We departed Bangkok by train for the 24-hour trip to Butterworth, Malaysia. Butterworth was named for a British Governor 150 years ago. There'll always be an England, I guess.
We were hoping to enjoy a ride through the jungle, but were disappointed that the trip was mainly through cultivated land, rice paddies and small villages. Another perfectly good preconceived notion ruined. The train stopped several times, allowing hawkers to board selling fruit and other snacks, and at times whole dinners. We had bought fresh fruit at the train station, very deliberately spending most of our remaining Thai money, and so had very little left over, only enough for breakfast from the dining car. We slept in berths that the porter made up after dark, folding and reconfiguring our seats which had been ingeniously designed to convert into somewhat uncomfortable beds. Breakfast was delivered to our seats the next morning, and we ate then read until we arrived in Butterworth. We were looking forward to spending time with Sheila, Barb's sister, and Michael, her brother-in-law, who proved to be great travelling companions and admirable hosts.
They met us at the train and took us immediately by ferry to Penang, an island in the Strait of Malacca directly opposite Butterworth. We were to be guests aboard their yacht Kantala while we were in Malaysia.
The boat was moored in a marina in downtown Georgetown, main city on the island. That night we went to a simple outdoor Indian restaurant, that had delicious tandoori chicken and naan, and also a mutton biryani the was very tasty. We went back to the boat and, after a couple of drinks, went to bed looking forward to our visit.
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