First day in Penang, Malaysia

Mak, who I worked with several years ago and will be working with again on this project was kind enough to pick me up at the (remarkably small for an international) airport. He took me to one of his favorite restaurants for dim sum for breakfast. That's where Chinese food comes on little plates with 2-4 servings, and you pick out the kinds you want. I don't know what he picked for us (I didn't really want to know) but it was all good. The two of us shared about ~12 plates of food, plus tea, for RM28 (that would be US$7.50). Sorry, I left my camera with my stuff in his Honda Civic.

He then dropped me at my Hotel.

Which is right next to a gi-normous 7 level mall.

My room ...

... has a nifty bathroom ...

... and a view ...

... with a free minibar (click the picture and read the card if you don't believe me!) ...

...

... and a funky thing you have to put your room key card in to turn on all the outlets/lights/ac, and not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road, "down" is "on" for all the electric switches ...

OK, I've settled in. Time to go for a walk and see what's around, and adjust to the time by getting some sun and ignoring what time it feels like. I was actually looking for 2 budhist temples that are supposed to be just a few blocks away from my hotel, but I think I turned left when I should have turned right and didn't find them.



A cool fountain.

A neat looking Japanese Seafood Restaurant.


A fire station, I think.



And of course, the Well Known Souvenir (and something) shop!

The Consulate of Indonesia.

All the streets seem to have closed, or like this one open drains. HOnestly, the city has a distinct odor to it. Not great.

Did I mention it's hot? And humid? And overcast (it poured just after I got back from from my walk). I walked around for about an hour, and I still think I got a little sunburned (even with wearing a hat). Tomorrow, I'm taking a taksi!

I decided to eat dinner at a Thai restaurant in the mall. The pictures don't do them justice. I had "Money Bags" for an appetizer, chicken with cashew nuts and rice, a diet coke (er, "light coke"), and a mixed fruit juice and scoop of cocunut ice cream with Jack fruit (the red ones, kind of tasteless actually) sticky rice and chopped nuts.,






All that for RM$49.15 - that would be US$13.50!

Check out the prices on these desserts at this bakery. They are about US$1.50 a slice. Wow.

OK, back in my room. The tide is out - wow, all that was water earlier today.

Hey, the boys could survive here! They have McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC (around the bend, can't see it here), and Toys R Us.

OK, that's it for today. It's 10:47pm here, which would be 6:47am in Oregon. Good night!

Getting there: it's not the time, it's the time change

Hello all! Well, I made it to Penang after 29 hrs, 21+ hrs of which was on actual airplanes. I actually didn't mind the time on the planes (though a laptop batter that only lasts 3 hrs doesn't give you a lot of options on an 11 hr flight). It was known now would be a really good time to sleep but not being tired, and then vice versa, that's the real pain.


OK, starting from the beginning. Turns out even Northwest has decent food on international flights. I got dinner and breakfast on the way to Tokyo.

Yes, that really is shrimp cocktail there! Ok, only 3 small shrimp and a packet of heinz cocktail sauce, but at least they're trying.











The tropical fruit was outstanding! Actually, all of it was good. Would have been nice if there was MORE of it, but oh well.













I'm in Japan!


The weather in Japan (as felt in the jetway) was pretty much the same as Portland - 50 def F and raining.







Um, now what do I do? Follow the green signs to go through security, and back to the International terminal area, or the red signs to enter Japan (go thru customs) / connect to domestic flights. Green it is! Unfortunately, notice the throng of people ahead of me. My flight got in 25 min late due to a 100mph headwind, and I only was to have had 1 hr 40 min between flights.

When I finally got through security, happily my next flight was in the same terminal just down the hall. Got there to find it was already boarding. Had a quick look at a cool Coke / Haagan Daas vending machine and look at the gift shop, and on to the next plane. That would be with 2 mostly dead laptop batteries and no chance to recharge them between flights. Darn, I guess I can't get any work done on this flight!





















The Tokyo Narita airport was nothing to write home about (pun intended). The Changi Singapore airport (8 hrs later), on the other hand, was pretty amazing:








Unfortunately I have an 8 hr layover in Singapore, and it's midnight local time, and, well, NOT, body-time. The first problem is that when I checked in with Northwest in Portland, since they are not a partner with Singapore Airlines (they partner with United), they couldn't check me in for the last leg of the trip (even though they did check my bag all the way through). So now I want to check in and get a seat assignment and boarding pass (you seem to need to show that a lot) now so I don't have to worry about it in the morning. Of course, it is midnight and all the desks are closed. So I walk to the next terminal (10 min away) and found 1 person and got checked in finally.

OK, now it's time to crash. So I find the place below. Nice enough. Except that it is hard to rest when you are worried A. about someone walking off with your stuff while you are sleeping, and B. that you won't wake up when you need to. And the crying baby didn't help either.





So, I decide to spend some of Intel's money and check in the Ambassador Transit Hotel right there in the International Terminal. They rent rooms out for a 6 hr block of time. Nice enough, including a bathroom with shower, and a door that locks (but no window or alarm clock). S$68 (US$45) well spent. This is when I realize that Singapore is not just a city at the tip of Malaysia, but is actually it's own country (with it's own currency). Go figure.

OK, it's morning. Off to Penang! Just an 85 min flight - piece of cake. Here are a couple shots out the window as we landed:

OK, various parts of all this have deleted themselves several times as I've typed it, so time to post it!

Blog Created

Hello! This blog has been created to keep you all up to date as Matt travels. He's planning to post pictures and updates from Malaysia during his 12 day trip. Enjoy!