Day 3: Singapore to Penang, Malaysia

What a long day...

Aww...But why?

Started with some dim sum in Chinatown, at a great restaurant called Yum Chaw (how cute!). It was in a house-type hotel, with the restaurant above the hotel lobby, and the rooms on the floors above the restaurant. Delicious foong jeow and mango pudding.

Walked around the stalls at Chinatown. I did not buy anything -- prices seemed a bit high. Although, maybe I should have bought this one cute keychain of a girl wearing a shirt that said "Chinese". The odds and ends were pretty consistent from one store to the next: t-shirts, key chains, wallets, Chinese figurines.

Chinatown.  A bright red building.

Jerky at the airport.  Sooo delicious!

Chinatown visit concluded and we went off to the airport! The flight to Penang was only 1hr20min long. What a huge difference it was going from Singapore City to Penang....the airport was old, hot, wet, dirty.

We took a taxi from the airport to the east beach area and a mall (I'll have to look up the name again later). And the unpleasant portion of the day began...we needed to find a cell phone store that unlocked phones for you, but the appropriate stores were so very far apart. Had to walk around with my stuffed backpack all around the mall, not even finding a place that offered the service. So, we figured we could just go to the hotel and worry about the phone tomorrow. Took a taxi from outside the mall, but the meter was not turned on. We asked, and he quoted us 30RM and said "no meter". I said "NoO noo" and got dropped back off where we started. We tried waiting around the mall for another taxi, but metered. But, in the 15 min we waited, all were the money-stealing taxis. We walked 15 min to some nice hotel to see if there were taxis there, and here we were informed that Penang's taxis are all like that, that KL is the only city in Malaysia where haggling is not allowed.

Our taxi then took us to the wrong hotel, but that was not their fault. Apparently the hotel we made reservations at also had guesthouse versions down the street. So, finally made it to the hotel at 6:45. My feet hurt.

For dinner, we walked to hawker area on the next street over, called Red Garden.  Around 15 stalls to choose from.
So tired now...

SINGAPORE STYLE NOODLES ARE MY FAVORITE