Penang, Malaysia: Day 2

I would expect today to be our longest day as most of us were awake around 3am.  (I sure hope that it's out longest day.)  Around 6am there was downpour that woke everyone else up so we met down at the hotel's breakfast buffet.  The service in Asia is phenomenal compared to the US.  The wait staff in the hotel is extremely attentive and competent.  Not only were the waiters and waitresses on top of clearing off our tables and offering buffet specials, the woman at the front desk remembered all of our room numbers from they day before.

Breakfast Buffet:

Dim sum and freshly made ramen for breakfast.

Jook, fried noodles, and roasted tomatoes.

A vegetable curry filled fried "pear".  It was a
little dumpling in the shape a pear.

Jook, brie, and a chicken sausage.

Potsticker

Second bowl of delicious soup noodles. 

After breakfast we headed out to look for the ferry.  The weather hasn't been as humid as I was expecting, but after walking around the city for a while dodging motor bikes and holes in the ground, we were all sweating like pigs.  The sidewalks, when there are some, are quite dangerous.  There are giant trenches between the sidewalk and road for water drainage as well as large holes.  Not just pot holes, but actual holes for more water drainage.

At the ferry and bus station.

Looking at fish on the pier.

Squatting in the shade.

Once we got our tickets for the ferry ride that we needed to take to the train to go to Kuala Lumpur (KL) the next day, we hopped on a free bus to take a ride around the city.  The people here all are very nice.  The woman next to me was pointing out buildings and museums once she found out that I'm American and on vacation.  The night before at the food court the lady serving us was also very nice and gave us tips on how to order food and to be careful about out purses in KL.  During our bus ride around the city, there was a HUGE downpour.  Unfortunately, after riding around the city in one bus, we had to transfer to another and got drenched.  We decided that it was safer to stay in the air conditioned malls.

Drying off at a Starbucks

I know this picture is upside down, but Photobucket
isn't working with me so I can't rotate it.  This is what
the Malaysian Ringgit looks like.

After shopping around for a while, we headed back to our hotel to catch a shuttle to the five-star hotel area of Penang where we wanted to experience the night market.

The Durian fruit that Mr. Fong has been dreaming
about.  I didn't think it was as stinky as everyone
had described, but I didn't have the guts to try any.

Sharing a coconut.  Because of the recent rain, it was very hot
and humid out.

We enjoyed the lounge chairs and beach of our sister hotel at the top of the hill.  This was us pretending we were actual patrons of the five-star hotel.

Our view from the lounge chairs.

Satay.  The first time I went to China with my family in 2001
 there were stands everywhere with this stuff, but my mom wouldn't
let me eat any.  Of course, I had to get some.   So far we've all
been lucky enough to not get sick.  Let's hope it stays that way.
The food court that we went to tonight seemed pretty clean though.
You could tell that most of the patrons were tourists. 

Clay pot of chicken parts and intestines.

Melissa's Indian dish.  Not sure what it was called, but it had
a nice kick to it and a lot of flavor.

My lamb vindaloo

Samosas

Grilled fish

Laksa

Satay with peanut sauce.

Garlic Naan and lentil soup.

At the end of the night, we walked and walked and walked looking
for this Hard Rock Cafe so that I could get Christopher a pin.  Since
we didn't know exactly where it was we almost gave up, but I'm
glad that we didn't.  There were some pretty shady looking areas
that I wasn't all too sure that I wanted to walk though, but as a group
of eight, it was okay.