Penang

Penang

I thought that Penang would just be a waypoint on our way to Krabi, but it turned out to be a very fun time. In the few days we were there we hiked up the big hill in the center of the island and saw the small temple up top, visited a lot of other temples down below including one where I got a blessing from a monk, we rode a rickshaw, visited a jade museum/shop, got tours of some historic houses, saw the fort, and much more. The cultural melting pot there was very interesting to observe in the people, the architecture, and the food. It was a good time.

I tried a few new fruits there, such as rambutan, a strange hairy fruit with a fruit inside that is similar to lychee, and mangosteen, an eggplant looking thing with a delicious soft fruit inside. The other one I tried I am loath to refer to as a fruit. The durian on the outside is about as hospitable as a spiked battle mace. On the inside, it has a gooey white flesh that is as stinky as rotten onions and spoiled meat, and it has a flavor reminiscent of a very strong cream of onion soup. I can understand how people could develop a taste for it, just like any extremely pungent food such as limberger cheese. They're just not for me.

The rickshaw ride was something I had wanted to try after reading in the travel guide that it was a good way to get around Georgetown. We wanted to go to a mall to watch the new Terminator movie that just came out, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out that mode of transportation. I nodded to the first driver I saw, and we negotiated our price. It turned out that Scott wanted to go to the more distant mall, so it was kind of expensive. But it was rather relaxing, and provided an interesting perspective on the city. For about 8 minutes. The rickshaw had a seat that was about 3 inches too narrow to be comfortable for Scott and me to fit in. We were wedged in there. The rickshaw driver was probably about 50 years past his prime, so for more than half of the ride (when the road was more than .1% grade) it was not much faster than a brisk walking pace. After about a half hour, we were in agony. It felt like we had been crammed in there for hours. We could see the mall along the coast about a mile off, but we couldn't take it anymore, and I asked the guy to drop us off at the nearby restaurant. He decided to eat dinner there, so we made an excuse and left. Feeling greatly relieved, we walked over to the mall, bought our tickets, and got a bite to eat.

One thing that's cool about buying movie tickets in a lot of SE Asian countries is that they actually sell you specific seats. You can look at a screen and pick them out. This means you don't need to get in line for the movie 45 minutes early, and you can decide if you want to go to a later showing right away if there are no good seats. When we got into the theater, we realized that we had bought tickets up closer to the screen instead of closer to the back like we wanted, due to us not reading the display on the monitor closely enough. They were still okay, so it wasn't a problem. The problem was that we were in the wrong theater, due to their screw up. So an usher came in and asked us and the other people in the theater to move to the one next door. That was the first time either Scott or I had had that happen. Then we proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait. They started the previews and ads 25 minutes after the scheduled time. So the movie didn't start until 40 minutes after the scheduled time. It was absurd. And one of the speakers was bad in this supposedly new theater, so it made a staticky sound anytime the volume got loud, which was pretty often. So, if you're ever in Penang, don't go to the theater at Gurney Plaza. And definitely don't take a rickshaw, unless the guy is wearing spandex and clipless pedals. Or still has teeth.