For our flight to and from Penang we’d decided to go business class as it really wasn’t much more (an extra £30 a head or so), and we certainly got our moneys worth there. First of all there was the express checkin, and use of the Air Malaysia lounge, with free food/drinks. Then on the plane, a drink before takeoff and also warm towels and a newspaper for each person. The seats were very comfortable as well, the extra leg room makes a lot of difference. Then despite it only being a 60 minute flight, we also got a small meal (which economy didn’t) and more drinks, in fact me and my Dad had over half a bottle of wine between us as they just kept filling our glasses up! Then more hot towels before landing and magically our baggage was there pretty much straight after we got to the carousel.
We then got a taxi to the hotel, except we had to get two as their boots were somewhat too small. The hotel was rather splendid from the outside, and the concierge who looked like Tom Conte, as well as taking our bags presented us with drinks whilst waiting to check in. Our rooms were on the 34th floor and were opposite each other at the end of the corridor, there was also a door that we could close across the corridor which meant we could leave our doors open, which was nice. The rooms themselves were huge, a large bathroom with two sinks, toilet, shower and giant Jacuzzi bath. TV in the bedroom, TV in the lounge, dining area, study area and guest toilet and that was in both rooms. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day apart from lounging around the leisure centre on the 9th floor, which had a very nice pool that appeared to go over the edge of the hotel. We went for dinner in the Chinese restaurant in the hotel, which was very nice (and also very empty – much like the rest of Malaysia). However the waitress who took our order didn’t have the best grasp of English (and also a very noisy limp), but we eventually managed to order everything by pointing at the menu and saying “One”. The starter was quite interesting as we had no idea what we’d ordered (the waitress had told us that what we wanted was too big), so we got spring rolls and whole baby squid. Now whole squid may sound bad, but they’re not and you don’t really notice what you’re biting into (unlike the whole baby birds I once had in Jordan!). Earlier that afternoon we’d asked reception for a network cable for my laptop as they offered (2Mb/sec) Internet access in the rooms, about 10pm I receive a call asking if I’d still like it, I obviously did, however after plugging my laptop into the wall socket it was clear that either the cable was duff or the CAT5 wiring to the wall socket was. I decided to leave it to the next day.
After breakfast I told reception of my problem and they gave me another lead. It still didn’t work, so they sent two maintenance men up, who really didn’t get what I was saying about it being a fault with the wiring to the wall socket. After them fiddling in various risers in the corridor and taking the faceplate off and looking at it (literally just looking) then wiggling my cables they gave up. Then reception tried to get me to go through my network connection settings, but eventually listened to me telling them that when XP says a network cable is unplugged when it’s plugged into your PC and the wall socket, that means either the cable or the wiring are duff. But there was nothing they could do so I’d have to call back after 3 when the manager came in. We then decided to head out for a walk, mum and I were sorting out some travellers cheques, when I noticed another concierge by the door, appearing to play fight with my Dad. It turns out he was warning him of bag thieves that drive round on mopeds, but it looked very amusing nonetheless. We walked around for a while but it was a bit on the warm side, so we decided to go back to the hotel and get a taxi out to the Gurney Plaza. This was quite a pleasant shopping mall, with some ridiculously cheap clothes shops. It also had the most blatant software pirates operating out of one shop, my favourite find in there was Windows 2000 Server Datacenter Edition for 10 Ringits (5.7 to the pound). What is the average computer user going to need that for, normal Server edition I can see they might want but that just made me chuckle. After getting back to the hotel, I rang up reception to get the manager, and eventually after they tried to get me to check everything again decided to send up the manager. He actually understood what I was getting at and so linked up the socket in my parents room instead which did work, so I was right all along (and this was proved when the local datacomms people came out and after some testing found the wiring to my room to be faulty.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the leisure club and went for dinner in the other restaurant where they had a massive Japanese buffet which was very pleasant, especially the fresh sushi.
The next two days were spent again at shopping malls, the first wasn’t that good (and full of pirate software shops and pirate DVD and CD shops). So the next day we went back to the Gurney Plaza and I availed myself of some nice new Timberland trainers and quite a few CDs (they were legit and very cheap, seems when faced with large amounts of piracy in a non-western market record companies can lower their prices!). Now some mention has to be made of the taxi driver we got back to the hotel. As I said before the standard of driving in Malaysia is pretty poor to say the least, but it’s not helped when your man, the taxi driver, seems to have lost feeling in one side of his body. He literally hobbled along and couldn’t move his right arm, so much so that he had to use his left hand to reach through the steering wheel and activate the indicators when turning (I suppose at least he did use his indicators).
On the Monday we went on a tour around Penang, it would have been over the whole island but there was some quite torrential rain. Much like in KL we just had a car to ourselves with the driver. We started off going to an old fort where the cannon is believed by the Chinese to be a fertility aid! We then went to first a Thai then a Burmese temple, I can’t remember the order of these, they were only over the road from each other. The first however housed a giant reclining bhudda (which underneath it and behind it had the ashes of people and their pictures in front of the urns which was a little odd). The second provided the great sign on a seat – Please Don’t Sit – For Monks Only. We then went to another Batik factory and another pewter factory, before heading up to a Chinese temple which had a pool full of tortoises which apparently the Chinese used to when visiting have impromptu gambles upon as to which would stay the longest out of the water (in fact any bet on what a tortoise would do). We then headed down and had lunch at a very local shack, which was very good indeed although we didn’t get quite what we expected, it was still fresh and for a roadside shack there were no flies buzzing around. We then drove around for quite awhile, as we were going to take a cable car up a hill but there was a big queue so instead we walked round some botanical gardens. There were lots of warnings up about monkeys and how you shouldn’t feed them, because they’d probably get aggressive with you, but they had more sense than us and were staying out of the rain. Next we headed to a museum with some history about the area, before going to the snake temple, which presented another cracking sign in the form of: Mediums are forbidden to fall into a trance in the snake temple or its precinct to avoid causing inconvenience to worshippers and visitors. Before getting back to the hotel we visited a spice/food factory, and despite Malaysia apparently being the best place to get ground/dried nutmeg Mum couldn’t get any there. We also tried some awful tea which apparently is good for something, but they did have some nice products.
We spent the next day doing pretty much nothing, apart from visiting the leisure club again. On the Wednesday we had a trip to Langkawi which to cut a long story short wasn’t that good at all. The ferry over was pretty ropey, however they did give out sick bags before departure, a few people in our compartment were making use of them during the journey but we got by alright. They also had TVs, so they showed half of Gladiator on some dodgy VCD which passed some of the two and a half hours. When we arrived in Langkawi before we even found the tour guide (if that’s what he can be called) there was a bit of Chief Wiggum action, as there were police about as ferries from other countries dock at the same terminal. There was this group of men who a policeman was talking to, he then walked off, but then decided to come back at which point one of the men makes a run for it, the policeman gives chase through the crowd, the man jumps over the side fence to cut out the crowd moving forward and the policeman realises that with his belly he isn’t going to make the jump so just gives up, doesn’t shout after the man or anything. Made me chuckle anyway, he didn’t even go back to the others either, quality law enforcement. Eventually everyone turned up for the tour and we headed off, the first stop was a giant eagle which I’m still not too certain was meant to symbolise. Then we headed to the Langkawi aquarium which was quite good, this however was followed by possibly the worst meal I’ve had in all my travels. There was a fish ball soup (which I didn’t think was too bad), some spring rolls (which at least were fried enough) a sweet and sour dish (which we think had fish in) and then another dish which tasted in places like chicken but had bones like no chicken I’ve ever seen. Perhaps it was a chicken of the proportions that Alan Partridge believes is hidden in farmers big barns, although the bones were more like those found on a lamb chop, I’m personally favouring that we were fed dog. Needless to say I didn’t each that much. Simple word of warning if you are ever in Langkawi and at the aquarium do not believe the signs stating that the best Thai restaurant on the island is just at the end of the building. I should also say we didn’t eat there out of choice as it was part of the tour. Also we pitied the people on the big tour bus that came in after we left as their food (which consisted of a lot of shellfish) had been left out at their tables for at least 30 minutes, it was smelling pretty ripe when we left, let me tell you. We then went to a beach where apparently we could enjoy duty free drinks, however said drinks outlet was a small hut and the water was pretty filthy. My mum was talking to this chap from Penang on our tour who’d bought his father over as they’d never been to Langkawi and they also agreed the food was awful.
We then went to the cable car that went up to provide a good view of the island and this was actually worthwhile, it was quite a strange sight to see mist just rising out of the valley below and suddenly encompassing everything, then just disappearing again. We then headed back to the ferry terminal one and a half hours before our ferry back (apparently this was a requirement). The ferry ride back was OK as we were sat in the rear compartment, however half the seats were broken, i.e. the one in front of me that was fully reclined, probably more than it should ever have been. Still was probably more uncomfortable for the chap in front as he didn’t want to recline so spent the whole journey sat without a back rest! When we arrived back in Penang we were told that we’d have to wait for another 10 people before we could get the tour bus back to our hotel, so we told them where to stick it and took a taxi instead. My parents then had a chat with the concierge about it, he was quite thankful that they’d said something as he won’t ever use that company again (and he did mean it as apparently in the past concierges have had their pay docked for sending guests away with rubbish tour companies).
Posted by Alexis at September 18, 2003 09:47 PM | TrackBack