Perhentian islands - Penang - Medan, Sumatra

20.6- we had a bit of a lie in then spent an hour or so on the beach before it was time to pack up and get on the 12 O'clock speedboat back to the mainland. When we arrived in Kuala Besut we had a taxi driver latch on to us, despite us not wanting to leave for the airport for another 2 hours... He then proceeded to follow us and watch us eat lunch for the next few hours. We eventually took pity on him and got in his taxi to the airport in Kota Bharu. It was a short 55minute flight and we got served a snack and drink in the little propeller plane, with a catchy airline song to complete the experience. Top marks for firefly! We got the public bus into Georgetown, found a decent pod dorm hostel and went for a late 10.30pm dinner at a Chinese cafe. We had a couple of drinks on the lively street of Love Lane with a bit of live music. 

21.6- after breakfast in the hostel we got the free shuttle bus into the centre of Georgetown and spent the morning wandering around the markets in the jetties and finding street art around lots of the streets. 

We stopped for lunch at the esplanade street food market, but unfortunately most of the stalls were closed due to Ramadan. Josh and I had Hainenese veg and rice while Lizzie had some unknown tofu and noodle dish. 

I then went to find an Internet cafe to have a quick FaceTime job interview, while L and J went to the Wonderfood museum, which involved a lot of plastic food models and picture taking. After that we got the shuttle back across town and went to the 3D glow in the dark museum, which was totally random and involved a lot more hilarious photos. 

We went to a nearby street food market for dinner and had a duck and rice dish (Fried tofu and prawn cake thing for Josh) and some weird peanut rice cake dumpling for dessert. Then we sat and people watched at some bars with a few nice cocktails, it felt like we had made the most of the day! 

22.6- first up was a walking tour of Georgetown, which was really interesting and event better because it was free! 

Next we tried another street food court (Penang is very foodie!)- dim sum for Lizzie and Josh, nasi lemak for me (a bit on the spicy side!) and then some weird sweet rice and sweet dim sum for dessert! 

We wandered a bit more and then went to a very random cat cafe. Mixed thoughts on this, the cats were all generally in good condition but I still think the whole concept is a bit odd. 

However it did fill half an hour while it was raining before it was time to get the bus to the airport. Our 45 minute flight was delayed by nearly 3 hours, but we enjoyed some western Mac and cheese for airport food! We were the only Caucasians on the flight and we were totally baffled when checking in by the amount of stuff people had- boxes and boxes up to 100kgs per person. We also had the most turbulent landing I have ever experienced, which was a bit scary... We were very glad to have arrived in stormy Medan and have a driver waiting to take us to the hostel. Really cute little family guesthouse. 

23.6- our host made us some lovely scrambled eggs on toast, and we had several rounds of photos with passing locals- I don't think they get many white tourists in Medan! We then decided to book a car through the orangutan trek people who picked us up and drove us the 4 hours to Bukit Lawang. The driving here is mental, mainly due to the many weaving motorbikes (we saw one with 7 people on...) and lots of beeping (it seems to politely mean- move I'm coming through). We arrived at our room which we have paid £0.80 each for- it's fine apart from the very low down bucket flush toilet!!

We decided to walk to the bat cave, where we paid 25000 rupiah each (about £1.60) to go in with a local guide with flash torches, bargain! Saw lots of bats and a few monkeys on the walk back. We made it back just in time before the heavens opened and we learnt why they call it a rainforest. 

Next stop jungle trekking to search for orangutans!