Filling in the gaps.

Sunday 28^th Feb 2016.

Our last full day in G Town. Bit sad about that, we’re just getting the hang of how things work and actually giving bus advice to other tourists!! Today after breakfast we’re going to walk, yes walk, to the Padang and pop into Fort Cornwallis. The hottest part of the day seems to be about 2-3pm so we’re out early enough to cover some ground before we start to wilt. And there’s a cool breeze coming across the water, so it’s almost pleasant. There’s a big cruise ship docked, one departing and another off in the distance heading in. Our waiter at breakfast said the port has become much busier with cruise ships over the last 5 years, which makes sense because the street art thing really kicked off in about 2012. It’s become a real tourist drawcard, when it’s not eating time, and even today there was a noticeable increase in people looking for the street art in town, just because it’s Sunday. It’s a double edged sword – the traffic is a much reduced but there is more competition for photo ops at the various art sites. 

Fort Cornwallis was interesting, 20 MYR entry each, but we spent nearly an hour in there, took more time in the chapel because we could sit in the cool for a bit. Then we ran the gauntlet of taxi drivers outside, all offering to take us on to the next big tourist drawcard, but because we’ve been here for a week, we’ve covered most of it. 

Beach Rd (Lebuh Pantai), as in Singapore, used to run along the foreshore but now there’s another 2 cross streets before you get to the water. A section of it was closed off to traffic this morning which was a great relief and there was a bit of a craft market happening. We wandered around a bit, finding more street art that we’d missed the other day when we were looking, laughing at the German tourists who were standing right in front of the art they were looking for, counting the number of bodies that will be very sunburned and sore tonight and just generally being amazed at the number of people who are in town looking for the art.
The trishaws that ply their trade around town are very ordinary in appearance, not decorated in any way but a coat of paint, so when we saw a bunch of them coming down the street, heavily decorated with fake flowers, we knew at once that this was a tour group from the ship we saw arrive this morning. It’s funny how totally obvious it is when playing ‘spot the tourist’ and I know we fall into that category, but do our best not to. 

The afternoon was to be dedicated to shopping. Yay! I’d read that shoes were cheaper here than at home, from cheap shoes through to better quality, and all sorts of things like razors, make up, toiletries, toothbrushes, the list goes on! Shopping centre of choice was Prangin Mall, mainly because it’s right next to Komtar where the bus terminal is. All roads lead to Komtar! We jumped a bus and for the first time, there came a ticket inspector! He reminded us that today was the last day of our pass. Thanks for that. 

Hungry light is on, so first thoughts are to find food, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. This mall is over 7 or so floors – where’s the food? Eventually we find the ‘food garden’, oversell yourself much? Found a place selling claypot chicken rice for 5.50 MYR and that’s something I’ve been looking for here. When it comes, it’s very smokey and not as expected (to be expected), but edible, and a lime juice for 1.50 MYR washes it down.

I’d heard there was a Bata shoe shop here and they comfy shoes, so we find that and I buy a pair that I like, 80 MYR. Then it’s back out into the heat for some street market shopping where I’d seen a sundress hanging outside as we went past on the bus this morning. Looking through the rack, there isn’t one as nice as the one hanging outside and the lady gets it down for me, and shows me to the change room. Wow! They have a change room!! The place next door has a sign up – ‘no try’. Hmm, no try, me no buy! A bit dear at 50 MYR but what the heck, I like it and it fits.

The next shop we go into has dresses that could only be described as moo-moos, but they’re made of nice fabric and that’s the key. I bought one that I liked the fabric of, it’s 90cm wide and at least 3 straight metres of fabric. Seeing as I haven’t been able to find any fabric here that I like, this one for 13 MYR is an absolute bargain and makes up for the price of the first one.
Not too far to walk home and even though it’s hot it’s nice to have a bit more of a look around. We get back in plenty of time to have a swim and a relax by the pool. There are some people there moving some hairdressing salon equipment from one building to another and with them is a sweet little girl about 3 or 4 years old. She was quite obviously entranced by the pool and her mother (we think, she seems young) says something to her that we assume to be ‘stay away from the pool’. Anyway, she does go closer and both Trevor and I are ready to jump in after her if she falls. Her mother sees her and grabs her and drags her closer, threatening to throw her in. The little girl squeals and runs back from the edge. This scenario is repeated and I say to Trevor if it happens again, I probably won’t be able to watch on in silence. So what happens? The guy (we assume her fairly young father) picks her up and holds her at arm’s length over the water. That’s it, I see red! I yell ‘hey don’t do that’ and he replies that she’s naughty. Trevor says that doesn’t matter and I tell him he’s mean to do that to her. I was tempted to get up and push him in to see how he liked it, but I probably would have ended up in jail or something! Anyway, we were both pretty angry and the people disappeared into the building. We waited a while to see if they came back but they didn’t so we figured the little girl was safe from being thrown in the pool and we left, still with blood boiling. What a way to end our relaxing by the pool!

To be continued.