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Published: December 14th 2009
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Day 26 and 27: Langkawi Island to Penang Island
It was the day after J’s birthday. I was hungover and J was in even rougher shape from his accident with the seven year old boy. We woke up early, and were lucky enough to get some fresh baked red bean and yellow custard buns from the bakery downstairs before all the buns were immediately shipped out on a big truck. We washed those down in bed with some milk and promptly fell back to sleep until 4 in the afternoon. Much better; we awoke feeling just a tinge off human.
We walked across the busy street and in to a neighborhood, assuming we would hit the ocean if we walked far enough, (seeing as this was an island and we’d arrived by boat nearby). Alas, all we found was beached boats in a muddy jungle, the jungle becoming too thick and muddy too continue. The houses in this muddy jungle were like shacks, reminiscent of Laos, and much poorer than anything we’d seen in Malaysia thus far. Funny that they were on this island that was draped in fancy hotels, expensive shops and rich tourists. But each shack had
a car parked beside it, something you would never see in Laos, making the scene strangely reminiscent of Appalachian America.
We walked out of the jungle, abandoning our beach hunt, and towards a movie theater down the street. To our delight, it was playing Batman: The Dark Knight in just an hour, for only 10 ringit ($3.50). In the meanwhile, we discovered an Indian buffet right across the street, for only 8 ringit, and appeased our hangovers, stuffing ourselves to the very top. We really enjoyed the movie, in English with Malay subtititles, and were surprised to be among very few spectators, seeing as this feature played just once a day.
Afterwards, we swung by the massive duty-free shop to poke around. We shopped amongst Muslim Arab families on vacation. A few other tourists who stuck out also frequented the shop, of particular note was a seven-foot tall African woman in a tiny pink skirt with a matching pink tank and bleach blond cropped hair. I can tell you I certainly no longer felt concerned about standing out.
The following morning, eager to adventure on, we arrived at the ferry terminal to buy tickets to another island,
further south, called Penang. The tickets cost $23, each! We were really not in Thailand anymore. But we were on an island! What else could we do? While waiting for the ferry, we read in the newspaper that winners of a cooking contest as well as mother’s of babies born on the auspicious 8/8/08 were presented with hampers. Apparently hampers are a hot prize in Malaysia!
Also while awaiting the ferry, we tried to bring our bikes in to the mall so we could eat lunch and keep an eye on them (as all our gear was already attached for the day).
A security guy ran up to us and said, “No, no, no, you can’t bring those bikes inside the mall.”
I replied, without hesitation, “Oh, these? These aren’t bikes, they’re luggage carriers.” Because they were holding all our luggage.
The security guy could see that and he said, “Oh, OK then.”
We were delighted to enjoy smooth sailing for this ride, on a spacious, uncrowned ship. We arrived in the city of Georgetown, on the island of Penang to a virtual city floating along the water’s edge, just rows of high rise buildings.
Not the quiet beach island we’d been hoping for. Oh well. This place was great, a real amalgamation of new and old, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, ancient crumbling colonial brick buildings and new fancy structures. All different races, plenty of European and white tourists too. Happily riding around town on our bicycles, enjoying the action-packed nature of this city on an island, we checked out about twenty run-down guesthouses. We learned the meaning of “bathroom in-room” on Penang. It doesn’t mean there is a toilet, rather there is a sink and a shower. The toilet is down the hall.
By the time we chose a lovely hotel called Stardust, we’d had a nice tour of the town and its vast selection of crappy accommodation. The Stardust had a great social scene in the entrance’s lobby/restaurant/bar/internet. The manager was a friendly, wild, drunken man who may have also been high on ecstasy. But as I said he was very friendly, and eager to please. Our room was big, with actual windows that flooded the room with light, two double beds, a desk and ice cold A/C. Now this was luxury!! The manager was blasting Michael Jackson in the lobby, and
Vendor Making Us Ice Lemon Tea
We drank a lot of this in Malaysia. It was delicious and fresh. And yes, we drank it out of a bag with a straw. as our room was above the lobby, we could perfectly hear and enjoy his selection.
We walked around town, appreciating the festivities for the Month of the Hungry Ghost. All the Chinese residents were burning stuff in the street, fake money, fake homes, fake cars, fake clothes, and making offerings: food, toilet paper, incense, at the beautiful old Buddhist temples, (with their ugly, tacky, gold Buddhas, nothing like the beautiful stone carved ones in Laos). I believe these traditions are all done to pay respect to the ancestors and appease their ghosts, ensuring they are contented in the afterlife so they do not come back to haunt the living.
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