Penang

I sit on the day bed on the balcony of our hotel room, in Penang. When we set off this morning from Singapore I had no idea where we were going. Just another beach holiday! Tim had arranged it. In fact I didn't know we were going anywhere until last night. Packing is a no brainer. Bathing suit, cove-up, sandals, and whatever you wear on the plane. Life is very tough. Speaking of which, with all this I am lonely. This is a one way conversation. I am telling you what I am up to, but I don't hear from you. I would love to. Every little boring detail. As wonderful as this adventure is, it is not home, with my friends, catching up on your lives. So....... We flew in to Penang, an island, and a city, an hour north of Singapore in Maylasia. We are at a hotel on the beach, outside the city of Georgetown. It is a very different place to what we have experienced in Thailand. It feels more like home, like Florida or Caribbean. We can't quite figure why. One, it is not jungle. We are in a hotel off the beach road here. Pines and bamboo and the roll of the ocean waves. We are on the Andaman Sea again. The hotel is the rebuild of an old hotel The Lone Pine Tree. Has a real Malaysian ring doesn't it? And they aren't even pine trees. They look like pine but are something that sounds like casherengia or something. Look like th Cypress of the south Florida or Caribbean. Lunch by the pool and ocean, we had "pine needles" on our table. The food was excellent. I had an interesting salad. Tomatoes, cucumber, peanuts and batter-fried tiny anchovies. Not salty because they are so small, like 2 cms. They were like fresh bacon bits. Delicious! There is a photo of the original hotel in 1953, and it has been renoed or rebuilt, and it is lovely. Our room, with a balcony facing west to the rolling waves of the Andaman Sea. I am tucked away in the shade on the balcony lolling on a day bed. Tim naps. There balcony has shutters that slide long the balcony, to keep you in the shade. There is a tub, concrete, on the balcony! Guess who is having a tub under the starsbbeforembed tonight! The sand on the beach is more like Muskoka sand, I would guess from crushed rock, not the white powder of the Thai sand, crushed shell. There is a beach boy, a guy about eighty, toothless, the color of a Neilson's milk chocolate bar, with whom you check about swimming. The waves are big, meaning the breeze is lovely. No water sports though. And he lets you know the status of jelly fish on the beach. We will not be swimming in the Sea, although the water is warm. It is cloudy because of the wind. And the waves are big, like 3-4 feet. But oh, that lucious sound of the roll of the waves on the beach. We are going to go in to Georgetown tonight. Apparently there is a world heritage site. Have to google what it is. And apparently the food is fantastic. Hawkers. Tim has awakened so off we go. More to tell next time. Just love the idea of sitting here connected to the Internet, on the beach in Malaysia!