Around Penang
Trip Start
Jan 29, 2008
1
25
32
Trip End
Mar 04, 2008
Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan,
Malaysia
Monday, February 25, 2008
Just around the corner from the hotel I spotted a sign with pictures of delicious-looking paninis and decided we had to eat there. SH was happy with this since they also had Guinness draft signs.
The panini I ordered was as good as it looked on the signs outside and we also took advantage of the Guinness on tap. Superman was once again in no condition to walk so we decided to rent a bike. We took a taxi to a scooter rental place, and were sort of lost and just crossed our fingers that we could find it again to return the scooter. the guy at the rental desk kept asking SH if he had any experience driving a scooter. I thought this was pretty funny. He was renting out automatics, it wasn't difficult.
We drove around a few streets nearby and spotted a travel agent so we went in ended up booking a flight to Kuala Lumpur for this evening. Then we took off again on our scooter and decided to find the Irish bar we have been frequenting the last couple nights. Our search turned up nothing. It seems we can only find it when we are already drunk. I guess we just found it by luck two nights in a row.
Hotel views
So instead we went back to the panini place and hung out there for a bit.Then I had the brilliant idea that we should take advantage of our scooter and just drive around and get lost. Penang is an island but I didn't realize it was a huge island until we tried this. We got lost in a hurry and were driving around mountains and beautiful scenery. At one point we were driving along a road that reminded me of driving through Stanley Park in Vancouver. It was really cool.
We stopped for a snack at some random street-side patio and asked for directions back to George Town, where my backpack was still waiting for me. The directions turned out to be pretty good and easy to follow. It didn't take very long from then before I was reunited with my backpack.
Now we were in for a bit of a challenge because we had to get the scooter back. I thought it might be difficult for SH to drive with my massive backpack throwing the bike off balance but he handled it like a pro.
We managed to relocate the scooter rental place fairly easily - we only drove past it once before looping around and spotting it. Then it was off to the airport and with not a lot of time to spare. We got there and the way it works is you go through security and then you check in, then you go through security again. I guess this is to keep you with your checked luggage in case of any problems. Once we got through that first screening we lined up at the check in counter. We stood in the same spot for about an hour. Finally we moved up, but it was not our turn yet.
Hotel views
I looked at my watch and said "our flight just left". At this point we were both pretty pissy. I was really hoping the flight was delayed. We got to the counter at about 8:40pm and our flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30pm. It turns out it did leave on time.They bumped us to the 10pm flight and I don't think we were the only ones because it was completely full and I recognized a lot of people on it from the check in line up earlier.
This may have been the worst flight I have ever been on. From take-off, the plane was shaking and the tires seemed dodgy to me. But the landing was by far the worst. We smashed into the runway and bounced up considerably before bouncing back down on the runway again. I was not the only one who saw their life pass before their eyes when that happened.
Safe on the ground, we got through the airport and right away were approached about a hotel. It was now late at night and it sounded good to me. But the prices sucked and they were all for airport hotels. We inquired how far the hotels are from downtown. "Oh, Kuala Lumpur is about 60km from here," they informed us, "and there is absolutely nothing here. Just the airport. You're not flying out tomorrow?"
We explained that we actually wanted to stay in KL and they laughed at us, saying we need to get out of the airport because there is absolutely nothing nearby. We spotted the high speed train from the airport to the city and bought tickets. Luckily it arrived only a few minutes after. The train only takes 28 minutes to the city center, which wasn't bad. We were half asleep during the train ride. From the station we took a cab to some random hotel we picked out of a catalog at the station's taxi stand. The price range in the catalog was awesome; it looked like they had a variety of rooms.
As we drove out there, we could see the twin towers lighting up the sky. It was absolutely amazing how bright and beautiful they looked at night. We got to the hotel and saw it is a very large and very tall hotel. But they only had executive rooms left. Executive rooms come with executive price tags, but by now it was at least 1:00am and we just didn't care because we were so tired. So we took the executive room, hoping that they have a cheap room for us to move to tomorrow.
By the time we finally got into the room I was on my second wind so I decided to run downstairs to take pictures of the towers all lit up. Unfortunately we couldn't see them from our 25th floor executive room that is actually a tiny box up high and in no way justifies the price we paid for it. So I went down to the lobby and walked out the front entrance into a light drizzle. It was still very hot and humid and the rain just kind of stuck to my skin as I walked along the street. I took a couple of photos of the towers and went then went back up to bed.
