Hello from Penang!

I arrived in the evening, worked the taxi system and showed up at a corner home on a busy street. Actually the taxi driver missed it and reversed on this busy road; I was scared, so I didn't look. The home is a quant three bedroom home. All of the floors are tiled. I get my own room with a bathroom. And I have a shower! (Which I was hoping for).

The garden (yard) is beautiful with gorgeous flowering plants. There is also, a papaya tree. Across the street there is a soccer field, where there is a team that practices every afternoon.

Today, I went downtown with Auntie Aihowa. We ate at a local hawker (street vendor) and had Wan tan Mee. It was want tan soup, the best I have ever had. There was also a noodle dish with a few pieces of chicken.

For a snack we had ice kacang, a Malaysian dessert. It is a frozen dessert, like a snow cone with saigo (a palm fruit with food coloring), corn kernals,  red beans, all topped with chocolate ice cream. It was very colorful with red, and green. I forgot to take a picture, so I have an excuse to have it again.

For dinner, I met Auntie Keng Hong. We also ate at a local hawker called Western Food. I had the chicken chop, which was very similar to chicken fried steak. It had Asian ketchup dribbled on top of it. It is a very thin, tomato based. It also came with a few french fries and some garlic bread. For dessert, I ate a few pieces of Swiss dark chocolate that she brought from Europe.

Selamat Malam (good night in Malay)

Hello from Hong Kong!
The plane ride over was uneventful. Although I learned that you must eat when they offer you a meal because it will be thrown out within an hour and you then starve until the next one. So, breakfast was excellent; It was an omelet (just eggs) with a sauce dribbled over it, with a muffin, blueberry yogurt and fruit. Unfortunately the seats did not recline, so I slept sitting up. The airplane held 400 people (40 rows of 10 seats) in economy. The first and business class entered through a special door, so I have no idea what kind of treatment they had. Although there are rumors that their seats reclined to a sleeping position. 

The airplane has two stories with two entrances, one for economy and the other for first and business classes. I really wanted to sneak in and take a look at the business and first classes. I wanted to see what I was missing out on. It might be worth the extra cost to actually recline or lay horizontal during the 14 hr trip across the Pacific Ocean.

After a long 14 hours I needed a freshen up. So I stuck my head under the sink, which really woke me up. I felt normal again after a quick face wash and brushing my teeth.

 After spending 6 hours, I started to feel like a trapped animal. There is really only one area with interesting shops to wander about in. Watching the planes land over the ocean and the boats go to port only passes so much time.

And, my new friend Cindy and I went to look for some local cuisine. We ended up at a restaurant named Taiwan Beef Noodle.  She ordered the beef and soup noodle. I ordered the brasien rice with pork. Both were very tasty.

Next stop, Penang, Malaysia.