We got to the bus station in a taxi this morning, and lugged our bags over the bridge to the other side of the road. With both my bags I'm carrying about half my bodyweight, which is hard work, especially in the heat. We passed the man with one foot and the Chinese man who was still in the exact place we saw him last time, selling plastic combs and packets of tissues and then we were in the hot, dark cavern of the bus station. It was only ten past ten, we had twenty minutes until the bus left, so Mikey fought his way through the crowds to find out which platform we needed and to buy some emergency doughnuts for the long trip ahead. Apparently we had to hurry for the bus and before we even got to the platform a man was waving at us either to follow him or stay where we were. We did an in-between sort of dance and then he reappeared, a little agitated, and beckoned us outside. He pointed to the large blue coach on the other side of the road and told us to hurry, which was easier said than done considering the speed with which the mopeds dodged the rest of the traffic, but, using our patented LocalShield technology and disregarding our own safety, we made it.

The driver left the moment the door closed behind us, about fifteen minutes early. We were expecting the same sort of run-down squeezy-bus as the one to the Highlands, so we were pleasantly surprised to see that the seats were so large that they could only fit three across the width of the vehicle, and they reclined comfortably too. I had intended to save my doughnuts for lunch and mid-afternoon, but by 10.30 they had mysteriously disappeared. Spiderman 2 was on the television and the journey, a shorter-than-expected four and a half hours, went very quickly. We stopped at a service station briefly, although it was only a loo and a bunch of snack carts, and bought a bag on barbecue flavoured crisps and some polo mints - the taste of exams - and I also finished my bag of lychees from yesterday in a remarkably unhealthy lunch.

We didn't have the phone number for the hostel because the electricity died this morning as I was checking the internet, so we took a taxi from Georgetown (also called Penang), the main town on the island, to the hostel. It's a very clean place, the room is painted a school-green shade and we have air-conditioning. After checking in and saying hello to the giant square fish in the fish tank, we wandered into the area of Batu Feringghi (we only chose the place because of its name) to see what we could see.

It's very much a sea-side town, and market stalls along the road sell inflatable pink dolphins and octopuses to prove it. We had a drink in a covered hall and found a bank, and then headed up the road again to find a place for supper. We stopped at an internet cafe along the way and ended up setting up a hotmail account for the lady who ran the place, and then looked at some of the many restaurants along the road, dodging the keen owners who wanted us to come inside. I wasn't really hungry and I'd eaten junk food all day so we were only looking for something small, maybe a sandwich. We decided on an Indian restaurant, as you do, which had about four staircases and hundreds of cloth lampshades and many, many ceilings, all open to the street. It was a funny place but they did good food - I ordered four dishes, because it's the law in Indian restaurants, and they were all excellent. As we walked back to the hostel, which was really just someone's house with a few extra rooms added and a variety of small children and grandmothers on the settees in front of the television, we noticed the minaret of the local mosque very close by. And, later that night, we heard the call to prayer quite clearly! As well as the noise of a dove, in one of the cages outside. The owner called them his hobby, and there are several ornate bamboo cages each housing a noisy little bird. There was one right outside our room, cooing away for about half an hour, until we heard the heavy thunk of a shotgun and everything went quiet. I was relieved to hear a few more bangs after that, and we realised they were fireworks, cos although the dove might have kept me awake for a while, it hasn't deserved to die. Yet.