Pulau Penang

Last I wrote I was running off to board the plane in Kuala Lumpur.  I spent five hours in the airport and was ready to get moving.  Nothing special about the flight.  I fell asleep for a few minutes and next thing I knew we were preparing to land.  Flight time is less than one hour.  My baggage was one of the first off the plane and I was out of the terminal as quickly as possible still unsure whether Adam was waiting for me or if I needed to get a taxi.

I got out, looked around, and found the only tall long-haired white guy in the building standing near the taxi counter.  It was if we'd known each other for a while, big hug and we were on the road.  Now, I don't think I mentioned before how I know Adam.  My Wash U friend (pledge grandma) Allison's husband Mark works at the same company as Adam.  When I mentioned I was going to Malaysia, Mark told me Adam was in Penang and I should get in touch.  Next thing I knew I had a place to stay in Penang.  Score!

So anyway, Adam and I got on the road and headed towards Georgetown, the main town on the island of Penang and about 45 minutes from the airport.  Even though it was almost midnight we decided to go for dinner.  I really hadn't eaten much all day and felt like I needed some real food. We walked to an Indian restaurant close to Adam's apartment and enjoyed some naan and butter chicken.  By the time we got "home" it was 1am and I was anxious to get online and let my parents know I'd arrived safely.  It took a while to load the software onto my computer, so I don't think I was actually online until about 2am.  Adam went to sleep and I stayed up a little longer to do some things online.

After going to bed so late, I was convinced I would sleep in yesterday.  Not so, I woke up around 7:30am and forced myself to stay in bed with my eyes closed for another hour.  Once awake, I was back online where I finally got to speak to my sister and parents.  The views of the city from Adam's apartment are amazing.  He's only a couple blocks from the water and high enough that you can see down to the city.  I didn't actually get out to explore Penang until 11am.  However, given that its so hot and humid outside, sightseeing days have to be shorter because its impossible to explore in the heat for too long.  There was a woman in the lift when I got and she asked if I was visiting then gave me tips (told me to watch my bad) and directed me to some temples nearby.  She said it would be way too far to walk to the center of Georgetown.  So I started with the temples.

The first temple, the Burmese Buddhist temple, was comprised of a number of buildings and religious scenes in the gardens.  Its most impressive feature is a 30 foot tall standing Buddha.  The temple across the street is a Thai Buddhist temple which has a huge reclining Buddha.  I spent some time walking around both temples and took some pictures.  I don't really feel like describing them right now, so I'll leave it to the photos to do that job.

From the temples, I made a quick stop back at the apartment to put on some bug spray and grab my poncho (you never know when its going to start raining) and then started walking downtown.  I'm not exactly sure how long the walk took, but I just kept going on the uneven sidewalk and checking my map to see if any street names looked familiar.  And eventually I found the famous E&O hotel; I made it!  I wandered around Chinatown area looking for the restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet and by the time I got there it was almost 2pm.  I ordered crispy chicken in plum sauce, as suggested by LP, and tried to cool off.  Other than the family who left when I got there, I appeared to be the only tourist.  The food was pretty tasty and gave me the boost I needed to continue on my walk.

I strolled past the Kapitan Keling Mosque, through part of Little India, in a Chinese temple and finally made my way to the port.  I was looking for the Penang Heritage Trust, but I went a block too far over and had to backtrack, although I never managed to find the building and headed past the Victoria Memorial clock tower  to the tourist information office instead.  The man and woman in the office were extremely helpful and a great resource about buses and the island.  I stayed in there a bit longer than necessary because the air conditioning felt amazing.  Then it was back out into the heat and up the light house for some views of the old town.  Seeing Fort Cornwallis from above gave me no interest in wanting to explore it from the ground and instead I walked the Esplanade to City Hall and Town Hall.

When I didn't hear from Adam about our plans for the evening, I took the free bus to Komtar to figure out my bus ticket for the Cameron Highlands.  I was expecting some kind of bus ticket stand, but its really just a bunch of small offices selling the tickets and is not straightforward.  The guy told me that the minibus (only 10 RM more) was a more convenient option because it would pick up at your hotel and drop off at your hotel.  After I was convinced that the prices were the same everywhere, I told him I'd like to leave on Saturday.  He got on the phone, called the company and then proceeded to tell me that all three minibuses on Saturday were full.  I was shocked and pretty upset.  I already have a reservation at a guesthouse and I didn't want to have to leave Penang a day early, or a day late.  That left me with the bus option (which is probably like the coach I took in Indonesia and I'm sure will be nice but it only leaves from the main station somewhere south of Georgetown).  Of course, the 2pm bus was already full so my only choice was 8am.  Not ideal considering Adam and I were going to go to the market on Saturday morning.  The guy told me I should have booked earlier, but I'd just arrived in Penang.  Oh well.  He was actually very helpful and told me about the politics there.  I found out that only one bus company is licensed to run the minibuses so they have a bit of a monopoly.  As Adam said, sometimes other people dictate your plans. 

While I was in the same air conditioned bus ticket shop, Adam gave me the address of where to meet him, and the guy told me I could take a local bus there.  I was already at the bus station, so I figured why not.  Well, the bus took a bit longer than a taxi since there were so many stops and I was the only tourist on it.  The bus driver was very helpful (spoke pretty good English) and told me where I needed to get off.  But the stop was just on the side of the road and he didn't know where I needed to go from there.  I asked a woman who was also getting off the bus and she told me to follow her.  She pointed me in the right direction and I confirmed with another woman further down the road that I was headed the right way.  About 5 minutes from the bus stop, I arrived at N Park Condominiums.  Thanks to the help of all the nice Malaysians along the way, I made it to my destination.

Did I mention that I was going there to play badminton?  Yep, that's right.  Every Thursday from 6-8pm Adam plays badminton with some of the locals from work and he asked if I wanted to join.  There are about eight courts in one floor of this apartment building; no fans, no air conditioning.  It was pretty stuffy in there, but I had so much fun playing (even if my partners and I lost every game).  I hadn't played badminton since 10th grade PE.  What a hoot.  I was so sweaty when we finished; I felt disgusting.

We decided to go straight to dinner at a hawker center near Adam's apartment since it was already 8:30pm.  Hawker centers are fabulous places because you can sample tons of different foods in one place.  Adam did the ordering: Shark fin soup, Stingray (so I could compare to my Singapore experience), fried noodles, noodle soup with prawns, and fried oysters.  There was so much food, and I'm not sure of the names of a few of the dishes.  It was all very tasty.  At the end of dinner, Adam thought we should try the ice kacang, a local dessert that consists of thick, sweetened red bean, sweet corn, grass jelly and palm fruit.  The ingredients are scooped into a bowl and topped with finely shaved ice and some ice cream on top.  It was one of the most unappealing desserts I've ever seen, but we dug in to the huge bowl.  The flavor was sweet but I didn't really love all the bits inside.  Glad I got a taste, but there's no way I'll be ordering ice kacang again.

Last night after we got back I couldn't wait to get in the shower.  It felt so good to get clean.  I was exhausted from my day of walking in the heat and badminton, so I went to sleep.  It was already midnight.  Like I expected, I woke up at 7:30.  The sleeping in thing doesn't seem to be happening for me.  This morning I've been multi-tasking.  I leave tomorrow morning (can't believe I'm leaving already) so I'm getting my laundry done while I type this.  One more load to go.  Means I won't be out for another hour or so, but laundry takes priority since Adam has a washer and dryer and I'm just out of clean socks and underwear (packed a few extra).  Not sure exactly what I'm up to for the rest of the day.  Adam might try to get off work a little early so that we can go to a temple and then a restaurant to watch the sun set.  Really can't believe my bus leaves tomorrow at 8am.  Think I have internet where I'm going so I should be able to continue updating the blog, and sorry if this one wasn't very good. I'm not feeling like writing detailed descriptions right now.