Holiday to Penang

June 10^th - 24^th 2024

10 June. Heathrow, London. I'd managed to wangle a bid upgrade to Business Suite for the flight to KL. All very nice, but not particularly worth it.

12 June. Georgetown, Penang. A lazy day. Morning by the pool, then I visited a mall in the afternoon. We ate La La Pot for dinner. Javon often talks about it. It turns out that la la is clams! So clam hotpot. Basically the clams are cooked in a pot and you eat them. The pot is topped up with broth and you cook various things like veggies etc. We had shrimps and they were still alive when they arrived. Tasted good though!

13 June. Georgetown, Penang. Javon was up, showered, dressed and ready for work when I woke up, so we ate breakfast separately. I walked to Fort Cornwallis, which wasn't worth the entrance fee! Then took the free CAT bus for a drive around the town. It says on the side 'for tourists only' and was full of locals! Afternoon by the pool. Indian vegetarian meal in the evening. My biryani was under £3!

14 June. Georgetown, Penang. Tried to check in for Phuket today, but the app insists we do it at the airport. I walked to the Clan Jetties today. Over a hundred year old wooden walkways, with houses and shops on the sides. People still live there.

15 June. Georgetown, Penang. Off to the mainland today, over the First Bridge. We went to a mall then a visit to the Penang Bird Park. We caught the show and then saw lots of birds!

16 June. Georgetown, Penang. Javon showed me his new house before we left for the airport and Phuket.

17 June. Patong, Phuket. A day of doing not much on a damp day. We strolled down to the beach where I had a shoulder and back massage. Then a happy hour drink and a burger. Another stroll along Bangla Road to a shopping mall. I had a shower, he swam.

18 June. Patong, Phuket. City tour today. First stop was Tiger Kingdom, where people stroked tigers. I don't agree with this type of thing, so didn't do it. Next stop was an elephant park for photos with a forlorn baby elephant. Ditto. Then it was on to the Big Buddha, which was the reason for the outing. Excellent views and a big statue! Chaithararam temple next. Beautiful buildings. Then three shopping visits. A gem store, honey at Big Bee honey and cashew nuts. Finally some time in Phuket town, which was dressed for Pride, including a huge rainbow bear. We went up the clock tower at the museum. We could have missed out the three shopping trips and had longer in town. We went to a gay bar in the evening. They put on three drag shows. The first two were in the road outside the bar, with the occasional car or motor bike driving through!

19 June. Patong, Phuket. Today it rained on and off. When it rained it teemed down. So Javon spent some time in the pool taking selfies. Then we had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. Javon had a cardio session in the afternoon. In the evening we went to Simon Cabaret, a lady boy show. We were sat in the front row, much to Javon's annoyance. It was very good.

20 June. Patong, Phuket. A very wet start to the day, so we played pool. Javon had a balance class in the gym. Later we walked along the beach and through town. In the evening we had an excellent sea food dinner.

21 June. Patong, Phuket. The plane left for Penang early. When we arrived, the pilot aborted the landing and it took us half an hour to go round and approach from the other side. We were first off the plane, then we were held for about 10 minutes before being allowed to go to immigration. Javon was allowed to use the auto gates and had the bags 10 minutes later. Although I can use the gates, in Penang, it's Malaysians only, so I had to join the 8 other plane loads ahead of us. It took over an hour and a half! Most of the gates were unmanned. I was not impressed, to say the least!

22 June. Bayan Baru, Penang. We went over the Second Bridge to the Designer Outlet and IKEA. 'Nuff said!

23 June. Bayan Baru, Penang. Morning by the pool. The we went to a small aquarium. Finally we went to dinner with his mum. Thank heavens for Google Translate!