First days in penang

Photo is Chinatown in Georgetown with the KOMTAR tower behind, which is an excellent landmark for us lost tourists to find our bearings.

This is a post about touristing about in the first few days. Next post I'll update about the more important pre race training.

We spent Sunday and Monday walking around Penang. We checked Guerney Plaza, a mall that is about 1/2 hour walk along the beach-front road away. Walking here is abnormal- nobody does it and the sidewalk is crumbling, narrow, overhung by short trees you have to duck under (but that provide some much needed shade), and running beside open sewers. Ah, yes, the smells can be overpowering, but I'm surprised that it's ok and I'm not gagging the whole time.

The mall was just like any North American mall with the Body Shop, Guess, et al. The real difference is the food court. The food there is cheap and fabulous.

Guerney drive also sports an outdoor hawker stall centre where we ate dinner on Sunday after another 1/2 hour walk back and there again. The range of options was bewildering and a little intimidating, especially as we were super tired, but we persevered and figured out that you find a table first, order your food at any number of stalls, tell them where you are sitting, then they bring it to you and you pay afterwards. The drinks stall people circulate constantly and you order from them just as you would in a restaurant with a waiter. We had the best chicken and beef satay.

I could go on and on about the food but I will save that for another post. We are taking a picture of every meal we eat in any case.

We walked the opposite direction on Monday and visited Chinatown (photo above), which is also similar to our Chinatowns but the narrow streets and crazy scooter drivers seem to make it more authentic. I recognized the cough medicine I use (nin jiom), so I'm set if I need that, except that i'm worried about banned substances that could be in the stuff for all I know and the random drug testing that is always threatened. So far we are well healthwise, although the long travel still feels a little wearing on the body. We changed time zones right away, but we are going to bed by 9pm at night, dead tired by that hour and sleeping until 6:30am.

We are surprised by how Malaysia is "same same but different" compared to Thailand. Thailand is just a little to the north of us, and the color of the water, the brightly painted fishing boats, the small streets and the two-stroke smelly motorcycles are just the same. I'm surprised by the mastery of English here though. I'm always expecting to do some charades, but they are rarely needed. The people also seem geniunly friendly and helpful, while we never knew in Thailand if we could trust the advice we were getting. On the downside, the beaches don't seem as inviting, possibly since we can see the sewage spilling out in the city mud-flats/beach.

Well I have to head to my last practice before tomorrow's 2k race. Ttyl.