July 23rd, 2013
Next adventure….
Tuesday started off nice and early…..so early in fact we couldn’t get breakfast at our hotel! Wow!
We were able to secure ourselves a breakfast at the airport however! Quite tasty but very salty….thanks Ronald!
Uneventful flight to Kuala Lumpur, then connected to Penang. Now here is my tale of the bags. They weighed more than the stupid allowance….but those sweet check In Gals at Chiang Mai let it slide. They were 16.2 and 16.4 kilos and I had registered for 15 kilo bags…so I thought that it would get through all the way….but NO! The much more stickler check in gal in KL said I could take 1kilo out of each bag, or pay 30 ringgit for each kilo over (that would be $20 USD!) for 2 kilos!!! So there I was….one of those people opening their bags pulling out their nightie and dirty clothes etc to get the bag under the weight limit. But then my problem is that I have to put it in my carry on….which I am already worried about being over size and I know it is over weight (only 7 kilo for carry on). But I must have looked sufficiently annoyed that she gave us the tags for our carry on so that when we got to the screening point for carryon and I am watching them turn away half of the people with backpacks, I say “we have already got out tags” and she say “oh really, ok…..” And off we go!!
So we land in Penang, get our taxi (44 ringgit)….and he whisks us to Georgetown. Not too sure about this hotel, mostly because I have become a little bit spoiled due to the 8 days of junior suite living at the Chiang Mai Boutique house. But it is clean and the bed seems comfy, so we will be fine. Only booked 2 nights here anyway.
We got settled in and then asked the front desk about what we should see. He suggested Penang Hill. And he insisted we should take the bus….super easy, cheap! Must do he claims…he pretty much has our time here all planned out with all using the bus…supposedly the bus here is great! So we agree to give the bus a try….he tells us where to go, and even gives me coins so i will have the right change! Nice guy!!
So here we are waiting for our public transport! So proud of Troy…..this is a big leap for him!!!
It took a while, but the bus eventually came. And the ride was longer than we thought, but it actually got us there…even though we found out that it was the drivers first day and she missed an important turn and had to turn around in a gas station (major sight to see!)
So this town is no Chiang Mai, but it is also no Bangkok, so somewhere in the middle to me. There are more cars, and less scooters than CM. The driving seems very chaotic and again with very few rules, like Thailand, but there also seems like there is more road rage! More horn honking and bird “giving” than I ever saw in Thailand!
Yes, that says Times Square! Hahahahahahahaha
So we got to Penang Hill at 7:45 pm and we are able to catch the 8pm funicular train to the top 800m up! The whole thing took I much longer, so we are going to miss the sunset, but are led to believe the nighttime view is very good also. So 60 ringgits round trip to ride the train. Believe it or not there is a set of stairs to the top also, but we just don’t have this kind of time….so we take the train. It is very cool actually, if only a little scary!
The view was spectacular, but my little camera couldn’t capture the view….so those who want to see it, will have to check out Troy’s blog, the pix will be there : ))
We were back down (via the public bus!) by 9:45pm and found this establishment open for a chicken burger! It is Malaysian chicken at its finest!
August 6th, 2013
Brooklyn Says :
A) You got lucky with the luggage mom… they could have made you toss out some valuables….
B) Way to go Dad! I know it was a big step for him but look it wasnt so bad!
C) Times square… haha they tried….
D) That train looks cool. Did you feel like you were going up a lot?