I'm sitting here at a small, square table for 4, by myself (there are other guests here), in the Trader Lounge on the 16th floor with my back to the large bay windows overlooking George Town, capital of Penang, on this Friday evening, typing up my blog over heavy hors d'oeuvres and Tiger beer. Only got back from my teksi road trip to Batu Ferenggi and the Hard Rock Hotel/Cafe there 30mins ago - it's 1815 now.
Early up for work again today - wanted to get out a bit early this afternoon to see some of Penang before I depart tomorrow morning back to Singapore.
Dropped off at the office ~0700 and worked through the day until 1530 when I departed the pattern via my now familiar network of teksi drivers. In between I went out to lunch with a couple of my colleagues based out of Penang, Pierre and Suresh. They took me out to an inauspicious looking, at least to my untrained eye, local strip mall - there are tons of them - with an Indian restaurant, Jaya's, that's supposedly one of the best places to eat in Penang. :-) Since I love Indian veggie food, I was excited to partake. Based on the crowds of people starting to flow in, this place must have something going for it!
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| Jaya's |
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| Pierre in Jaya's |
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| Suresh and Pierre in Dell's parking lot |
Not quite sure what I was ordering but, my plate had: a type of fried rice, a potato cubed dish, diced okra (they call okra 'lady fingers' here... kinda makes sense visually), something with bean sprouts in it, something with cabbage it in, all lighted drenched in a curry gravy. Oh, and it was on the spicy side... delicious! For our beverage selection, I went along with Pierre's suggestion, a mango cream drink that looked like a creamsicle float. Tasted great however - they had put ice in it and I voiced my slight trepidation about drinking anything with local ice in it to the guys. They had no concerns so, what the heck, when in Rome.... :-) Anyway, a significant plate of food all for the whopping price, including the drink, of $12RG ($4US) - couldn't beat that.
OK, back to my afternoon.
I'd pre-arranged for Pierre's favorite driver and the guy that's been driving me around for the most part since I got here, 'Chris', to pick me up at the office at 1600 to drive me directly out to the Hard Rock Cafe located on the North shore of Penang Island in an area called Batu Ferenggi. Loosely translated, Batu Ferenggi means Rocky shoreline, and I can attest to that since I've been there. Now I know where the Star Trek folks got one of their series alien names! It's also where all of the high-end resorts, touristy hotels and, home's for the rich and European are who come out to vacation and buy 2nd homes. It's quite the drive from the offices to there but, chose to do so in order to circumvent the heavy rush hour traffic between 1700-1930 in and about downtown George Town.
Side note: Dell Malaysia is celebrating 15yrs in operation as of this year, 2010.
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| Congratulations, Dell Malaysia! |
Ended up finishing at the office early, so Chris arranged for his buddy, Ravi, to pick me up and be my driver/tour guide. He was just great! Mileage-wise, the whole round trip would be about 60km (~37miles) and take a couple of hours to road limitations and traffic volume. We'd agreed to a service fee of $100RG for the excursion - more than fair in my mind.
The trip's very scenic. You end up driving through neighborhoods, small urban areas, touristy locales with soaring high rises of all shapes and sizes dotting the coastline, while winding through sometimes narrow, climbing roads that hug the shoreline with nothing but a narrow spit of land lined with trees or shrubs between you and rocky water below. Fun drive... happy I wasn't negotiating the roads with all the traffic - including tons of small scooters/mopeds/motor cycles and buses, all while driving from the wrong side of the car - a residual of British influence!
Anyway, got to the relatively brand new Hard Rock (only been open 1 year) after what seemed like a much longer drive than it was, climbed out of the cab... Ravi would wait for as long as I wanted, only 10mins, while I went in and bought a t-shirt and pins. Happy once again! :-) As far as Hard Rocks go, it's one of them. Didn't spend anytime looking around. Just got back in the car and headed out.
As we were pulling out, Ravi asked me if I wanted to see the beach? What the heck... it's Friday and the only other thing I have planned is to head back to the hotel and relax until my flight on Saturday so, I said sure. :-)
We drove about a mile and he turned off the main drive into just a small parking area that fronts a pathway to the beach, maybe 100', lined with a myriad of vendors selling local stuff. I was certainly not dressed for this event - business casual - but wanted to see the beach anyway.
We were at Batu Ferenggi Beach. Not very deep but, stretched quite a ways to the East and West. Wasn't crowded at all. A couple of ramshackle buildings serving drinks and chow, beach chairs, some wave riders floating in the calm seas, a couple of folks being pulled by a boat under a parachute, someone on a horse, a dog rolling around in the sand and, just a smattering of folks that looked like locals and some foreigners. Very serene. In my penny loafers, I just walked down towards the beach and water, took some photos, turned around and headed back up.
Ravi was in no hurry to leave. I was his first customer of the day and knew he's be compensated well for his efforts. As I was walking out, I said to Ravi that I was thirsty and wanted to buy some water and the drink of his choice - on me. The Side Walk Cafe was on my left as we walked out. I noticed a drink locker that had some water and headed for it. On my way I noticed green coconuts, about 1/2 a dozen, just sitting out apparently ready to be headed and prepped for drinking! I hesitated... bought the water and some canned drink for Ravi and almost continued walking until Ravi suggested we have a sit and chill for awhile. Tremendous idea! :-)
I ended up buying 2 coconuts in addition to our other drinks. They were prepared and brought out to us with straws and spoons... WOW, did they taste great! Not too sweet, clean, clear and scrumptious! Ravi finished the liquid in the coconuts faster than I almost immediately started digging into the soft, coconut flesh in the husks - I followed suit. Very nice, not like the very hard, dried out coconut flesh we usually encounter in the US but, soft, pulpy flesh that melts in you mouth. I was too bloated with liquid to do justice to the rest of the coconut. No worries, the memory persists for me. :-)
Anyway, had a couple of photos of me shot by Ravi and we headed out. He drove me back an alternative way that included a lot of shoreline and did a good job of pointing things out to me, that I'm sure to forget, including hotels of interest and Penang's version of Chinatown and Little India.
Traffic had picked up quite alot due to rush hour and he dropped me off right at 1730 after an enjoyable 2 hour ride. $125RG later I was on my way up to finish this last blog in Malaysia.
Very glad to have gotten out to see a bit of the 'Pearl of the Orient.'
Enjoy the long Thanksgiving weekend everyone!
Later.
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