PENANG, MALAYSIA (3/21/2007

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Mar 22, 2007 3:57 AM
Subject: Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

PENANG, MALAYSIA

This year we did not dock, but had to be ferried in by tenders. We had been given a complementary tour by Virtuoso. Once ashore we entered waiting buses. It took about twenty minutes to get to a Thai temple, Wat Chayamangkalaram. It houses a figure of a 108 foot reclining Buddha. Across the street is a Chinese temple. I am about templed out. Like all the others, this one is very nice and has many unique things to see, but enough with the Oriental temples.

Next we drove to the spice gardens. They look like a jungle and are set going up the side of a mountain. A guide showed up and we started walking a path that would take us to the upper parts of this 8 acre spice section. It quickly turned to stairs. I do not do stairs, so I sent Bobbi. It was also sunny and becoming very hot. Bobbi said it was beautiful, but a very hard and scary walk. The path turned and twisted and went over slippery areas and lots of stairs. She would not do it again knowing how difficult it was. She was even more unhappy to find, at the very top, a tractor with a tram for passengers, that could have been used.

Then it was on to the batik factory. This one wasn’t much nor was the stuff they were selling compared to others we have been to. They take different kinds of materials and paint and put it through several processes to get the finished product. Some of the things were very pretty but there was nothing we could use. Their shirts and blouses were far too small as were their table cloths. That, of course, does not slow Bobbi down a bit. She will buy any kind of junk and did. Excuse me! She says she does not buy junk. It is all good stuff. I guess I stand corrected. I also guess there must be a difference in our thinking about what is junk or not.

Now for the best part. It was time for lunch. We went to the Shangri-La Hotel. The place was very pretty and had a very nice ball room. It was sit down with very good service. There were many dishes of different foods placed on a glass turn table on each guest table. It was all oriental foods and it was all very different and really good. There was more then we could eat.

Bobbi thinks it was really funny when the waiter came to put rice on our plates. He had put a spoon or two on some peoples plates. When he got to me, my head was turned away, talking to people. While I’m not looking, Bobbi saws the little guy looked at me and just kept piling in on my plate. I had to shoo him away. The rice was delicious though and I did eat most of it.

After lunch the bus took us back through George Town. We were let off and each of us got on trishaws. A trishaw is a three wheeled bicycle vehicle with a seat in the front over a wheel on each side and a third wheel and bicycle with seat in the rear. Then one of those little skinny guys tries to pedal your rear end all over town. They are locally called king of the road. They don’t seem to understand the difference between green and red at traffic signals. They will pedal down the middle of a busy street, blocking all traffic or on the wrong side of a street and the wrong way down one way streets.

After half an hour of damaging our posteriors with these suspension less vehicles, they dropped us at an old restored very large house. A mansion over 100 years old. When I got off the trishaw I finally got a good look at my king of the road. He was old and scrawny and tiny. He couldn’t have weighed 100 pounds. He was covered from head to foot in sweat. He looked like he fell in the drink somewhere.

The house was very nice but not much by my tastes. After touring the house we got back on the bus. There was a cocktail party for Seven Seas Society gold, platinum, and titanium members. They, which includes us, were dropped off at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel. The others were taken back to the dock.

This was another land mark hotel built in 1885. Thankfully it was air conditioned. The ballroom was the original and it was built in 1903. It was all set up with tables, chairs and nice cloth napkins and tablecloths. There were many waiters serving any kind of drink you didn’t want. They were serving one we had not seen on over 35 years. A Pimms Cup. This is an Indian alcoholic drink. There are many different Pimms Cups. The one we had was Pimms Cup #1. It tastes a lot like tea that has been sweetened. They had no Vodka nor was there anything I recognized except Jim Beam.

This had been a very long and a very hot and sticky day. We had made a date to have dinner with the Rabbi and his wife, so we left just after the captain made his speech.

After walking around the place looking for our bus going back to the ship, we finally found our return transportation out in back of the hotel. Surprise, surprise. It was trishaws again. I didn’t know if my weakened posterior could handle another ride in those torture buggies, but it was the only game in town and somehow we did survive.

While we had been to Penang before, just about everything we saw was different. You could have convinced us that this was a different place.

The people we came into contact with were friendly and rather laid back. I guess you have to be in that heat.