Time
to head north – and to leave Malaysia for Thailand. After spending so
long in other countries – 3 months in Oz, a month in the States, Canada
and New Zealand – it seems odd to be leaving Malaysia after just less
than two weeks. However, we have spent over 2 months in Malaysia before,
and this trip was mainly for the girls to get a feel for it, and to see
some of the things we remembered from last time. It has been great to
visit – the food especially is a highlight of Malaysia, because of the
many different types available. The other main memory will be the backstreets
of Georgetown, with all of the Chinese shops and houses squeezed together,
with barely enough space to live in. Because of the open nature of the
house-fronts, its easy to see how sparsely furnished their houses are,
and how many people are packed into a small space. This was especially
true down one of the narrow alleys lined by shanty huts, where whole families
lived their lives in a space the size of our spare room at home.
We
caught the afternoon sleeper train to Bangkok – although it is a 22 hour
journey, we always prefer to travel by train, as there's normally more
space and freedom to move around, and you see more of life drifting past
the window. The girls were looking forward to the 'sleeper' moment, where
the railway staff convert the seats to beds, and we all settle down for
the night. But as you can see in the photo, it turned into a 'non-sleeper'
train, as they were so excited by it all that they couldn't get to sleep.
No surprise there then! Eventually, by 10 o'clock, they were sleeping
soundly and we were all tucked up in our blankets, trying to escape the
icy blast of the air conditioning.