Thursday 5th December
Last night we went
to the glorious E &O (Eastern and Orient) Hotel for Happy Hour drinks. It started off with a decorous four of us –
Pete and me (2XS), Jen and Michael (Tigerlily II.) We expected a few other boatloads to arrive
and yes…within half an hour there were 25 of us, crowding out the dignified
Farquhar Bar, once the haunt of my current boatfriend, W. Somerset Maugham.
Most people went
into Georgetown for dinner after this.
Pete and I were, apparently, made of sterner stuff and we started
walking along the waterfront, towards the marina…a VERY long way…
It was a beautiful
walk, with LOTS of lovely old houses, in various states of repair, to be
exclaimed over. But we got hungrier as
the miles went by…and for some reason we rejected every single food source, one
after the other, until at last we could bear it no longer. Too much choice!
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| E & O |
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| A mansion behind black & gold gates |
We ended up, faute de mieux, at a Korean restaurant,
Seoul Garden. I had a vague recollection
that Korean food is very nice. And
indeed it is! Delicate flavours, fresh
ingredients, all just perfect. We
staggered back out into the street, replete, feet aching, and caught the 101
bus the rest of the way home.
This morning I
again caught the 101 bus, straight into town.
I wanted to wander the streets of Georgetown alone for a while, and Pete
had Things To Do on2XS. Most of the things, he told me when we finally met up
at the Chinese Temple bus stop near Komtar (hellmouth shopping mall,) caused
him to swear and curse most foully. For
example, he cleared off the bunk in the port aft cabin – it has been a useful
storage place for this and that, over the past few months, and Pete wanted it
all pristine, for visitors. Just in
case.* He put the mattress protector on
and then carefully went to get a lovely clean new fitted sheet. He had brought said sheets in his case, all
the way back from Hobart in October, because we are short on bottom
sheets. (We do have, to compensate,
eight, yes EIGHT, doona covers…) Cry of
anguish #1 when he discovered it was a single sheet. (There are no single bunks on 2XS.) He carefully folded it up and went to get
another one. Oh NO…cry of anguish #2…yet another single sheet. And so it went, for the rest of the morning…
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| In Georgetown - Komtar Tower; old building in need of innovation |
One of my goals
was to find a post office and to send 20 postcards. Post offices are a scarce commodity but I
eventually found a big central one and lined up patiently. A lovely PO clerk carefully sold me the
necessary stamps, and said, That will be
7.5 ringgits, as he directed me to a little pot of glue to affix them. 7.5 ringgits is about $4…Can you imagine this
mail will ever get to Australia?? Maybe
on a coastal steamer…
I found some delightful
things in Georgetown.
A cat asleep on a
chair, looking very much at home.
And my favourite –
a knitting shop! Unfortunately it was
closed, but I did love the sign…
Pete and I finally met up, at the aforementioned Chinese temple bus stop, and did a bit of unsuccessful shopping for Pete – he is trying to get his wireless dongle fixed, and had brought his very heavy laptop computer to town in his backback, to get it all tuned in. Cry of anguish #3…his computer was, strangely, completely flat. (I say strangely in sarcastic tones. Pete’s computer battery is always flat…)
We had some lunch and then caught a 204 bus up Penang Hill to look at the fabulous Buddhist temple. By the time we got there…it was 5.45 and we weren’t allowed in to the inner sanctum. But it was just wonderful up there, and we saw what we needed to see.
Including this…A random few crates full of…reindeer???
We are finally
home from our Georgetown Adventures, and very soon we will sleep for the first
time on our new memory foam overlay – SO excited to find one right here in an unexpected
hidden factory outlet at the back of the posherella Straits Quay Mall.
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| At the temple |
* Tomorrow I hope
to find time, with the co-operation of Captain Pete, to write some sort of timetable
for our next few months, so that any friends and relations who are keen to come
and join us can make PLANS.
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