We are down to the last part of our vacation and have moved on from Thailand to Malaysia.  This is our first time here, and while we won’t have enough time to see a lot of the country we are hopping to get a bit of a taste of a couple areas so that we can decide what to see more of next time we come back.

It was mostly a long travel day today, we left Chiang Mai in the morning on a direct flight to Kuala Lumpur, and then after a couple hour layover we took the short hop back up the west coast of Malaysia to Penang.

We were a little nervous about our change of planes in Kuala Lumpur because we had to clear customs first and gather all our bags etc, and initially we thought that we only had an hour for the change, but the plane was a little early, and there was some confusion about the flight time, so we made it to the gate with a bit of time to spare.

After getting checked into the hotel, Mrs. Columbus has done some fact gathering from the hotel staff on things to do and how to get around so we decide to venture out this evening to try the local bus and a trip up to the Penang Hill Station.

The bus system works pretty good here, they are inexpensive, fairly modern and run with a high frequency, so taking the bus up to the hill station actually works out pretty good. The system seems to work much better than the Thai system, but that probably explains why there are no tuk-tuks, songthaews, etc. here.

Between the wait for the bus, and the trip itself through the rush hour traffic we unfortunately make it to the hill station too late to catch the sunset, but we are here now, and the view of the city at night is supposed to be fairly impressive, so we get onto the Penang Hill Railroad funicular railroad (a train that goes up a track on about a 50 degree angle).

The trip up the railroad takes about 15 minutes to go up the 850 meters to the top, and it is quite an impressive ride. We end up at the top after the sun has set and the place is pretty quiet as most things at the top have closed for the night. We are however rewarded with some nice views of the city at night, but even at night there is still a bit of haze over the city, so the photos are not all that sharp.

After about an hour we take the train back down the hill and hop on the bus for the trip back to downtown.  It has been a long day with all the travel, and we are exhausted by the time we get back to our hotel. A good night’s sleep is now the order of the day.