Sam vs. World: I heart Penang... and Langkawi is pretty nice too.

It turns out it is Raining Season in Malaysia.... again. And seven hours on a train to Butterworth confirmed that it does rain in Rainy Season, and the best seats in the carriage are rubbish when the roof leaks. Disappointingly it's not a terribly interesting journey unless you are a die-hard fan of Palm Oil, which I am not.

I am even less of a fan of badly partitioned rooms, and three drunk Poms with a tendency to spray fire extinguishers and throw hamburgers at ungodly hours of the morning.

However, I do love the combination of smog, traffic, random smells of gross and amazing in equal proportions, rundown chinese shop fronts and general chaos that is George Town. I also love the ornately decorated trishaws and their over-enthusiastic drivers, friendly locals and ordering some menu item previously unknown and getting something amazing.

Penang Style

I love that walking and gawking is for free but also ice cold 100plus which is not and short spurts of intensive air-con treatment, which are worth more than gold when it's that hot.

and it was hot!

I am also quite fond of using alarm-clocks. They can be handy when you need to wake up on time to catch a ferry at 8.30 on a Sunday morning. In fact I use two - one on my wristwatch and one on Brett's cell phone - just in case one doesn't work when it needs to. Sometimes I let Brett set the alarms for me. It's called trust.

8.11am: "Oh shit! We slept in! We're going to miss the ferry. Why didn't the alarm go off?"

There is nothing like a mass panic and a run with 17kg of bag on your back to get the juices flowing in the morning.

But we did make it, with a whole THREE minutes to spare.

Thankfully, too, otherwise Brett would have been blamed for me not laxing in our slightly lopsided beachside hut on Langkawi,