and satay. Then we ventured out to a few bars. At one of the bars, we were sitting enjoying live music from a dude with an awesome afro and his guitar, when a whole load of people in army uniforms turned up at the bar we were army at and handcuffed three of the bar tenders, before leading them out. We were told they were immigration. Apparently it happens quite often. We felt bad for them arrested guys as they had been so nice to us and helped us escape from a creepy drunk dude earlier in the night. Tara got chatting to some Malaysian dudes who were up from Kuala Lumpur for work and they offered to take us for food. So the 3 of us, plus some dude who tagged along squeezed in the back of these guys car and they drove us to a food place that was still open at 1am for pork soup and rice, before they dropped us off back at our hostels. Now it's gone 3am and I have to get up in 3 hours. Tomorrow will not be fun.

(Sorry for the late posting, WiFi issues!)