Back to Penang (Part One)

~ finally after my last departure in 1996 I went back to Penang in 2011!!! ~

5th Februari 2011

I could not sleep the night before my flight back to Penang. I was in a nice hotel in Medan, and I was just having great dinner with my husband's friends at a fancy restaurant.

And so, when I finally saw Penang from the sky on my plane, I kept on looking and prayed to God that I will landed on it safely.

I could not stop my tears as my plane landed on the airport. Bayan Lepas Airport. If it is normal for other passengers, I would even scream...

"Yes, God, thanks! thanks! I came here again!!!"

And would dare to kiss the land of the airport like famous leaders in the news (Pope Paul in 1990s I guess).

Nope. Of course I was only crying silently. Only tears on my cheeks. Alhamdulillah, I arrived (back) at around 8 am in Penang safely.

Penang Airport

However, I feel terribly wanted to go to the toilet...And it would be my first time seeing a very very dirty toilet in Malaysia in my whole life! The toilet is full of tissues, dry, the flush is broken, and there were so many queue. And I decided not to do anything but leaving that toilet before I did anything!

Oh, you know my first impression is: Penang has gone worse than the Penang I left 15 years ago. I remembered that my ugly school toilets were not that dirty! 

I can understand the queue...oke lah...it was Chinese New Year season, so the airport is crowded...But such dirty toilet where you can't even do your business at all?

After the dirty toilet, I finally went to the airport cafe to eat something. I order "kopi" which means milk-coffee. 

Encik Muzaffar, a friend of my husband who picked us at the airport, thought I don't understand the differences between "kopi" and "kopi-o" that he ordered my coffee differently.

"Hayyoo, encik, I was in Penang for five years!!!"

After breakfast at the airport cafe, Muzaffar took us to the hotel which was not ready for us until 3 pm. Yeah, holiday season!! I think every hotel in Penang and everywhere else in Malaysia (especially where there are many Chinese) is full.

So Encik Muzaffar brought us to my husband's office as they have some business to do...After that he brought us around Georgetown - the old town.


While I was in the new office, which it was just in renovation and has not yet open for its public service as a branch of an airline company, I took my time looking around the neighbourhood. I felt so happy already. There was a Chinese shop on the left, and Indian restaurant on the right, and a little far from where I stood, I can see a Buddhist temple.
It is Penang! Yes, It is. The smell of Indian-vegan curries. The particular Penang-Chinese faces. And with Encik Muzaffar and the other two guys from Penang who speak in Malay North-dialect, so Penang already!


So then Encik Muzaffar brought us around Georgetown to the Muzeum. As it was a very hot sunny day, I decided not to take pictures at the Fort Cornwallis, and the Big Clock (I don't remember what it's name) and we have not enough time to visit the P Ramlee's house too, which I think I never been there either...(So bad, five years in Penang and never been there? yes! yes, it's mean I have to come back to Penang!!!!)


(to be continued)

Our Picture in front of the first Governor Of Penang's Car