September 28,

0700 Jeff woke me and we readied – by 0810, in a taxi to the bus station. At 0830, we arrived at the station and Jeff exchanged our e-tickets for paper (cause that's how they roll). Bus came in and we boarded. It was all loaded at 0847, so the bus left 13 minutes early!

On this 3-4 hour ride we start out by passing back by our place, and then on to new areas. The first pass through being Pahang of the Cameron Highlands. Then the outskirts of the town, we pass many more greenhouses in valleys with terracing decorating up the mountains. We also see the Lavender Gardens and Hobbitoon Village, both recommended sights but we would have had needed a car. I don't feel slighted, they looked like Instagram places. Somewhere here, we had a snack breakfast of some trail mix type stuff, lemon cookies, and almond dark chocolate.

Now towns give way to heavily forested, steep mountain sides as the road winds though – up & down, mostly down. There are times these mountian sides have been so straight up (due to excavating for the very road we are on) that cement retainment walls have been engineered in an attempt to control landslides. The winding road has the bus rocking and rolling which, unfortunatly, caused at least three people to be sick. Along this stretch also, forest floors -when seen – were covered in ferns. Then the road opens a bit and we see quarries – some signs identify the stone obtained as granite, some marble. It doesn't appear to be either of them to us? Questions?? The constuction or excavation being done has actually been systematically chunking down various mountains! Then we pull into a rest stop at the town of Simpang Pulai – it's 1020. It is just a short restroom break. We leave at 1037, and we catch a toll road into bus station in Ipoh. Many passengers got off here, but only three replaced them. We were back on the toll road by 1113.

At 1245, we were on of two bridges to the island of Penang Malaysia, city of Georgetown. The temperature, according to the bus was 31 C (88 F). It was 23 C (73 F) when we started, and was at 5,000 feet – now we are at sea level. At 1300, we arrived at bus station, and Jeff booked us a Grab taxi. By 1408, we arrived at The Landmark for our stay for eight days. We found check-in and received our key, and remotes in a small carry box. The apartment in on the 29th floor!
Our apartment is a spacious studio with a kitchenette and dining table; a living space with a comfy couch and large TV; a bedroom with a balcony; and a dry bathroom with a closet washer and dryer (w&d are a bonus we did not know we were getting). We are very pleased with this accommodation. When you are booking these places, they don't always seem as they appeared, but this one was! We unloaded and went out for much needed lunch!

We stopped at a mall right down the street, essentially – choosing 7 Village Noodle House. We had Kuey Teow Dry (a soup without the broth… of shrimp(?) flavored balls, sliced chicken, minced pork, green onion, and loads of flat rice noodles) and a plate of Spicy Cumin Pork Belly; Red tea and a water. Good meal we ate like we were starving! Price was 35 MYR ($8.49).

Now we wanted to get to an Orchid Show that ends tomorrow, so we found out where it was and walked to it – 1.3 miles. It was good to walk and to be out and about. We found the show…. Wowza – Just Gorgeous! There is such a variety to Orchids: one plant is beautiful, the next stunning; then the next one blows you mind!!! Some blooms had passed as it has been showing for a week already. There were all kinds of awarded ribbons throughout the dazzling plants. I think we spent a couple of hours, taking many pictures. Jeff even let me pick an Orchid plant to buy. We will have the plant for a week and then the housekeeper can take it! We took a Grab back to our place so that the Orchid will make it back in one piece.

We unloaded and set out for shopping… bought what we needed and back to our place. Supper was golden cherry tomatoes, mini peppers, hummus and butter crackers. We found some Malaysian Rum and Thai Rum and tried some of each. We enjoyed the food, not the rum so much. The Thai rum was okay… the Malaysian rum – well, let's just say, it will have to be in mixed drinks!

Good day. Welcome to Georgetown – Penang, Malaysia!