Good Morning, Penang!

Penang, August 26th 2011

Remains of the rain from the previous night were still left in the form of wet streets and cloudy sky. After having breakfast on the first floor of Sunway Georgetown Hotel, I took a morning walk to explore the vicinity.

This was my hotel, Sunway Georgetown Hotel. I booked through Asia Rooms and got a special price, 296 RM, for 2 nights. The reason for choosing this hotel was for the sake of the fitness center and swimming pool. I had planned not to miss my exercise routine. In the end I regretted this choice. The swimming pool was just a pool and the fitness centre was in a sorry state.

But my biggest regret was about my request for a collect call to Citibank. I was charged 84.9 RM for the call whereas when I confirmed the front desk the night before, the staff said I would only be charged 5 RM for making a collect call. I went into a long tedious argument with the manager until she returned 50% of the 84.9 RM. The odd thing is that on the bill presented to me upon check out, the items weren't specified. I was only given the total amount. When I asked why is it so much higher than the amount written on the voucher I got from Asia Rooms, the front desk staff answered that it included my telephone call. Then I asked how much my telephone call was. She told me 84.9 RM. Then I asked for written statement of my telephone call. Due to their system, the manager explained, I won't able to get it right away. I waited for 15 minutes but in vain. Several hours later I did get it through email in the form of a pdf file. On top of the paper something obviously had been erased. I don't know what was that. I feel something fishy here. Ah, anyway, that was actually the story of the next day. Let's continue our morning walk in Penang.

The hotel is not by the main road. It looks like this. It's not bad compared to Jakarta, but quite a shocking sight after being in Singapore even for only 3 days.

A building by the main road not far from Sunway Georgetown Hotel. I like the architecture of this building. If only the golden morning sun was shining...

Tune Hotel turned out not to be far. If I knew the fitness centre at Sunway Georgetown Hotel was bad and that the swimming pool was merely a pool, I would have just stayed at Tune Hotel and save more money.

Times Square is just within a walking distance. However, there's not much to find here. Even for a Jakarta girl who doesn't visit malls much, this Times Square was dull for me.

Most of Penang to me looks like Little China.

This is more interesting for me than Times Square. Cute architecture. The colors, the windows...

It looks like that this is a business area and these houses are actually offices for rent. I guess so.

"Saloon"?? Even the Malayans translate "salon" to "saloon"?? Suppose I come here to have my hair done and my hair turned awkward, I should not be surprised. The hairdresser undoubtedly must have been drunk. It's a saloon.

"Klinik Pergigian". Hah! For and Indonesian, that sounds rather eery.

Back to the hotel, I got into the tiny pool for a swim. In the hotel's website it looked grand. In reality, I think, this is a swimming pool for those with height less than 1 meter. That's if you really mean swimming as in sport.