Get Ready to Ride the Orient Express!

Well...not quite, but close!  Lucian and I are hoping on the International Express sleeper train and making our way up north into Thailand (Bangkok, to be exact).  We have decided that we're ready to move on from Penang and Malaysia and our journey begins on Feb. 25th.  The ride is roughly 20 hours and we have an upper and lower bunk.  There will be customs just across the border and we will have to pack all of our belongings out of the train and go through immigration and customs, per usual.

Yesterday was a lazy day but we finally got around to riding the city bus around Georgetown, finding some food, exploring the historical park, and eventually taking a ferry ride to the mainland and then turning around and riding it back to Penang Island.  The ferry was rather small and there was a sitting area above and below was a single deck for the cars and many motorcycles making the crossing.  All in all, not all that different from riding the ferry in Seattle.

Today was spent making sure the Thai details were set in stone, which was not so easy.  After spending hours on the web last night, we finally found the information we were looking for.  Today, we went to the train station and bought tickets to leave the next day.  As we were walking away, overly satisfied with our purchase, we realized we may have overlooked one thing, a Thai entry visa.  Therefore we took the bus back our hostel because the Banana Guest House also doubles as a tourism office so we figured they would help us.  However, an overly eager gentleman tracked us down on our walk back and said he could help.  We both heard him say it would take him a 1/2 hour to process and a 1/2 hour to return with information.

We hopped back to our hostel, ecstatic about the news and grabbed our passports.  When we came back to the man, he said he would be happy to take us tomorrow and that the drive to the embassy takes a 1/2 hour then he would drive us back there adding another 1/2 hour.  We sighed...frustrated with our inability to translate.  We thanked the man and went back to the hostel.  Turns out, the tourism office here will process the visa, via the Thai embassy, and it takes 24 hours.  They snapped some bland pictures to attach to our visas, we filled out the appropriate forms, and *fingers crossed* we'll have a visa by 4 PM tomorrow.

We did, however, have to make the run back to the train station and have our tickets changed.  Another day in Penang won't hurt us, especially when we've discovered a 24-hour Indian restaurant down the street from us.  I could live off of the Tandori chicken and the naan is probably the best I've ever had. We look forward to it when we wake up and can't wait to go back even after we've cleaned our plates dry. Tomorrow, Lucian might rent a motorcycle and trek around the island and I will either hold onto him for dear life or explore another part of the city (I can see my mother trembeling in fear, imagining me on the back of a motorcycle).  All in all, I am VERY excited to get to Bangkok and will be excited to post updates when they become available

 

This is me feeding a monkey back at the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. So much fun!