Out of Thailand and into Malaysia

We stood outside our lodgings bright and early the following morning - 7am as required by the bus company only to be picked up at 7.45! We headed off the island in a small mini van crammed full of people and sadly the air con was not brilliant. You have to go on two car ferries to get off both of the islands of Ko Lanta. We travelled to Trang and then onto Hat Yai before changing buses and heading over the border to Malaysia. Customs were very friendly on entering which makes a nice change.
On the journey we were sat next to an American guy who lived on Ko Lanta, and was engaged to a Thai girl. He was in the entrepreneurial business of selling surf wear that came from the companies factory as surplus so not copies, it was interesting to understand how the syhstem worked. There are no copyright laws in many Asian countries so copies are everywhere and very blatantly displayed, but he was selling authentic from the factories so a little like a back of the lorry job. But it seemed to do him well. Also he was a really nice guy and knew Salt Lake City really well and describe it with great enthusiasm making us feel excited to be moving there.

We then hit a huge traffic jam heading towards Penang, when we eventually passed the accident after crawling along for about 1.5 hrs, we saw that a lorry carrying coconuts had crashed spilling coconuts all over the road. So not only was the traffic slow because of all the debris on the road but also due to many drivers stopping and collecting coconuts!! I guess you've got to take what you can when it free!
We eventually arrived in Georgetown around 8pm after taking the ferry to Penang Island. We were in Chinatown and it seemed seedy. We found cheap accommodation down Love Lane (notorious for muggings and hookers - excellent!) but it was clean and the manager was super friendly and very amusing. He described the fish tank as the swimming pool!
We headed out to explore the neighbourhood and ate at a very busy street hawker (seller) market. We had noodles with prawns, it was cooked in front of us in the wok by an old mom and pop couple, it was tasty and filled a void. We were going to go for a beer but the prices were high and most of the places seemed ropey so we gave it a miss, headed back to our digs and took advantage of free Internet.
We woke the following morning around 10am after a much needed sleep. We got up slowly and decided to use the Internet again, I glanced at the clock on the computer seeing it was an hour fast and remember noticing this the night before. The clock on the wall matched the computer and then the penny dropped.. we had moved forward a timezone. Malaysia & Singapore are on the same time as Hong Kong, even though they are more west than Vietnam... we assume this is for business reasons but if anyone knows let us know. Anyhoo we lost an hour and I felt cheated, more because I wasn't expecting it. So now it was 11ish and we had decided to leave Penang. We could have gone to the other side of the Island where there are nice beaches and resorts but we didn't fancy extra travelling so headed off the Island to go to the mountains.
We caught the ferry and then went to find a bus. There was a direct one leaving at 2.30. So in about 1.20 mins, but we found one that went to Ipoh where we could change and that was leaving at 1.30 and took 2 hrs so we thought quicker! Hey they say don't believe everything you hear, it left at 2.20 and took 2.50hrs. So we are in Ipoh, have 20 ringgit (about 3.50 pounds) to our name and that was exactly how much the next bus cost and was leaving at 5.15. We hadn't eaten anything but fruit that day so were hungry so I ran to find an ATM, the only one I found didn't accept my card so we had nothing for the bus (arrrhh I hear you say). We thought we could make the 2 hr jounry however, but then the bus didn't leave until 6pm! Sometimes you just want German efficiency!
So off we headed to the mountains... Ryans love of his life... (after me! oh and skiing)