Penang, Malaysia

It was difficult leaving Villa Santai behind but there was no time for remorse as I had a 6:30am flight. After a brief stop in Jakarta we continued on to Penang.I had forgotten what a charming city the section of Georgetown was. All the colonial structures are now 100 years old. Arabs, Indians Malays and the odd sprinkling of other nationalities made this a most exciting, cosmopolitan city. I initally stayed at the Oriental Hotel ($20/night) but found it was a much better deal just down the road at the Continental which included breakfast and had a lovely swimming pool. The old E&O hotel is finally open and as decadent as the Raffels in Singapore, though maybe not quite so grand. It's about $100/night. I went to a mall called "Looking Good" and found the pirated software I was looking for, despite most of those businesses driven out by the government for copywrite infringement. Knowing Penang pretty well after doing a dozen or so "visa runs" here when I lived in Thailand, I knew where to catch the local bus as opposed to taking the much more expensive taxi. Plus it was more exciting. Having attained what I came here for, I booked a ticket to Phuket for the next day. I felt that I was leaving for home as I had recently resided there for four years. Plus, I wanted to see the results of the tsunami firsthand.