new stuff, old stuff

Hahaha, the visa thing in Malaysia didnt work! What a crock! Very rude and unhelpful people, and that is putting it very nicely. (those of you who know me well can probably imagine the wording I would use) So now we are here in Thailand again on a tourist visa. Dont want to say any more for fear of ranting on about beauracracies, official paper pushers and the incredible ignorance and stupidity required (Its in the application process. You must have a mental capacity no greater than two points above a potato) to do anything for the government. At least that stays the same throughout the globe.
Penang Island itself it decent, although I wouldnt recommend it for vacation, there must be nicer beaches to go to! They do have a great National Park on one end of the island, got some nice shots of Temple Vipers (they dont all live in temples) and some more of some monkeys. They also have a cool snake temple on the island (complete with Temple Vipers), unfortunately, not so many of them were around when I went. We rented a motorbike for the 9 days we were there, so we got to tour the island quite a bit, visiting the parks and the Penang Butterfly Farm. Very cool place, Deb loved it! Food was decent, although i prefer the Thai food, it has more spice, and we had a great hotel overlooking the beach.
All in all, it was a nice trip, although I would have preferred to get our visa, basically, we will need to leave the country again to get it. The "officals"(loosely translated: arrogant paper shufflers whos sole purpose in life is to stamp pieces of paper all day) there denied us twice, despite tons of paperwork that we collected, simply because we couldnt get them the one piece of paper that they want. (It is impossible to produce by the way, they were just stonewalling) Thai embassy staff is amazingly fickle, and they can (and will) deny a visa based on a whim. Maybe I should have worn a different shirt! Any way, we'll get it eventually. And we got a week on the beach in the deal, so it cant be all bad!
Much thanks to those of you who have supported us so far, its great to know that those of you at home are still thinking and caring about what we are doing.

We love ya.