Penang is Penasty

I woke up to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. It was 5:00 AM and we had to pack our bags because we're leaving the longhouses today. We had to say goodbye to our mom and dad. Before we left we had to take a family picture.



We had breakfast at 6:00 AM and we were in the cars headed to the airport by 7:00 AM. During our flight to KL, I had the window seat and it was awesome. This was the first time on the trip that I got a window seat, plus it was the first time ever that I got to look outside and see nothing but cloud. I didn't know that flying directly into clouds causes so much turbulence. When I looked out the window I was awestruck by the beauty God's creation. 

When we got the airport we had to find our own lunch. I've been craving American food, so I immediately hopped in line for KFC. I honestly think that KFC is better in this part of the world, that was a much needed meal for me. After lunch we waited in the airport for our flight to Penang. Unfortunately, I got an aisle seat for this one. It wasn't too bad because I slept for most of the way. When we landed in Penang we met our tour guide and then checked into the hotel. I hopped in the shower so fast that I almost forgot to take off all of my clothes. Being away from running water for even a couple days really makes you appreciate the little things. My first impression of Penang was not the best. We looked outside our hotel window and the view looked pretty bad. The city just looks poor and not nice. 

My friends and I had to do laundry today and that was probably the biggest struggle. We went out looking for a laundromat, but the only thing we found was a shop with a little old lady and two run down machines. So we had to go on the hunt for another one. Luckily one of my friends speaks Mandarin so she was able to communicate with most of the locals here because about 60% of the population in Penang is Chinese. We walked for about 45 minutes in the rain until we found one, but this one was even worse than the last one! There were a good amount of machines, but they were all broken. The machine ate about 5 ringgits before we realized that nothing worked. So we asked a couple more locals and finally found one. The only thing is for this one we just dropped off our clothes and we're supposed to go pick it up tomorrow, with everything still there hopefully. Once we finally handled that laundry situation we got to eat. Thankfully our friend that speaks Mandarin was able to lead us to the best place to eat around that part of town, the place was called the Red Garden. 

It was actually really good and I thought that my first impression of Penang was wrong. After we ate we headed back to the hotel and I realized that my first impression might be right. As we were walking we saw a bunch of homeless people and multiple poops on the sidewalks. I'm almost positive that this is human poop, somebody pooped in the middle of the only place that pedestrians can walk. The walk back really turned me off to the city, hopefully tomorrow is better. 

Sal Puma