Arrived in Malaysia

We hadn’t planned on staying in Krabi since the islands off the coast, Phi Phi, were closed due to a storm. Instead, we bought tickets for 500 Baht each to Malaysia, specifically to Penang, which is an island way up in the northwest. When we booked the trip, we got a bunch of different estimates on how long it would take. The time varied anywhere from 5 to 9 hours. When it was time to leave, a minibus came to pick us up. We thought it would take us all the way to Penang, but at the border town of Hat Yai, a new bus was waiting to take us the rest of the way. At the border crossing, we had to get off the bus, take our luggage, fill out forms, and walk across the border. On the Thai side, the checks were pretty straightforward, but on the Malaysian side, we had to fill out three forms and get our bags through the x-ray. At one point, we considered splitting the long journey to Penang into two parts since we had been traveling almost non-stop for two days, but we ultimately decided to tackle the whole stretch in one go. When we arrived in the Malaysian town of Butterworth, we had to take a ferry across a river to get to Penang. The biggest city on the island is called George Town, and it seems to be a wealthier place. In fact, Malaysia feels a bit more modern than Thailand. For example, the edges of the roads are lined with flowers all the way. The temperature feels a little cooler in Malaysia. We had the taxi drop us off in a backpacker area, where a bunch of eager Malaysians were ready to sell us either cheap or expensive rooms. We went to check out one of the cheaper hotels, but it felt too sketchy—bars on the windows and small, dirty rooms. We opted for the Oriental Hotel at 69 Ram per night. Right next to our hotel is a Brazilian eatery where we had dinner. It’s so nice to be in Malaysia since everyone speaks much better English here. We don’t have to explain ourselves multiple times while using a bit of charades!