Penang

I finished up my first roll of film today, so now I have twenty-some photos of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Mostly pictures of architecture--in all the cities I found the juxtaposition of modern looking sky-scrapers with really old and sometimes dilapidated buildings left over from the time that the British ruled this area really interesting. Despite my camera difficulties, I think I'll have some good shots. I really should get the camera looked at when I get back to Korea; any shots that succeed take three or four tries before they take, and if I am even standing in the shade for a shot, even if the target it brightly lit by sunlight, the camera tries to use the flash and since it doesn't think it has enough juice, even though the batteries are brand new, it fails and I can't take the photo.

That happened this morning when I wanted to take a photo of the outside of this great dim sum place I went to for breakfast. It was really delicious. One of my goals for Penang was to eat good dim sum, and I just happened to wander down the right alley this morning. I got to eat all my favorites, as well as this delicious noodle thing I'd never seen before. I stuffed myself on dim sum and drank a pot of tea for 11 Ringit, which is less than four bucks. They brought out the pot of tea with two tea cups immersed in hot water in a plastic bowl. I didn't really know how I was supposed to drink it. Looking around at all the old men who seemed to be there primarily for the tea, the dim sum secondary, most of them were drinking out of both cups. One guy even had three cups. I just stuck with one though. The staff there was really kind, too, and talkative. Even more people in Malaysia speak English than do in South Korea, and it's interesting because Malaysians of different ethnic backgrounds use English to converse with each other--it's a new thing to me to be in a foreign country where the natives use English to converse with each other and not just me. The diversity (of people and food!) here and the predominance of English would make it an attractive place to live, I think. The heat does get to me, though.

Yesterday I saw most of the Georgetown sights and today I plan to bus out to the butterfly farm and forest park to do some walking around. The buses here are a little nerve wracking, because they often don't run on time. I had some problems with that last night as I was trying to get back home from Penang Hill and it was getting later and later. I do feel a little unsafe traveling alone...though last night was the first time that set in. Being a female foreigner walking around alone I just get different looks than other tourists do. But in general the people here have been really kind and helpful, even strangers on the street, so I don't think I have much to fear.