Bob & Janette's Travel Adventures

Flight details:

 Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur AirAsiaX Flt D72703

Depart Sunday 16Mar08 2135hrs arrive KLIA Monday 17Mar08 0405hrs

 Kuala Lumpur to Penang AirAsia Flt AK6312

Depart Monday 17Mar08 0655hrs arrive Penang Monday 17Mar08 0745hrs

Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast AirAsiaX Flt D72702

Depart Wednesday 3Apr08 2140hrs arrive Gold Coast Thursday 0740hrs

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Penang

Our 8 hour AirAsiaX flight saw us arriving into KL on time, and shortly after we hopped on to our flight to Penang.  We grabbed a few rotis for breakfast at the airport and then headed off to Georgetown for a few days to rest up.  Here we stayed in a charming old restored residence called "Hutton Lodge", right off  Penang Road and central to everything.

Georgetown has not changed much in the past 10 years since I had been there but development in the surrounding areas certainly has  gone ahead.  After a few days of sight seeing and acclimatising we gave our good friends Jeff & Dorothy a call.  As things turned out Jeff had to do a rushed trip up to Thailand so within a few hours we were picked up and heading North to the Thai border and then on to Haadyai.  Jeff's nephew Adirek is a Vet who lives in Haadyai and arrangements had been made for us to stay with him for a few days.

 

Hat Yai - Songkhla - Nakhon Si  Thammarat

We used Haadyai as our base for about a week and thanks to Adirek we got to see quite a lot of the countryside.  Not far from Adirek's house on top of a hill stands a magnificent Buddhist temple made entirely of stainless steel.  Unfortunately we didn't get the name of this temple and "Google" searches have proved fruitless in gaining more info on this wonderful sight.  If your in the area search it out as it is worth the visit, especially at night when it is glowing in all it's glory from the lights and reflections.

Another adventure saw us heading further North to visit Adirek's parents and to witness his  young nephew become a Samanera (novice monk).  If his nephew then chooses to follow that path, after sufficient training (and attaining 20yrs of age) he can take his full ordination as a monk.  During his ordaining he would get asked......(1) Are you free from disease? (2) Are you a human being? (3) Are you a man? (4) Are you a free man? (5) Are you free from debt? (6) Do you have any obligations to the king? (7) Do you have your parents' permission? (8) Are you at least twenty years of age? (9) Do you have your bowl and robe? (10) What is your name? (11) What is your teacher's name? If he then answers these questions satisfactorily, he then requests higher ordination three times and if no one raises any objections, he is considered a monk.

Butterworth/Penang

After our week in Thailand we caught a minivan back  down to Butterworth where Jeffery and his wife Dorothy were gracious enough to look after us.  The plan was to sty for just a few days however with an offer to do a Hash run on the Monday night we just had to extend our stay.  This also gave us a chance to catch up with our good friend Terry and have a few drinks with the "birthday boy"

One thing that we wanted to see whilst in Malaysia were the Orang-utans so we took a ride to Bukit Merah about 150Ks south of Penang.  Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to get up and close to the babies as they were all behind glass in a hospital environment. 

 

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Kuala Lumpur

We caught a coach from Penang to KL rather than flying back so that we could see a little of the countryside.  It was a very relaxing 4 hour trip with a comfort stop half way all for about AU$8.00 per seat.  Within a few minutes of being dropped off in town we were settled into our hotel right in Chinatown.  Walk out our front door and straight into the main shopping mall..... Perfect.

Shopping aside we didn't have many plans for KL.  We ventured to the Petronas Towers one day but they were closed for viewing.  We returned that night to have a look and found people scrambling everywhere.  BOMB SCARE....yep, police, fire brigade, bomb disposal robot, the works.  Luckily enough it was just an unattended bag that someone had forgotten.

Next day we lined up at 7am to get our free tickets to to the skywalk in the towers.  Our tour was scheduled for late afternoon and all the fuss was certainly worth it.  A very impressive building.

Once again AirAsia proved to be a dependable airline and our return flight left on time.  I'm sure that with future flights already booked and planned that we will run out of luck soon.

Stand by for our next report as Cambodia is booked for a few weeks after our return to Oz.