Penang, here we come!

Sunday 21^st Feb 2016.

Up early for our 7am pick up. 

We’ve realized too late that the flight we have on our itinerary as 1200 is actually 1335, so instead of an extra hour in bed, we get to spend an extra hour in the airport! Our driver is a man who seems ok at first, but 20 minutes into the trip, out on the freeway doing 120km/hr, he starts doing the long blinks and I’m instantly on high alert! I had been hoping to catch a nap myself, but no way now! Every time he looks a bit noddy, I ask him a question or make some ridiculous comment about how straight the road is. He snaps awake again, but it’s a bloody long 2 hours! Although once we hit Bangkok city limits and the traffic is busier, he needs to be more alert so I can relax just a little bit. Longest 2 hours of my life!! 

We’re not allowed to check in because we’re too early but we don’t get this piece of news until we’ve lined up and reached the check in counter. Never mind, thanks to Trevor’s Paddle Pop lion t-shirt, we start a very interesting conversation with a retired American couple who have been away from home since October. October!!! Can’t wait to be retired!! They have a base in Singapore with their son who is married to a Singaporean and they’re certainly making the most of it. They just got in from Luang Prabang (big sigh) and are now heading for Myanmar. They stayed overnight at the Amari hotel at the Don Mueang airport and raved about it, and best of all, it was cheap! They’re budgeting $50 per night for accommodation (US dollars I’m guessing, but still….. ) 


I don’t know if we’d ever fly AirAsia again. We knew up front it was a low cost airline, so were prepared to pay for any food or beverages we wanted. It was an hour and ¾ flight and there was an announcement when we departed that there would be no alcoholic beverages served and sorry for the inconvenience. But we weren’t even offered water!! Apart from that, it was a very uneventful flight, I even managed to doze a bit. 


The taxi system they have at Penang International Airport would have to be the most convenient and sensible of anywhere I’ve seen. Apparently it was created in reaction to unscrupulous drivers who would rip people off by not using the meter, saying it was broken etc. So what you do now is go to the Airport Authority taxi counter, tell the person where you want to go, they take your money according to the zone you’re travelling to and issue you with a ticket in 2 halves, one for you and one for the driver. I guess they present their tickets at the end of the shift and get their money. Or they might just work for a flat wage, who knows. We had a very chatty driver and we asked him to teach us some words in Malay, hello and thank you mainly, but I’ve forgotten already. Pretty much everyone you deal with speaks English. 

Our hotel

Again, our hotel here is the Bayview, no relation to the one in Pattaya and we’re feeling very special. We’ve treated ourselves to a room that entitles us to use the Premiere Lounge on the 16^th floor, where we can have breakfast without the hubbub of the common people and in the afternoon there is afternoon tea, hot snacks and best of all, complimentary juices, soft drinks, beer, and wine. We arrived and checked in just in time to take advantage and then headed out to find some dinner. Oh, nearly forgot, we are also entitled to the laundering of 3 items per day, free of charge!! Beats stomping our clothes in the bath!!


We were both exhausted from our long day of travel so didn’t venture very far and as a consequence, ended up with a pizza just around the corner, but it was pretty good, especially for the price. Olive’s Bar. Plus happy hour cocktails, buy one get one free, gotta love that!
The bed here is fairly firm, but I don’t really care at this moment in time. Maybe we’ll do something about it tomorrow.