A note for anyone trying to save a few bucks on a flight by catching an extra flight: take into account how easily you can get to the airport. It was 3 days into our time in KL and we booked our tickets to Penang. 7:20am flight? Hellz yeah for a 40 dollars savings! As the night before approached, we realized that to make it to the airport in time, we would have to get up at 3:30am, cab to to train station and catch the first train to the airport. Goodbye sleep! I literally felt like I took a long nap that night rather than a full sleep. It really sucks but to put it in perspective, $40 could be accommodations for 3 nights, or meals for a week, or beer for you and your buddies for a night haha. So I suppose it was worth the early evening. For more about the train between KL and KLIA/LCCT (the 2 airports) check out the travel notes on the KL Post.
Come 9am, we touch down in Penang’s airport. Its a long ride to our hostel in the heart of Chinatown, where Claire has been staying for the past 2 nights. The Reggae Love hostel is located in a backpacker district where there are tons of hostels built into old heritage buildings. The weather is hot but not overly humid. It actually felt like a nice hot day in Vancouver. It was a long trek to our hostel from the bus station and the streets are kinda windy so we got lost a few times. We’re absolutely drenched in sweat by the time we arrive.
For the rest of the afternoon, Sam and Mandeep nap in the semi-private dorms, while I sit on the patio and soak in the sun. They’re staying in SEA to go to Thailand and Cambodia after but this is my last stop. I want to soak in all the sun that I can.
That evening we head off to the Red Garden night market for some grub. The food here is great and you will not be disappointed at the selection. Not the cheapest but still pretty decently priced. We meet up with Clair and her new roommates, Mai and Caroline from Denmark and Alice from the UK. Back at the hostel all of us sit together getting boozed and playing drinking games. Its amazing the camaraderie travelers can have towards people they’ve just met. We meet a few others (A German dude named Henning, which we all thought was too complicated a name for our drunk minds, so we started calling him Hans…) and a staff member who seemed to enjoy straddling the line between male and female. We ended up at a bar that night and it was an absolute blast!
There was talk of a great beach called Batu Ferringi and our plan was to check it out. After a 45 minute bus ride (what’s with Penang and having everything so spaced out!?) we finally arrive. Unfortunately, I am way too hungover to enjoy the beach and I end up sleeping for most of the day. I do manage to catch the sunset after dinner that day and let me tell you, amazing. The colours we caught on camera were nothing short of beautiful.
I’ve just a few short days left in Asia and I’m already feeling that bittersweet feeling of having to leave.
