For the last time, no, I do not want a pretty lady or a taxi.

Penang, the Pearl of the Orient. Or so they say. I spent the last four days in Penang to sort out visa paperwork for my employment in Thailand. Penang, which is a small island on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, has a very rich history, and is a veritable melting pot of cultures. Here is a picture of Penang, or as it is officially named, Palau Penang (Palau means island, I think):

The head of the arrow is unfortunately covering the island. If you click here you can see the island in google maps. Life on the island, as I experienced it, was not as exciting as guidebooks made it out to be. The island is very, very small. From what I saw, it is also divided into two sections: the working people/backpackers section and the rich, tourist, resort section. The island had the feeling of a cheap, kitschy, Miami beach. Lots and lots of ocean front high rises, all-inclusive resort hotels that guests never have to leave, "authentic" markets that sell everything from fake gucci to fake (insert other trendy name here). Overall, I was not impressed. Granted, I only spent four days there. But I tried to see as much as I could. There were a number of interesting sites, one of which I wanted to see but never got to it. There is Penang Hill, which is a large hill that overlooks the entire northwest section of the island. I've got pictures of that, which was actually really beautiful. To get to the top of the hill, you have to take a cable car up, which takes about 45 minutes. I also visited Fort Cornwalis, which is the fort Francis Light built for the East India Trading Company when it first came to the island and set up shop. It was a pretty mediocre fort, as far as forts go. But when I was walking there I saw a lot of activity in the roads surrounding the fort, and started asking people what was happening. Turns out Penang was hosting one of Malaysia's most prestigious motorcycle races of the year, but it was the day I leave. Bummer. One more interesting fact, that I thought was pretty funny, about the fort. The chapel is one of the only buildings still standing from when the fort was built in the late 1700s. The first service held in it was the marriage of Francis Light's widow to a man stationed at the fort. Quite fitting.

Aside from that, Penang had a few touristy sites to visit, like the Toy Museum. The museum boasts to have the biggest collection of toys in the world. I might have to agree; it was a pretty staggering number of toys. Overall though, if you're planning a trip to South East Asia, don't feel bad skipping Penang.

Blogging from Bangkok

I had wanted to do this when I first got to Thailand, but my layover from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was too short to sit down and find the time to type this out. I think my desire to blog from Bangkok had more to do with the simple alliterative value than anything substantial. I also get the pleasure of writing this during Chanukah, so I guess it was a good thing I didn't do this until now.
At the very moment of this writing, I am sitting in a badly conceived "authentic" Thai restaurant, eating overpriced, poorly prepared food in the Departure wing of the Bangkok airport. In typical airport fashion, the mood is subdued. I think at airports everyone watches everyone else and fabricates elaborate stories of where they are going and where they are coming from. At least I do. I have found that points of transit are prime people watching locations. Airports, train stations, and bus depots are gold mines for witnessing human interaction and seeing the variety of crazy there is in the world.
I was really bored before, so I decided to take my camera out, place it on my table, and just start filming. The movie ended up being about 25 minutes because I forgot my camera was still filming. I am hoping that I can somehow edit the video to make it into a Mystery Science Theater-esque short. I guess I will have plenty of time to watch the video on my return trip. Maybe this will become a new hobby of mine, who knows.
Well, I have to finish eating and find my gate soon. Malaysia, here I come!

Mae Rim Loop

A friend and I decided to take a drive around the Mae Rim Loop last week, and I finally got around to organizing the pictures this weekend. The Mae Rim loop is a roughly 20 kilometer loop around some gorgeous (as you can see to the left) mountains a little north of Chiang Mai. It was strange, as it was my first time out of the city, to see how quickly the landscape changed from urban to completely rural. The drive was really fun, especially now that I've gotten comfortable on my motorbike (which I still need to get pictures of). The roads are very curvy and steep, perfect motorbiking roads. About halfway around the loop is the Queen's Botanical Gardens. There were so many different flowers, trees, and plants there. It was pretty astonishing to see the variety they had in the gardens. You can see more pictures like the one above just by clicking RIGHT HERE!! More updates are coming soon. I've been trying to finish my work at school early because next week I have to go to Malaysia to renew my visa. Woe is me. I'm going to Penang. I found this travel guide about the city in the New York Times. Apparently, Penang is one of the food capitals of the world. I guess I know what I'll be doing while I'm there.