On the right track
The pair of us woke up at 9am today as we were catching a train to Penang. Last night we’d had a clear out of our bags, and left quite a few things behind that we didn’t need. We didn’t want to dispose of anything, so we left it in the room, in the hopes that someone could make use of them. After we got ready, we checked out and planned to go for breakfast at the café. However, we realised that the train we needed was at 10:25, otherwise the next one was 12:25. We used this website to see the timetable for the trains, pretty handy! As a backup plan, we nipped into 7/11 to grab some breakfast, such as croissant and other pastries.
The train station was the same one we arrived at, so it was only a 5-minute walk. We bought our tickets at the station (which was very simple) and awaited our train to Penang. It wasn’t long until our train, once it arrived, we promptly boarded so we got good seats. I was aware that this was a week day, and thus people would be commuting, but we were at the starting point, so had plenty of seats to choose from. The train was nice and tidy, plus it had aircon which really helped. I got my croissant out to eat, and Mat said the woman next to me was horrified that I had food on the train…apparently it was a no go! The train to Penang lasted about 2 hours, and most of that time was spent playing on my phone.
Bemusing names
After 2 hours, we got off the train in Butterworth. Some of these names in Malaysia really throw me off. Padang Besar fits the bill, but Butterworth? It sounds like an overly stereotypical British butler’s name. Whenever Mat or I say it, we say it in a posh English accent, as if calling the butler. We went to the nearby shopping centre that the train stopped off at. The pair of us got lunch here; there was a food hall, with many different stalls doing their own menus. It was actually delicious, something I translated and told the girl who served me. I think she was a bit spun out when I said it in Malay. As we were leaving, we snapped up a few cookies from Subway, a taste of home.
Once we’d finished up here, we walked to the ferry which would take us to George Town (again with the colonial English names), the capital of the Penang region. Once we’d boarded the ferry and it set sail, it was only a short trip across, you can see the city in detail from the opposite side of the body of water. The ferry only cost 1.20 Ringgit, around 20p! Once we’d disembarked the ferry, we had a 15-minute walk to the hostel. The streets were quite busy, but I liked the architecture. There’s a mixture of Malaysia, Indian, and English influence here.
Exploring the city
We were staying in Angmoh hostel, quite in the centre of the city, near all the shops and restaurants. It’s very backpacker oriented with good facilities, and the dorms are nice and cool. Once checked in, we chilled for an hour or so, whilst doing recon on Google Maps. Nearby, I saw Little India on the map, so we headed out and walked through this area. Despite walking through the centre of it (according to the map), it looked pretty much the same as the rest of the city so far.
We did quite a lot of exploration, and were walking towards a particular shopping centre. Our walk took us through more residential estates and business areas, closer to the outskirts of George Town. After what seemed like an age, we made it to the shopping centre. It was pretty huge and had 8 floors, not what I was expecting here. As per usual, we explored every corner of the place. I was looking out for some socks, as my most recent ones are not up to the job. I struck gold when I came across ‘Sox World’, an entire shop dedicated to socks. There was a lot of deliberation, but I picked some out, and they were an absolute treat.
We then had some food in the food court which contained a large variety of different foods. As it was about an hour’s walk home, we decided to get a taxi back to the hostel and turn in for the night.
