Penang to Kuala Lumpur to Bali

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from Penang, a city we loved from the moment we touched down. We cancelled a beach trip that would have cut our Georgetown time in half, we booked our bus at the very last minute and eventually just left like a band aid tearing off. Quick and painless...

Backpacks on, walking down the narrow streets, the crumbling walls, the arched doorways, the lady boys on Love Lane. Boarding the bus and passing street stall after street stall filled with Indian treats, Chinese specialties and Muslim bakeries. Changing buses, boarding a luxury liner with padded seats that recline into a sleeping position, praising Malaysia for the first world transport it provides. Hitting the highway... through dense forests, past red stone boulders looming by the road, seeing power plants, high rise apartment buildings, palm trees as far as the eye can see.

And then into the big city, the roads widen, cars appear from nowhere, we're passing government buildings, shopping centers, train stations and city life. No more crumbling store fronts, narrow lanes and small town feeling. Kuala Lumpur is a huge mess of concrete streets, manicured lawns and vehicles.

We were only in Kuala Lumpur for one night, enough time to know that I don't need to spend much more time there. Western tourists are everywhere, the hustle and bustle of any major city I've ever visited is mundane and the traffic jams are a nightmare. We're heading back there in a week or so and all I want to do is duck my head in and move to the country.

Today we leave for Bali, two hours before we head to the airport. We need to decide whether it's worth forking out over twenty dollars to get to the airport or to try the budget option of a train connecting to a bus. We choose the latter option and sweat profusely as we envision not making our flight on time, heading back to the city to sort out an alternative. We ask the bus driver three times if we're going to the airport, not very encouraged by his grunted acknowledgements. Finally we make it, peel our backpacks off our sweaty backs and check in, excitement rising for a 10 day vacation in Bali. Two hours later and we're on board, noses buried in our travel guides, ears blocked from the pressure of flying. And before we know it we're descending into a mesh of reds and oranges, one of the famed sunsets of Bali.