Penang

George Town is a sea port on the island of Penang. We are staying in a hotel close to the airport which is about thirty minutes from George Town, from the beaches, and from anything remotely touristy. Nearby there is a mall which is 6 stories of insanity. When I say insanity think no layout, no rhyme or reason for anything, duplicate stores like crazy, and half of them are closed at any give point in the day. We have eaten 90 percent of our meals in the mall food-court because there are no restaurants close by. As terrible as it sounds the food-court is just mom and pop restaurants inside accompanied by KFC and McDonalds.

Our time here has mostly been spent in the hotel which sounds terrible like the aforementioned food court but it has also been nice. There is AC inside which has been a welcome relief from the heat and humidity. Tomorrow we are moving on from here to Kuala Lumpur and from Kuala Lumpur to Bali. There we shall surf, hike, snorkel, eat, and sleep. Life is hard these days.

On Sunday there is a general election in Malaysia. The big one. There are many campaign posters around advertising for the two major parties. What is most impressive are the flags. There are hundreds of thousands of flags flying each with the insignia of the different parties on each. There are flags hanging from apartment buildings, lining the streets, flying from restaurants, in yards, etc. It is not so much one flag flying in these places; there are flags and flags and flags all tied together sometimes hundreds at a time. It is kind of incredible to see. Today I saw a sign with one of the candidates faces on it and the words "Too Lazzzzzy" written underneath. I'm happy that the smear campaigns are so sophisticated.