Driving on the left?!?

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Our first weekend in Penang. Carole (our relo person) dropped us off at our apartment and made sure that we were ok with it. The pictures on the apartment website made it look pretty nice, so we were suspicious as to whether it really would be that nice. It was! At about 1000 sq. ft. it's more than plenty of space, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The main living area is nice and open with a little balcony and a great view of the strait and bridge between the island and mainland. After a little settling in Phil called his friend Sook Chin to have her meet us for dinner. She came to the US from Penang earlier this year for training and got to experience Oregon camping with our friends for Memorial day. And she got a funny video of Phil acting drunk and silly with the guys; great impression for the Penang team. :-) Anyway, she came over with two friends of hers, also Phil's co-workers, and they took us to a Chinese restaurant. A REAL Chinese restaurant! And we had ostrich, YUM!!!!!!! The food and company was very good. We not-quite-crashed that night, slowly we were adjusting to the time. Early the next morning we were treated to some spectacular rain and lightning. Then the call to prayer came at about 6:30 (from the neighborhood mosque), followed by the rooster that crows all day, then the flights started coming in to the airport (we are in the flight path). It's been that way every morning since, but we really don't notice it anymore.

Late Sunday morning Carole came back to show us how to get to Phil's office and go to the grocery store. As we were driving we asked about the driving lessons that were part of our relocation package. She said that most people don't need them, they just start driving. I think it's a good thing that we took several taxi rides while in Singapore and rode along with her a couple times. It gives you a really good idea of how people drive over here without the panic of actually being behind the wheel. We took her suggestion and decided to try later that afternoon. But first, the grocery store! She took us to Tesco, the local supermarket. Just like Singapore, the big grocery stores are usually the center of a mall-like structure; the grocery store was on the third floor. As soon as we walked in I thought, "Wal-mart". Creepy. Down to how the store was laid out and the signs, it looked remarkably like a super walmart, not as nice though. We purchased the essentials and had fun looking at all of the weird stuff they had. The durian stand was the 'highlight'. Ok, this is the nastiest, stinkiest fruit on the planet and the native Malays LOVE it. durian farm As you are walking through the store you catch a whiff of something like rotting flesh/fermented fruit, this is a good 30-50 feet away. Eew! The fruit ranges from a cantaloupe to small watermelon size with woody spines all over the outside. The inside looks kind of like a plump white walnut, or brains if you ask me. Apparently it's a delicacy. Carole, who had been here for over 20 years, has only had the courage to get it a couple inches from her mouth before backing down. The smell is that bad! So we finish shopping and checkout. How do we get the overloaded cart back to her car on the ground floor? Escalators!! I'm not talking about normal escalators, these are long ramps that run from floor to floor, but what about the heavy cart? It sticks in place as soon as you wheel it on, the wheels are magnetized to the ramp! It was my favorite part of the shopping trip and it still makes me smile every time I go there. I wish I had brought my camera. We loaded up the stuff and got home.

On to driving, oh god! It actually wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The strangest thing is learning to stay left when you make a turn, especially right turns since you are turning across traffic. We successfully got to Phil's work and back without killing ourselves or anyone else. The traffic is pretty light on a Sunday so we got lucky too. In our driving experiences since then we have encountered some of the worst/craziest driving I have ever seen. Generally there is little regard for lane divisions, people just drift in and out of lanes, no signaling unless they are in a jam (or are foreigners). The motor bikes are the worst. They dart in between cars at all times, I never make a lane change or turn without looking for them because they creep up on all sides of you, they turn across your path. Recently we were in a parking lot and I was backing out of a space when Phil told me to stop, a motor bike raced right behind me going really fast and then turned around and gave me the nastiest look like I just tried to kill him on purpose. It's crap like that that makes me want to unleash some serious American road rage on these people, but honestly I don't think they would notice a difference other than some honking and finger waving. You just have to pause and then laugh at the situation and how ridiculous they are or else you could get so mad or freaked out that you'd never want to drive.

So that was our first weekend. We promise to finish updating the blog this weekend, it's getting hard to remember what we did three weeks ago. Can you believe it? 3 weeks we have been here, and we've been gone from home almost a month!! We hope all is well with our family and friends back home. We love you and miss you so much, you have no idea! More entries soon......

Selina & Phil

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Comments

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Funny Video
I haven't shown anybody in the office the video clip. Now that you mention it I just might have to. Hehe.