Arrived in Penang after setting off a tiring 28 hours ago. I have been assured that it will take less than 45mins to get to the hotel, and that elusive soak in the bath! As I set foot out of the airport, the first thing you notice is a peculiar aroma that pervades the air wherever you go in Malaysia and Indonesia outside the cities. It is a mix of heat, durian fruit and rokok, and once you have been here and smelled it, then you instantly associate the smell with the Far East.

Durian fruit is the Eastern version of Marmite – known as the King of Fruits, you either love it or hate it. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks.Most shopping malls refuse to stock it at all, as the fruit odour is so pungent that you begin to smell it a good 5 minutes before you even see it! Animals can detect the smell of the Durian up to half a mile away.

The Rokok are the local cigarettes, and even for a confirmed non-smoker as myself, the intense flavoursome mix of cinnamon, cloves, dark chocolate and smoky woods has a pleasurable aroma. You dont even need to get too close to the actual smoke vapour as the whole atmosphere is pervaded.

I have been watching Nothing to Declare in readiness for my trip – a ‘behind the scenes’ show of customs in Australia, and as I walked through the green lane, I could see people lined up with open suitcases and rows of packet foods ready to be confiscated. You’d have to be mad to try and smuggle anything into the country here and to be fair, they do give you fair warning on the plane – our captain told us as we landed that any drug trafficking automatically receives the death penalty! Well, that was enough to persuade me that the free peanuts I hadn’t eaten could stay on the airplane and so I fished them out of the pocket of my handbag and left them firmly on the seat tray!

I slept really well, the bed is very hard, just fine for my back! Woke up to the sound of rain lashing against the window, and sure enough a storm was rolling in….but its hard to feel hard done to – I can just make out the vague shape of a mountain range across the sea vista…..the sound of the sea crashing onto the beach below my window is a sound to savour no matter how wet and wild the weather outside.

I think its time to don a loaned sou’wester and go for a wild n windy walk!

I saw a lizard! I swear it was one of the komodo types, properly swaggering in the distance, but the moment I tried to find it amongst the rocks it completely disappeared! (when I mentioned it to Wong later, he thought i had been very brave to try and find it, brave warrior woman that i am!)

Tonight was a litte surreal, we started off with a trip to the Hard Rock cafe for our evening meal – which was fine in its own way, quiet though, and they sat us underneath Noel Gallaghers guitar, I mean come on, I’ve only just left Manchester – at least give me an American…. but hey ho, they did make an amazing Mojito

The evening ended with Nat n I waltzing on the dance floor to Pitbull, leaving poor Wong holding his head in his hands in complete despair!! Well – you only live once…..

Dont forget to stay tuned next week for my further adventures down in Kuala Lumpur.

There has been a blogging gap of 2 weeks, but don’t worry, all is not lost. I have been over to the Far East meeting up with 2 of our local agents in Malaysia and Indonesia.

I had wanted to blog as I went along, but for some reason couldnt access WordPress, and so I did the next best thing and hand wrote the notes instead. So, I will still write them in the present tense so that you can enjoy the journey with me….

For those of you that don’t know me personally, here is a bit of background information. I am a single mum in her mid forties, with a full time job and a dog! This combination ensures that I am always running about, never quite finishing one job off before starting the next and living alongside a set of permanent butterflies resident in my stomach. I am never quite fully ‘in the moment’ – always worrying about the list of jobs I need to do tomorrow, or by the end of the week. This also has the added effect of never appreciating the work that I actually do complete. This is also the reason that I seem to be (more and more) forgetful or absent minded these days. Its because I am never thinking about the job in hand. For example on my way to the airport I was feeling quite good about how organised I had been in the run up to my 2 week trip away. Sorting Sammi out at home, enlisting various friends, neighbours and family members to be surrogate parents, agony aunts, and food providers. Making sure lists had been handed out to all and sundry with telephone numbers, college times, details of whereabouts in the world I would be at any one time, dog ‘letting out’ duties for when sammi was at college all day, etc etc etc.

Oh how clever I was, all organised and all under control. I had even pre-booked the carpark for a cheaper deal. As I approached the barrier I realised I needed my credit card for entry so I rummaged around in my purse, found the card, dutifully inserted it and hey presto, the barrier opened. With a queue behind me (I know even at 5.30 in the morning!!) I put the card on my knee and proceeded to trawl the carpark looking for a) an empty spot, and b) somewhere easily recognisable for when I return to play hunt the car in 2 weeks time. This dutifully done (Red 10) I lugged my case from the boot, collected my laptop and handbag and proceeded to the free bus stop to wait for the ‘every ten minutes (yeah right!)’ bus to arrive to take me to the appropriate terminal.

All well so far….

I found the check in desk without too much hassle and took my turn in the queue. I arrived at the desk, presented my passport and wrestled my suitcase onto the belt. ‘can I take the card you made the booking with please ma’am’ and it was those 12 words that sent me into a state of panic. The card HAD been on my knee as I parked the car, and I know now that i didn’t remember doing anything else with it.  They wouldn’t let me leave my case (security risk of course!), so there was nothing for it but to get myself and my luggage (complete with dodgy broken wheel from the last time I flew) back to the carpark. Apparently there is no quicker way than getting the bus back (I had to ask in case someone pitied me and offered to drive me over there in one of those cute little airport buggies with the flashing lights – but to no avail). The bus driver did a double take. I had to sheepishly explain what had happened, but you know, he was lovely. Told me he would wait whilst I jumped off, and retrieved the card. As I go to my spot (red 10) there on the floor, on the gravel, outside my door was the offending article! I think I was just lucky that it was still so early in the morning that it was still sat there awaiting my return. Anyway, back on the bus I jumped and like Groundhog Day relived the past hour of my life!

Alas this was not the only mishap I had before even getting to the airport lounge. I have to admit that I was feeling a little smug, after all, karma was on my side, I found the card, the checking in lady had swapped my seat….all was well. Well until I hit the X Rays. There isn’t a choice anymore, you HAVE to go through the bodyscanner. Its not that I don’t appreciate the risk factors involved, but to be quite honest, I felt a little violated. I don’t want some random stranger to be looking at the outline of my body – I mean I spend quite a sizeable chunk of my free time wandering around the Trafford Centre, buying clothes to disguise it!!

Anyway as I said, there was no choice, but in the flustering few minutes after the scan, I collected my belongings from the x-ray tray, trying to collect everything before the next tray comes clattering down the ramp, I managed to drop my boarding pass through the rails into the bottom of the counter. I don’t think I was flavour of the month as they stopped the machine and had to spend a good 5 minutes poking with anything they could find that was long thin and pointy before miraculously, someone managed to fish it out.

You’ll be happy to know that that was the extent of my travelling woes, and believe me, on previous trips, things haven’t gone that well!!

I will update again on Thursday with details of my time in Penang.