Pissed in Penang

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Ok, so I want to get Malaysia out of the way, and you are about to be bombarded.

My lasting memory of Penang will be how bloody hot it was. hot, hot, hot. We arrived o a bus which we though would take us to the centre of Georgetown. Alas no, it dropped us off at a bus station way way outside of town. We really didn;t have any idea where we were or how to get where we were going. Some helpful locals gave us some bus numbers, but when they turned up they either stopped, or told us they weren't going our way. We were directed to stand on the other side of the road and catch any bus. So for 1.50RM we made our way into town.

Love Lane Inn is just off Lebuh Chulia, which is one of the main tourist strips. We were given a recommedation by our friends at Bintang, so this is where we went. It was nice and clean and a little crazy, and without air-con, bloody hot. I quite regularly would get up in the middle of the night and have a shower, the water never seemed to be cold enough, but if I doused myself and my sarong it would sometimes keep me cool till morning. It was run by a crazy Chinese lady, and her staff, an obsessive compulsive Indonesian maid who would literally wipe the floor after you walked on it, a Malaysian man who was quiet but knew how to fill a fridge with beer after some Aussie's had had a go, and Jimmy, Amy (the crazy Chinese woman's) husband. There was also a long term resident, Richard who was the national squash coach and kept asking us questions about famous Australian squash players (apparently we are very good, but we had never heard of them, he was very distressed!).


The food in Penang is it's redeeming feature. We had some great Indian meals (13.60 RM including drinks, that's under AU$5 for a vegetarian feast plus lassis). We had chinese, more Indian, and after spending 2 days in air-con shopping centres to escape the heat, we also found Australian wine, cheese and even salami (and a free wine glass thanks to Patrick's charm).


On our last day, it was raining, so we stayed in the hostel, read and watched TV. The strangest moment was when a member of the local constabulary was having lunch at the restaurant next door, and decided to come and watch some TV with us....... Patrick was afraid to change the channels.

And so to Langkawi..........

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