Malaysia

Our fifth port of call was Penang Malaysia. Penang is a small island just off the coast of mainland Malaysia, and the two are connected by a 13 kilometer long bridge. Unlike the previous ports, our ship anchored in the harbor and we had to take the lifeboats to and from the docks (a process known as tendering). Here is a summary of my five day stay:

Day 1

I had an FDP with my Asian Art teacher at 9:30, so we got priority for the first tender off the ship; the morning of the first day the tender boats went back and forth quickly to get everyone off, but the rest of the time the boat would leave the ship at the top of every hour and leave the docks at half past – 12:30, 1:30, etc. Our professor took us on a walking tour of the Chinese area of Georgetown, the city on the island of Penang, looking at several temples and traditional homes.

Streets of Georgetown / Penang

A local Buddhist temple

After the tour ended (around 1:00) I took a short walk around the dock area and found a bank, but unfortunately my ATM card would not work (I got worried but later found out it just didn’t work at that particular bank). I got back to the pier at 2:00 and waited for the 2:30 tender. When they finally started up the engines there was a problem, so we had to leave the boat, go back to the pier, and wait for another one to arrive. By the time we reached the ship it was past 3:00, and after a shower I decided to take a nap. I woke up at about 5:00 when my roommate Fred came back, and we made plans to take the 6:00 tender for dinner.

A group of six of us took two taxis to a restaurant that had a mix of Chinese and Malaysian food. We ordered several dishes to share as well as individual ones – I got sweet chicken with rice and mixed vegetables. After dinner we walked to a nearby mall and found a coffee shop that had free internet access. While the others were at the shop on their computers Fred and I went into the mall looking for a camera store. The lens on my camera was jammed and Fred lost his in Brazil (he had an old one as a backup). We found a store fairly easily, and after looking around Fred decided he wanted to get the same one he had lost before. I picked out a Nikon that was relatively cheap but still good quality. We also found an ATM at the mall and I successfully got some cash.

Back at the coffee shop we saw one of our friends from the ship with her boyfriend who had come all the way from NY to visit her. We decided to go to the bar at hotel they were staying at, which (in my opinion) was a bad idea since drinks were twice as much as a regular bar, plus it took about 20 minutes to get them. By the time we had finished the first round it was already 11:30 and the others wanted to get back to the pier (a tender left at 12:30 and the last one was at 1:00).

Day 2
I woke up at 8:00 for breakfast and then packed for my SAS trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital and largest city. The group met in the union at 9:30 and we took the 10:00 tender to the pier, where two tour busses were waiting for us. We learned that we would be split into two different hotels based on which bus we had been assigned to. The drive itself took between 4 and 5 hours, but with rest stops and lunch we didn’t get to our hotel until almost 5 pm.

downtown Kuala Lumpur

If you party in KL the beer towers
are the way to go!

I was paired up in a room with Chris, who goes to school in Arizona and is from Virginia. After checking in a few of us walked around the area by our hotel and went up to the top floor where there was a restaurant with an amazing view of the city (we only went up to take some pictures). At 7:00 our SAS group took the tour bus to a large restaurant for dinner and a culture show. The food was fine, but not as good as the previous night. The show consisted of several various forms of traditional Malay dances. Afterwards some of us went out to a few of the bars in the area before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3

We got a wake-up call at 7:30 am, and Chris and I both slept through it and missed our city tour. I woke up at 9:45 and got Chris up, but when we realized we had missed it we decided to go ahead and sleep in until lunchtime. By the time we go up it was past noon, and we didn’t get to the restaurant until around 1:00 (Chris really wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse).

Petronas Twin Towers, KL

 After eating we went back to the hotel and I watched some TV and read the newspaper while Chris took a nap. When he got up we walked to the Swiss Gardens, the hotel that the kids from the other bus were staying at. We saw Drew, an SAS student, and he showed us his room, which was definitely nicer than ours (I didn’t care that much but some of the other kids staying in the Federal were upset). We met several other students who had gone on the city tour and we all went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I had a salmon roll, noodle soup, and fried dumplings. After dinner we stopped at a bar next door and eventually made our way to some of the same places we had been the night before.

Day 4

We had a wake-up call at 10:00, and this time I got up, took a shower and then woke Chris up (who slept through it again). The two of us went downstairs and had breakfast at the hotel (provided by the tour) then packed and met the group in the lobby by 11:30. Before leaving KL the bus stopped at a mall and we had buffet style lunch at an Indian restaurant, plus about half an hour to explore the mall. I bought some reading material for the bus ride and looked through a media store but didn’t get anything.

We arrived in Penang at 6:15 and caught the 6:30 tender, although it ran late because the crew had to check all of our bags. I got back to the ship at 7:00, took a shower, checked some emails, and got on the 8:00 tender (if you haven’t realized this by now, the tender process is really annoying and time consuming). I took a taxi with a couple other students to a hotel they were staying at, but I didn’t want to stay overnight since I was planning on doing a city tour that Larry Butler (my art teacher) was offering the following morning. I found a nearby restaurant to get some food, and then I walked back towards the pier, going through the Indian part of town (with an evening market) along the way. I made the 10:30 tender and caught up on some sleep back at the ship.

Day 5

Buddhist temple in Georgetown

I got breakfast on the ship with Fred, who was considering doing the walking tour but decided not to. I took the 9:00 tender and met Butler and several other students at around 9:30. We walked through historic Penang, visited a Chinese temple, a Hindu temple, a mosque, and a Chinese clan house. The tour ended at 12:00, and I walked back to the pier with Matt (who I met on the tour), where he was meeting two other students at 1:00 to go for lunch. The four of us went to The Coffee Bean near a mall since they wanted coffee and the place also served food. We ate and talked for awhile before getting a taxi back to the pier by the 3:30 tender.