Got a cab (20,000 Ruppiah, 10 minutes ride) to the airport at 5.30am in the morning.

I was joking with the air ticket seller yesterday to give me a morning call and she really did, I never expected it and that gave me a good impression about Indonesians. There is an airport tax of 75,000 Ruppiah which must be paid in Ruppiah.

Sriwijaya Air

So far in my trip, this is my 10th flights. Usually I avoid flying, but because flying is inexpensive in Indonesia and the road transportation is bad, I flew 3 times in Indonesia and that saved a lot of time.

On the plane, noticed that many Indonesians were flying to Penang for medical treatment, Penang is trying to attract medical tourism money from Medan since it’s just 40 minutes flight away. Taxied down at Penang at 9.20am Malaysian time (an hour ahead of Indonesia time) and my parents picked me up. I just have a few hours to kill before the 2.20pm train to Bangkok.

It has been many years since I last took the ferry to the mainland.
Ferry

Leaving the port

There is a daily train from Butterworth to Bangkok at 2.20pm (112 Ringgit.~USD$33, 20 hours ride). The train station is located right beside the ferry terminal in Butterworth. The train was delayed for 30 minutes and departed at 3pm.

Inside the train

There were only 2 coaches, so the train was pretty short compared to those in China with at least 15 coaches.

The train moved pretty slowly. It was supposed to cross the Malaysian border to Hat Yai, Thailand at 6pm but the train only crossed the border at 9pm.

Walked south from the hostel to the beach.

Western style building

Big Clam at FuJiaZhuang Park

The beach

Walked southwest towards Xinghai square.
Dalian Safari

Castle

Back to XingHai square

Lunch, HunTun and Tomato Egg noodle (10 Yuan~USD$1.40)

Visited the Dalian Modern Museum. The museum is about the development of Dalian from a backwater small village to a big city today.

Took bus 16, a double decker bus, from the southwest part of the city to the northeastern part.
View on bus 16

Dalian Tram

Land reclamation

RenMin Square where office of the municipal government is located

Japanese style building at south of RenMin Square. Dalian was a colony of Japan in 1930s and there some old Japanese style building still remains.

As a coastal city, Dalian is famous for its fried squid
Fried squid, 4 Yuan

Olympic Square

Flag lowering ceremony as the sun goes down

Went to the train station and got on a bus to Dalian port at 10pm.
Got a ferry ticket from Dalian to Yantai 2 days ago on the train, (130 Yuan~USD$19, 6.5 hours boat ride, hard seat).

The boat, DeYinHai is huge and can even fit a thousand passengers, trucks and cars.
Sleeping berth cost 260 Yuan, but usually they provide last minute discount for just 180 Yuan

Hard seat 130 Yuan

I just took a hard seat since it’s only 6.5 hours ride. The boat should have left the port at 11.50pm. However, the boat was delayed and left slightly before 1am.