So sorry to keep you guys stranded on Penang! Have you had enough of roti canai? I've been preoccupied with job-hunting this past week, so I do apologize for the slight travel delay. But with everything in life, we all must move on. With that said, let's get back on the road and continue by train to Kuala Lumpur!
We had to rise very early the next day. And I'm talking about 4:30 AM. We were four women sharing one bathroom, and this wasn't any ordinary bathroom, not by Western standards anyway. This was a wet room shower, which is a very commonplace thing throughout Asia. You can see why no two people would want to share bathroom space. You know, one showers while one brushes her teeth? That didn't work here.
We had an 8 o'clock train to catch, and I wanted to be sure we were all up early to get some breakfast and hop on the free CAT shuttle that would take us back to the ferry terminal. The shuttle begins running at 6 AM. Breakfast was included in the hotel rate, but unfortunately for us it wasn't available until 7 AM, and I wanted to leave well before 7 AM. Fortunately there was a 24-hour diner right across from the hotel that serves all the Malaysian specialties, so that was where we ate. At 530 AM there was only one other patron. We ordered two roti canai (remember this could be eaten as breakfast or a snack), two plates of nasi lemak, a traditional Malaysian dish of coconut rice, anchovies, peanuts, egg, and sambal belacan, a red chili-based shrimp paste sauce, and a round of iced pulled Indian milk tea. Make sure you say 'teh dingin,' or 'teh sama es' (iced tea); otherwise your tea will come hot. Never fails.
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| Nasi lemak |
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| Roti canai |
At 6 AM when we returned to the hotel to grab our luggage, my family told me they did NOT want to take the ferry back to the train station. The reason being? We had this one heavy, bulky piece of rolling luggage filled with gifts for our Indonesian relatives that we've all been carrying around since Bangkok. It was literally filled beyond its capacity, and such a drag to handle. We were all annoyed with it, but I didn't realize just how annoyed my family was. My sisters especially were dreading having to go through that convoluted mess of a walkway -- up the stairs, down the stairs, to the right, to the left, up more stairs, down the stairs -- from the ferry terminal back to the Butterworth train station. It was physically demanding with all the luggage we had. I tried to assure them that we could do it one more time. That all we needed to do was get back on that shuttle, take the 15-minute ferry across the Strait to the mainland and walk the extra 15 minutes to the train station. We've already paid for the ferry ticket to get to Penang, which includes the ride back to Butterworth. But the decision was final. My family said, "No. We're going to take a cab to the station."
You should have seen the hotel clerk's face when we told him we'd like a cab to the Butterworth train station. He looked at us as if we were crazy, and said in Malay that no one takes a cab back to the station. It was unheard of. Everyone takes the ferry. We pressed on anyway and told him because of our luggage situation we thought it would be more convenient if we booked a cab. His response, "There is no cab in Georgetown out this early." OK, that may be, so our response? "Sir, can you call a cab for us?"
The middle-aged hotel clerk became annoyed at what seemed to him a ridiculous request. But he called anyway, and tried to negotiate a deal for us. Apparently not all cabs run on meters in Penang like they're supposed to. You must negotiate the fare before you climb in, or settle for a fixed price to your destination. In our case the hotel clerk ended up getting us a cab for RM 90. That's about $30 USD, money I really didn't want to spend when we could have gotten to the station gratis.
Much to my chagrin, the cab showed up at 7 AM and off we went. I wasn't sure how far the train station was from central Georgetown, but I knew that we had to cross the Penang Bridge to get there. Traffic was steady, but after 20 minutes into the ride I was beginning to feel anxious. The printed train tickets said to be at the station 30 minutes before departure. It was now 720 AM and we weren't even half-way across the bridge, which by the way, is almost as long as the San Francisco Bay Bridge at 8.4 miles. The beautiful sunrise, however, briefly took my mind off my worries.
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| The Penang Bridge |
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| Gorgeous sunrise, something we don't catch too often |
I couldn't take my eyes off the sun and the water. There was a peacefulness to it. The peace, however, was interrupted when I started to notice our driver taking up two lanes at a time. The guy never changed lanes; he just drove in between them. I was seated up front and kept looking back at my family to see if they had noticed. Both my sisters had their eyes closed, and my mom didn't say anything. I didn't either, but his driving made me nervous. I mean, I was once a driving instructor. I can't help if I notice mistakes on the road. Interestingly no one honked their horns in rage like they do in Indonesia. Maybe it was normal to ride two lanes here? No. I didn't see anyone else doing it. Perhaps it was too early in the day to get all worked up about some silly man who couldn't decide which lane he wanted.
I looked down at my watch. It was now 730 AM. So much for being at the station 30 minutes prior to departure. At that point I figured what the hell. This is Southeast Asia. Hardly anyone or anything leaves on time. I'm on an island. Relax Dewi. But still ... it's my nature to be early. Our driver asked what time our train was scheduled to leave. I told him 8 AM. He then decided to take a short-cut that essentially resulted in a dead-end. Not literally, but the route was closed off by motorcycle cops that were standing there waving off traffic for some unknown reason. We had to turn around along with everyone else who decided to take the same road. Why couldn't they put up signs 200 hundred feet away indicating such closure? Oh yeah, this is Southeast Asia. By this point I was silently freaking out and thought, what if we miss our train? I didn't know when the next train to Kuala Lumpur would be. I was counting on an 8 AM departure and the thought of taking another train, IF there was another train on this day, didn't even cross my mind in my research. This is why you always have to have a Plan B.
THANKFULLY, we made it to the train station with 20 minutes to spare. Whew! This was close. We thanked the driver, paid him his RM 90 rate, added tip, and dashed into the station. The train was there and people were already boarding. I confirmed with the ticket agent that this was the train to Kuala Lumpur, and we hopped on to find our seats.
The train was old, much older than the one we took from Bangkok. The seats were worn, cushioned seats like those on an airplane with not much leg-room. At least we were all seated together in one row and the seats reclined. The storage was on a shelf above your head. We put the big, heavy rolling bag at the very front of the coach where there was room. And the restroom? Another squat toilet, of course and gross as usual. It was a 6-hour trip. I prayed I didn't have to go. Interestingly the only modern thing on the train was a SAMSUNG flat-screen TV at the front of the coach, which remained off the entire ride. There was also AC, which I made sure we got by booking Superior class. Each ticket cost RM 34, or about $11 USD per person. We really couldn't complain. There weren't many people on this early train -- at least in our coach anyway, there were plenty of empty seats. But with stops along the way, it was bound to get full.
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| My sisters on the Express train to KL |
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| $11 USD per person for a 6-hour trip - not bad |
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| Mom and me |
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| Gigi was hilarious -- it stunk so bad it was funny. |
We were all briefly entertained by the cutest toddler who sat three or four rows in front of us. She was traveling with her mom and three older siblings, but kept leaving them to sit in the empty seats in front of Sahara and Gigi. Every seat had a storage pouch that contained a plastic puke bag, which the little girl found fascinating. She grabbed all the plastic bags she could find and brought them back to her seat in front of Sahara where she began to stuff one bag into another until it became one big ball of plastic bags. She had such a determined look on her face, she was on a mission. She then stood up on her seat to show Sahara what she had accomplished, and handed Sahara one plastic bag after another. It was hilarious.
The little girl then left only to come back to her newfound seat, this time with a brand new plastic bag in one hand and a juice box in the other. Instead of drinking from her juice box, she decided to pour the juice into the plastic bag. She spilled some on her dress and made quite a mess on the seat, but that didn't seem to faze her. When she finished pouring out the entire box, she held up the plastic bag once again to hand over to Sahara. My mom and I watched this little girl the entire time, it was so funny we couldn't stop laughing. Sahara of course, did not take the bag now filled with juice, so the toddler brought it to her mother. The next thing we heard was scolding in Malay, a few slaps, and a toddler's cry. Clearly her mother didn't find this funny.
Eventually we left all the green landscape behind for a modern city. I saw skyscrapers and luxury high-rise apartments, a Starbucks as well as shopping centers. I even saw the KL Tower and knew this was it. We have finally arrived at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station. It was now close to 230 PM. As you can imagine we were all very relieved to get off the stinky train, stretch our legs, use the facilities, get some cash, and some food.
The challenge, however, was to now find the Monorail Line to get to our hotel, which unfortunately wasn't as easy as I thought. This marked the beginning of many obstacles to come. Stayed tuned for the next post!
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| KL Sentral Station |
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