Penang Trip Report

Very quick trip this one...

The gf flew MELSIN on Fri night. Sat morning we had some dim sum near my apartment, then headed to our Airasia flight to PEN. Flight was reasonably uneventful.

Took a cab to Shangri La Rasa Sayang Resort - got a good industry rate (think around S$245/night) for a room in their Rasa Wing, which comes with free afternoon tea, cocktails between 6-7pm and breakfast. Room had a little courtyard garden on the ground floor which was nice.

Spent most of Sat afternoon in and by the pool, reading, drinking etc. I finished reading hotel babylon, and now i'm reading air babylon. Air babylon is kinda boring, I spend most of my time trying to figure out what airline he works for as none of the colours, references or destinations match an airline.

Night time we went to the market and got some cheap lamps, coffee cup (I love collecting coffee cups).

Sunday we had late checkout at 3pm, but as the hotel had recently changed their checkout to noon we got locked out. How two departments cannot talk (reservations and front desk) astounds me, but it is what it is.

Headed into George Town, which is actually a UNESCO world heritage listed area (joint entrant with Malacca). Not really my scene, i'm not too into temples. Apparently the foo is good but we were severely sunburned so headed to the airport.

Big mistake! Nothing to do past security at this airport apart from buying some local buns and cakes which I took back to the troops at work.

AirAsia home was freightening. Man gets up mid taxi to use the restroom and the FA looks at him and wants to say something but doesn't. So common in an Asian culture and it drives me crazy. Imagine what the first officer is like! Then we line up and throttle up, and the FAs are still walking back to their jumpseat! I have a good mind to write to the Malaysian regulator with a copy to the Singapore one.

After takeoff the FAs go down the back and stay there, no one guards the cockpit door. I don't think i'll ever fly on AirAsia again, a pilot friend had warned me about them but I thought it was just sour grapes as he worked at a competitor... nope.

All in all a good but too quick trip - I needed a few days at a resort to unwind I think. The room was a good deal, If I totalled everything up i'd say our breakfast, afternoon tea, 6 cocktails in an hour would be more than S$100... so that puts the room at S$145 which is a steal.

Will def be back....

HKG in 2 weeks, MEL after that, HKG after that, then PER, Phuket and USA before year's end :)