April 6th

Penang

There was a delay with the ship being cleared again. Seeing as we were in Malacca yesterday, and as we have been hugging the coastline, I doubt we have been out of Malaysian waters, but it seems that the authorities delayed clearing the ship yet again. Maybe just because they could.

Finally we heard that all was clear, and we could head for the gangways on decks 1 and 2. We decided on deck 2, and when we got there it was clear that there were major delays to get off the ship. When we finally got to the front of the queue we realized that the card readers weren’t working, and that the security officer had to write in everyone’s full name and cabin number on a sheet of paper before they could disembark. Then I heard someone complaining that the internet had been down all morning. Could this all be part of the same problem one wonders.

Anyway we were off the ship, and were greeted by some musicians. I do love it when we are greeted by the local culture! It was quite a long walk out of the terminal. There was free wifi apparently, although I didn’t see any signs, there were also currency exchanges, and a port information desk where we were able to pick up some maps. The only shop was a stall selling work out clothes. Very odd.

As we exited the terminal we were immediately besieged by hordes of taxi and trishaw drivers. It was quite the challenge to get away from them. No one wanted to take no for an answer. The trishaws were pretty, but nothing like the ones yesterday to my disappointment. I like Hello Kitty.

Talking of kitties I have observed a strange cat phenomenon. We have been lucky enough to come across a lot of cats on our travels this trip. In most places if you approach a cat with “hey kitty kitty” and a big smile, they will acknowledge you, and meow back at you. In Singapore, they just stared back at me as if I was talking some foreign language. Very disappointing. Luckily the Penang cats were better educated, and I was able to elicit some great friendly meows back.

Anyway, we walked along the waterfront to see the Weld Quay Clan Piers. Apparently we got too close to the Customs Offices in our search because we were moved on by some officials, so we weren’t able to get the best photos. It all looked rather run down, and as if they houses were about to slip into the ocean.

We then tried to walk along the heritage trail to visit our fill of temples, mosques, and churches. They also don’t believe in side walks in Penang, so it was quite a challenge to get to where we were heading without getting run over or falling in an open drain. Penang is also filled with many shop houses. These ones are not in such a good state of repair as those in Singapore, but are still really quaint and lovely. I suddenly felt that Penang is the real thing, and as much as I love Singapore, it is almost like EPCOT with its different areas such a Little India, the Mosque area, China Town, Marina Bay etc. However, it is exponentially easier to get around Singapore without falling into a drain.

We spent the rest of the morning wandering around various Hindu and Buddhist temples, and the Kapitan Keling mosque, finally ending up at the minimalist St George’s Church.

Unfortunatley the Sri Mariamman Temple was closed. It has a wonderfully elaborate painted and carved gopuram and is dedicated to the deity Mariamman, the Great Powerful Mother. I like that.

The most interesting Buddhist temple was where they were burning these huge colorful incense rods – I would have loved to explore it more, but the smell and smoke were totally overwhelming and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

Being somewhat templed out, and being very hot and sticky, we decided it was time to head to the beautiful old Eastern and Oriental Hotel for a cold drink. Coincidently our friends Dan and Irene had had exactly the same idea, so we bumped into them there. Irene and I had their drink of the month – a passion fruit mojito. It was delicious and very refreshing.

After a much needed break we went to Fort Cornwallis, but you couldn’t see much because they were doing restoration work. Next to the fort was the most amazing food court, with dishes from all over the east. Definitely worth a visit.

Our final stop of the day was at the Victoria clock tower, built to honor Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. It was clearly in very good condition; I was glad that it is well looked after. Victoria did have her issues, but I am a huge fan of hers.

There was a queue to get back on board again. Yes indeed, the card system is still not working. I hoped that this glitch wasn’t affecting the electronics in general on the ship.

I needed to do some laundry, and thought it would be easy to get a machine with everyone being ashore, but I underestimated the need for the deck 8 crowd to do their washing. I had to wait ages for a machine, but did get up to date with everyone’s complaints about their cruise. I am having the best time ever, it’s so sad to hear that so many people have so many complaints. I am just happy to be on board, and that washing is the only chore I have to endure. No peeling of carrots for me for another 3 weeks.

Meanwhile Brian had gone to the Purser’s desk to change our Malaysian money, as we will not need it any more. He was told that due to the communications failure they were unable to do any transactions. Luckily he still had some time before sail away, and could go ashore to change it.

I was now a little nervous about us heading out to sea when clearly our communications system was defective, but this did not seem to be a problem, and as soon as everyone was on board, off we sailed for Sri Lanka.

Now we have 2 sea days ahead of us to catch up. And with the clocks going back an hour tonight, it’s also an hour’s extra sleep. Yay! However, something I do miss is that on the night of a time change we used to come back to the cabin and find a little note on our beds telling us about the time change, and the steward would have left the TV on to alert us to this fact. Now, we have to rely on reading the Daily Programme, and discussions with our tablemates as to whether it was today or tomorrow’s Daily Programmes we had read. It puts way too much responsibility on the passengers.

And talking about changes, we started off getting Godiva chocolates every night, now we are mostly getting Swiss Delice. It really doesn’t taste that good, but hey, I will accept any chocolate in a storm. However, some nights we still end up with Godivas. The old Cunard chocolates also didn’t taste that great, but at least they were consistent in that you knew what you were getting. I say bring back the Cunard chocolates, or else at least consistently give us Godivas.

Also, isn’t it about time we experienced some real waves? Maybe once we get out in to the Indian Ocean. It has been way too calm lately. Let’s get away from the shelter of dry land. I like to be rocked to sleep.