Penang, Malaysia (GMT +8)

                                                 HAPPY THANKSGIVING
                                                         all you blog followers!

I appreciate your interest in my travels and hope to keep everyone interested every now and then. :-)

What I'm thankful for on this day:

On this day from the far side of the world, I'm thinking about - and missing:  Rosie, Meg & Mike, Conor & Kathi, Russ & Trish (and the girls), Chuck & BJ (Charlie & Becca, Hunter), Michael, Chuck & Melissa, Bob & Lisa, Brian & Jaime, Big Dog & Andrea, Al & Roxanne, my sailing buds - Terry, Mikey & Willy, and all of our extended families everywhere, also; all of my Navy buds around the country and world whether retired or still fighting the good fight so we can enjoy our freedoms and way of life. ;-)  I am a very lucky, blessed man, thankful for all of my family, friends and health. I miss you all....  God Bless Everyone and have a terrific, safe and relaxing, long weekend!!

BTW, no Thanksgiving in these here parts of the world... spent my day at the office meeting with a bunch of good folks that are important for me to get to know some. :-)  I did spend a little time thinking about my favorite foods for Thanksgiving: Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and turnips, gravy, cranberry sauce, any green veggie, dinner rolls, cherry pie... mmm, mmm, mmm!  :-)


November 24, 2010
Wednesday

Here I sit in my room on the 16th floor in the Traders Hotel (a branch of Shangri-la Hotels) blogging away. Spent only 3 hours, quite productive, in the Dell offices here this afternoon. Much larger and more populated than the offices in CJ - over 1,000 Dell folks in this 1 building here.  I have 2 late conference calls this evening before calling it a night and heading back to the office early tomorrow. No complaints... not getting paid to sleep in APJ! :-)

With all the days I've been giving to the Shangri-la Hotel chain, they gave me a complimentary upgrade to their Trader's Club level. Free snacks/food/drinks throughout the day - very nice. Views not bad either. Penang's got a ways to go before it can be considered a premier resort destination but, I think they'll get there. The city center's a mixture of old and not so new anymore with a smattering of construction going on... OK, getting ahead of myself here - back to the start of the day.

Got up at 0500. Took the edge off some of my accumulated e-mail... didn't have time to skype Rosie this morning. Got cleaned up, finished packing and headed down for a light breakfast. Came back up at 0630, picked up the bags and headed back down to the lobby to check out. My car service was already waiting for me.

Not much traffic heading south at this time in the morning and we got to the Domestic check-in terminal right at 0715. My flight's scheduled to take off at 0915.

The domestic terminal isn't very intuitive here at KLIA. It's much more local population friendly. There were lines all over the place of all lengths. One in particular was like a gigantic winding snake - I started to get that 'I hope that's not the line I need to be in' feeling. I found someone that looked like they were there to help - they were - and asked which line(s) was for domestic Malaysian Airline flights to Penang... yup, you guessed it, the line that was the looooooongest! Wadda ya gonna do?  Queued up!  The ladies were concerned about whether I had a ticket or not. Turns out if you don't, queuing up in line to check baggage does you no good. I guess lots of local air commuters buy their tickets from kiosks right at the end of the check-in counters day of.  Fortunately, I had purchased a ticket via AMEX - just needed a boarding pass as usual so, no problems.

After getting my boarding pass for Malaysia Flight #1138, seat 10C, I headed toward Gate A5. Since it's a domestic flight, no real security hassles. One check point just before x-raying to verify boarding pass and passport then, on to security. You just load all your stuff onto the x-ray belt and then walk through the portals. Easy, no mess, no hassles.

Here are a few Malay words and English translations:
- Pintu = Gate
- Tandas = Toilet
- Tuntutan Bagasi = Baggage Claim
- Keluar = Exit
- Gelung Hos = Hose Reel
- Teksi = Taxi
- Bas = Bus
- Sewa Kereta = Car Rental

My ride to Penang Island

KLIA is dominated by Malaysia Airlines. There are others but, most of the jets, at least in this part of the terminal were from this countries airline. My ride was a B737-400, as it was the other day from Singapore to KLIA. Got to the gate right at 0800 and it was closed. Didn't open up until about 0830. We took off 20mins late but, the flight only took 30mins on this day so, we landed on time.

Side Note:  I've been wanting to comment on a feature common to restrooms/wash rooms/toilets/water closets/heads - call them what you will - all across APJ. In fact this feature is not just common to APJ. This past summer while Conor and I were in Italy, I also noticed this particular feature in several public facilities around the country... the porcelain hole in the ground in lieu of a porcelain toilet seat.  My predominately Western upbringing still finds this endlessly fascinating!  I believe this is mostly due to the fact that even while I was growing up in rural Oklahoma 45yrs ago, in those most rudimentary, primitive locations, we still had outhouses that you sat in/on, not squatted over. I guess, all things being equal and one's aim being true, that it's probably a more sanitary means of taking care of business... of course, I'd find it challenging trying to catch up on some quality reading time having to squat so, I'd pass. :-)

A common feature throughout Asia

Penang is an island, known as "the Pearl of the Orient," I'm guessing a 1/3 of the size of Puerto Rico. Flying in over water with beautiful lush, green, tree-lined rising hills on both sides with huts and shanty's and more modern high-rises intermixed, just reminded me of flying into Roosevelt Roads, Naval Air Station, in PR, back in the day. Very scenic and serene. Although the airport is 'International' there's really not much to it. There's alot of construction going on which is good to see. 

Went down to the 1 baggage claim, picked up my bag and made my way out. I was met by 'Sara' my teksi driver - good guy, excellent English speaking ability, full of information about Penang - he's a local, born and raised - and answered any questions I had. Penang is connected to the mainland by an ~15km bridge. They're building another ~27km bridge to the mainland right by the airport to ease congestion and mitigate the snarls that occur is there's an accident on the current bridge.

About 22km from the airport to my hotel, the Traders, in city center. Cost 40rg (threw in 5rg tip). Arrived at hotel right at 1045, found out that I was going to be staying on the Trader's Club level and was escorted up to the 16th floor for check-in... kinda cool. My room #1605.

For lunch did some finger sandwiches in the Trader's Club lounge area and retired to my room to work until 1330 when I was picked up by another teksi and driven back south to the Dell offices near the airport. My host in Penang is a good guy, Pierre. Spent the afternoon with him getting to know each other.

The rest you know... I need to get this posted along with a couple of photo blogs.

Later!

P.S's - I guess I shouldn't be surprised but, it's rained a ton here every evening and the mornings have been fine. All of this moisture and heat manifests itself on most buildings that have been around awhile in the form of what looks to me to be mold. Can't be too healthy but, not sure what the general populace can do about it.

Every evening between 1800 and 2000, Trader's Club - 2 doors down from mine - hosts a cocktail and canapes open bar. Makes for a convenient place to have a couple of cold frothy Tiger beers and some heavy finger food after a long day at the office. :-)