I Want to Live in Penang

Well, we're in Malaysia, on Pulau Penang. First impressions are that it's much cleaner than BKK(particularly the air), a lot hotter, and everyone smokes clove cigarettes. This is the heavy, sticky heat we were expecting to encounter in SE Asia. It's about time to step it up to 3 showers a day and buy another bottle of talcum powder(for freshy). Of course it was difficult to buy anything on our first day here since the banks were closed for a holiday and every ATM was completely empty. Add to that a locked card from trying to withdraw too many times and you have a great start to our Penang visit. It was all cleared up by the next day but we had to skip a meal and Jenny's heart skipped a few beats in the interim. On the bright side however the necessary call to the bank had us finally purchase Skype credit which is a ton cheaper than any land-line phone or international card, and I recommend it to anyone calling overseas.

With the failure that was our visit to Ko Phangan still lingering in our minds and the sweat soaking through our shirts, one of the first things we wanted to do was visit the beach and cool off. We grabbed a bus to Batu Ferringhi, the only problem being that we couldn't tell when to get off. We took a pretty good guess however and we turned out to be only 100m from a public beach entrance. Batu Ferringhi is the area along the beachy north shore of the island where one can find all the overpriced resorts and hotels, but the beach is free for everyone to use. And they do use it. Tons of touts were all about trying to get the unsuspecting tourists to rent their jet skis or go horseback-riding, but they weren't as persistent as they were in other places and it was easy to enjoy ourselves. The sand is a normal yellow and the water is slightly muddy so it wasn't the white-sand paradise we were seeking in southern Thailand, but the water was a great temperature and there was sun on the beach. The only other thing we needed was a frisbee, which I finally regretted leaving at home.

Ahoy

Not a lot of opportunities for shirtlessness, so we remain pale

We seem to find ourselves at the large mall here just about daily, either to take a break from the sun and heat or just because it's right next to the bus station and dirt-mall(right) which, while dirty, has well priced salted fruits of which I cannot get enough. Apart from just walking around looking at what's for sale, there's a great movie theater on the top floor with movies as cheap as $1.50 at the right time of day. We've seen three while here, and I give my recommendation to Vantage Point. There was one point against the theater, and I'll quote directly from my notes:

Fucking movies let out into the fucking parking garage so you need to go all around and down to the fucking mall to use the restroom. Fucking retarded.

Other than that, no problems.

One stop at the mall coincided with an attempted trip to the tropical fruit farm which fell on its face. After the one bus brought us out past the beaches we proceeded to wait forever for the next one which would never come. It did come in the other direction, but didn't even think about stopping. We are completely convinced that an ill-intentioned taxi driver sabotaged our bus plans and I can only cross my fingers that someone screws him in return in the near future. Luckily for us, the bus stop was directly in front of the Penang Butterfly Farm with it's giant rhino beetle statue at the door. It cost the same as our original destination so we went for it and actually made a good time of the rest of the afternoon. Ninety percent of the farm was exhibits within the butterfly sanctuary area where the pretty little bugs swarm around you as you walk. Off to the side are a number of reptile displays and a small air conditioned viewing room where a great video titled "Insects of the Rainforests" played on a loop. It was definitely worth the fee and we got a ton of great butterfly and animal pictures. Here is a portion of that ton:

They put out pineapple slices to draw the butterflies








Monkey cups! "Carnivorous" plants that monkeys often drink from thanks to their cup shape

I loved this sign suggesting that visitors don't steal the flowers







Big turtle guy

After the butterfly sanctuary it was an easy trip back home to Georgetown for a refreshing Shandy(for Jenny) and some dinner. That dinner was particularly rewarding: we got a satay vendor's secret family sauce recipe and tried the abomination of dessert that is ABC. It was great to talk to the vendor who actually seemed really happy that someone loved his peanut sauce enough to ask what was in it and he eagerly shared his recipe which boiled down to peanuts and red beans. Now I know how I'll be making my peanut sauce in the future. Jenny really liked those satay sticks, especially in contrast to her hatred of ABC. Let me sum up that dessert: shaved ice, ice cream, red beans, creamed corn, flavored syrup, sweetened green pea noodles, and seaweed jelly. As for my review, it was not unpleasant, with all the elements being separately used in sweets all the time. It wasn't great though. Probably wouldn't bother with it again.


And that was our last day in Malaysia with money.