The Nan crew has just
returned from our first cross-border adventure. Last weekend we had two days off for Buddhist Lent, so we
booked a cheap flight to Penang, Malaysia, a big island off the west coast of
the country. The plan was to take
a night bus to Bangkok after school on Wednesday, get to Penang and stay in
Georgetown (the city) on Thursday and Friday, then take a bus to Kuala Lumpur,
the capital, on Saturday for our flight back to Bangkok on Sunday. But naturally, plans change. On the
previous Friday, Prakop, our boss, came into the office and said, “Hannah, I
have good or bad news for you. You seem to have the wrong visa. Can you go to
Vientienne tomorrow?” At first, I
thought she was joking, but no, she was really suggesting that I go to Laos
after judging the English competition on Saturday morning. Although Nan is next
to Laos, it’s pretty tricky to actually get there and would probably have taken
the better part of 2 days, not to mention that the Embassy is closed on weekends. But then I remembered that I already
had a trip booked to leave Thailand! So new plan: I would leave Nan a day
earlier than everyone else and hit up the Thai Embassy in Penang.
So the adventure began with a
night bus, an 8 hour stay in Bangkok, and a flight to Penang. I made it to a
guesthouse that was quite nice, though on my way, a bird shat on the top of my
backpack—missing my head by centimeters. That’s supposed to be lucky, right?
Hopefully, it was giving me the luck I needed to get my visa in time for my
return flight to Bangkok…
Thursday morning, I woke up
early, ate some noodles on the street, and took a bus up to the area of the
Embassy. On the walk there, I met
a Thai woman who conveniently knew where it was a pointed me in the right direction.
I rounded the last corner of the walk, only to find a locked gate and a piece
of paper posted over the sign: “Embassy closed Thursday, August 2 for Thai
holiday. Open Friday, August 3.”
This was not good news, as I new that my visa would require a full
business day processing time. So I tried to talk to the guards, but they showed
me no mercy, telling me to leave and come back tomorrow. Woof.
Conveniently, it was only
9:45 am, so I headed back to the center of Georgetown for some
sightseeing. It’s quite a unique
city. Malaysia was colonized by the Dutch, Portuguese, and finally by the
British, and getting its independence in 1957. Georgetown was listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in the early 2000s, so it has been fairly well
preserved. The architecture is a
fascinating juxtaposition of large, stately, colonial buildings, smaller
colonial storefronts and homes, Chinese temples, Buddist temples, Hindi
temples, mosques, and even some ocean jetty neighborhoods. The colonial
storefronts seem to be crumbling under the bustling life of the city, but they
are so lively and bright at the same time. So, I met up with a few PiAers from Chiang Mai that were
also in Penang and spent all of Thursday walking around Georgetown, poking my
head into storefronts, tasting so many interesting foods, and taking way to
many pictures.
Here's Jacqueline and Laurel, some Chiang Mai fellows, at the Blue Mansion--the former home of a Chinese entrepreneur:
Speaking of food, apparently,
Penang is quite the food hub. Upon my arrival at the guesthouse, I was given a
city map and a full color brochure of all the foods that Penang has to offer—so
overwhelming for such a short trip. Clearly I had my dining work cut out for
me. So the day began with Char Kway Teo (similar to Pad See-ew in Thailand),
progressed to street tastes in Little India, mango sorbet, white coffee, and
ending with dinner at a Nyonya restaurant (Malaysian-Chinese). It was a delicious trip.
By dinnertime, the three
other Nan girls had arrived, and so the 4 of us, plus the 2 Chiang Mai girls,
plus another teacher from Japan staying at our hostel enjoyed a lovely
dinner. On the walk home, we
stumbled upon a Hindi temple where there was a hoppin’ dancing scene—all the
women were dressed in the most colorful saris, dancing in circles within
circles and having so much fun. We
stopped and gawked for maybe 30 seconds before being invited to join by one of
the men near the door. Apparently, since it was nearing the end of the
celebration, we could join in too! We stumbled into the circle and attempted to
follow along. It was impossible not to grin the entire time—it was so fun! I was a little worried we had crashed a
wedding though, but thankfully, it was a more casual brother-sister celebration
of sorts. What an end to the day!
Also, check out Dana's blog for a video of the dancing! http://wanderlustawaits.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/raksha-bandhan/
Friday, took me to the
Embassy once again. This time, I
arrived early, armed with an excess of Malaysian ringgit, Thai baht, and American
dollars, determined to get my visa in the one day that I had left in Penang, no
matter what. My hope was soon crushed, however, when I realized that my
situation was not unique. Judging by people’s conversations with the man at the
window, many people had tried to go on Thursday when it was closed and had
planes to catch as well. Oh boy. I continued to try to negotiate with the
window man, but I felt pretty defeated. I tried money, compromises, logical
arguments, but nothing seemed to make him budge. Then I saw the security guard
from the day before. He started talking to me and tapping the empty chair next
to him absentmindedly. So I took the hint (was it a hint?) and sat down next to
him. I told him my situation, and
he seemed to think I should just wait around and keep talking to the window guy
when less people were there. So in the meantime, I talked to him about random
things—his background, his job, his two daughters.
Around 11am I game the window
man one more try. He was getting nicer, but no less stingy with his
rule-following. I was stuck. Too overwhelmed to make any logical decision about
what to do, I brought out my notebook and made a list. It soon became clear
that it made the most sense to just change my plane ticket and stay in Penang through
Monday so that I could pick up my finished visa. Next, I set off to find a
phone. My security guard friend suggested that I use on of the taxi driver’s
phones, so I went out to the street to find some more friends to help me. This is about the point in the day
where I realized that people really are good and willing to help you out. One guy looked up the Air Asia phone
number, while a different man let me use his phone. For better or for worse,
the numbers were not going through. We tried at least 6 times to get through,
but no luck. Time was a-tickin’, especially since the embassy closed at 12
while they processed all the paper work.
11:40 rolled around and I
decided to just give in and give the window man my paper work, and figure out
my plane ticket later. I went up
to the window, where there was no longer a line to wait in, and handed him my
forms. I said, “Here are my papers.
I know you can’t do anything, so I will just--” and he said, “What do
you mean I can’t do anything!” This was sure a surprise, and the rest is still
a bit of a blur. Somehow, he took pity on me and decided that he would process
my visa that day! What a relief. So long story short, the visa was acquired
successfully. Whoa. Sorry for the extreme long-windedness.
Anyways, the rest of Penang
was wonderful! We left on Saturday afternoon for a 5-hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur,
but that soon became a ten-hour journey.
We rode the bus for about a half hour before we stopped for some
technical difficulties. It was a charter bus, but the AC was non-functional. No
good in the Malaysian heat. So
everyone got off the bus, and an hour and a half later we hopped on a new bus.
We stopped at a rest stop around 6:30, then for some reason we stopped again at
7:30. We looked around a bit bewildered, and the man next to us explained that
it was time for the Muslim bus driver to break his fast. Sure enough, the rest
station was packed with people, sitting at tables, full plates in front of
them, but no one was eating. Then we realized they were waiting for
sundown. Within 5 minutes,
everyone had tucked in. In ten
minutes, we were back on the bus on our way to KL.
We arrived around 9:30pm in
KL and soon found our way to our hostel, the Reggae Mansion (not even joking,
that was its name). It was indeed quite nice, perhaps even mansion status. We
hit the town and went to Little India to check out the night bazaar, bought
some dates, then meandered around KL for a bit. In the morning, we had a few
hours to walk through the city before catching the bus to the airport. I took advantage of the free breakfast
and made 2 PB and Js for the trip back home (about 18 hours in all), and
Allison, Dana, and I walked around Merdeka Square and the Chinatown market. More
interesting Mogul architecture and lots of super tall buildings. Malaysia is a
sure-fire melting pot.
Alison and Dana in Merdeka Square
Chinatown
And, just in case you forgot which country we were in:
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