Before we found the white sands of Ferringhi Beach (seen below) we had a funny chapter worth mentioning after we hopped on a ferry over to Butterworth with no information to back up our clear conviction that this was the way to go to find the beach. As the boat approached land and the coast became clear we realised we were heading towards a glorified industrial estate where the main attraction seemed not to be a beach but a massive Shell Oil plant. Thankfully we saw the funny side of this and the giggles only continued when Nat uttered the now immortal line (to me at least) "Oh Shell. Are they the people who make shell suits". Pure class.
WE DID IT! See. A beach. Nothing to do now but swim, snooze, listen to tunes and read our books and that is just how we wanted it. Nat also found this huge butterfly which begins what will be a regular feature of the blog called " Big things we have found in different countries that we have visited so far and then taken photos of". Granted the name needs a little work but the size of the butterfly is impressive none the less.
A few days into our stay in Penang we had booked our flights over to Sumatra in Indonesia. This move may have been encouraged by the lack of interesting things to do aside from the beach or dodgy "Reggae" bars full of equally dodgy Gap Yearers and Americans. Alternately, it could have been due to the fact that our sleep was disturbed most nights by blood curdling screams coming through hostel walls for which "paper thin" would be a flattering description. Either way, we didn't feel unduly pressured into an extended stay or trying to immerse ourselves in the culture.
On our last night we had one last stab at trying to experience something approaching the real Penang, as futile as that may have seemed. During one bus trip back from the beach we had seen a food court full of locals so we set off from the horror hostel in search of something similar. Before long our stroll had brought us to a promising looking establishment with a wide variety of Malay and Asian Cuisine on offer so we optimistically took our seats. Unfortunately, not long after ordering our food we got treated to a the first of the cabaret acts of the evening, a club singer reeling off a medley of Beatles classics in a style that wouldn't have been out of place on Phoenix Nights. If you weren't sure at this point, let me reiterate, this was NOT the "Real Penang". This was a place where Chinese tourists polish off towers of beer and red faced English drunks leer wordlessly through sullen eyes at their suspiciously purchased looking partners. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse we were forced to endure an awful girl band murdering a selection of tunes and dancing like amphetamine addled mannequins. Nothing like a misadventure ey?
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