Snake temple

Yesterday I visited the notorious snake temple of Penang. Now, when I think of a snake temple, I think of an Indiana Jones -type of snake temple crawling with reptiles. So understandably I was somewhat underwhelmed by the seven sleeping snakes in an otherwise just a normal buddhist temple. In my opinion not worth the 45 minute busride. Or it would have been 45 minutes should the driver actually have kept his word and told me where to get off and not drive me up all the way to the airport... Well, everything worked out after a while and it only took like 30 extra minutes. Thankfully the weather was too nice for me to be able to stress about such things. I would have to kill some time anyways as my train was leaving at 9pm. Sadly it is Ramadan, so the awesome-looking food fair in Georgetown opened after the last ferry to Butterworth left so I had to settle for some generic indian food in the Little India. Rice was cold, chicken korma not very tasty but at least the naan was top-notch. And all that and a pepsi for a bit under 10 RM or 2 euros is still quite bearable.

The train was quite nice (40RM, upper bed in sleeper car) but as can be mathematically proven, a 181cm person cannot really sleep comfortably in a 180cm long bed. Especially if he has to have his backpack in there as well.

So at 5am when I arrived to KL, I was actually kind of happy that I was travelling alone and being able to just go and sleep in the departure hall for 3-4 hours more without having a well-rested travel partner with me. After the extra sleep (and a latte from Starbucks) I was set to find some accommodation. Walking towards chinatown and after checking out some places I got a room that was actually even smaller than the one in Bangkok. But it didn't smell funny and there were no bed bugs (at Oasis Guesthouse, 20RM single room) so I was kind of happy with the hostel. Still feeling like just running around (or how does 4 countries and 3 capitals within one week sound?) so hopefully my stay in Indonesia will bring the pace down a little bit. I've heard that Toba is perfect for relaxing. :)

Tomorrow morning to the airport and a flight to Medan. Now to see if I can find some suspect meat on a stick from some chinese food cart.