Travel diary #1: The one where our trip to Penang didn’t work out as we planned
August 10th, 2016
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur by night.
I booked a room via Airbnb for 34€ and it’s the best deal I ever had since I started to use this platform back in 2011.
For 34€, we had a huge room and access to a swimming pool on the 37th floor with an amazing view of Kuala Lumpur.
We went to the swimming pool for one hour the next morning before checking-out at noon. Then we headed to the train station to catch the train to go to Penang.
Well… it was the original plan.
This is what actually happened
When we arrived at the metro station, we didn’t know which platform we were supposed to take.
We were lost.
And the lady at the front desk wasn’t customer-oriented, so we didn’t ask her anything.
I started to ask random people for help.
After the 3rd attempt, a guy was going at the same stop as us. So he showed us the way.
When we finally arrived at KL Sentral, we realized that the next train was only at 5:30PM, meaning that we would’ve to wait 4h and arrive at our new accommodation around 11PM only.
We changed our plans and decided to go to Penang by bus
We arrived at the bus terminal at 1:45PM and got the bus at 2PM for 77MYR. Buses to go to Penang are every 20/30mn.
After 6h we arrived at the stop called Butterworth, which is the last stop before arriving at the island. The bus driver asked us where we were heading to. We answered Penang and then he asked us to get off the bus with our bags.
I didn’t understand why we were out of the bus. But clearly, it was a mistake.
So, we ended up purchasing tickets to take the ferry to finally arrive in Penang. Luckily, the tickets were cheap. Only 2:10 MYR per person.
In the end, we arrived to our accommodation around 9PM, exhausted of this trip.
Lessons learned
- It’s better to take the bus to go to Penang from Kuala Lumpur
- Show your ticket to the bus driver so that he understands that you’re going to Penang and not Butterworth
- Ask for help