It was about a half an hour drive to the closest airport, Sibu. We took a flight from Sibu airport to Kuala Lumpur (KL), where we stepped off the plane and into a bit of a culture shock. Hadn't we just woken up in the jungle this morning? We landed in KL, Malaysia's capital, and the airport is essentially a shopping mall with one of the best airport food courts I've seen in a while. Perhaps I was just hungry. We collected our baggage and re-checked it for our connecting flight to Penang, then Nikki and I found Dome Cafe, where we had veggie wraps, scones, tea, and bruschetta for lunch. It was a little pricier than other places in the food court, at $14 USD per person, but we felt it was well worth the money. (Especially since that is definitely not out of line for a nice lunch in the states.)
Our flight to Penang was very brief, and soon we had landed and were picking up our bags again. I must pack lighter in the future. At this point, my entire bag was pretty much dirty laundry, and I vowed to myself and others in the group that after check-in at the hotel we would make a B-line for the nearest laundromat.
Check-in took longer than we had hoped, (it took an hour and a half) despite the fact that we called ahead and asked them to have everything ready. But I really like our hotel. We're staying at the Georgetown City. It is directly across the street from the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital, and centrally located in town.
We asked the concierge where we could do laundry, and he said that we could have it done in the hotel. "Oh?" I asked. "Is there a laundromat in the hotel?" To which he replied that we could just leave it in a bag in the room and they would wash it for us. When we learned that we would have to pay per piece for items washed at the hotel, (That would certainly add up quickly!) we asked for the nearest laundromat. He directed us to one that was apparently very close to the hotel. We had planned to meet Eugene, one of our friends from La Sierra, for dinner, so we raced over with our laundry to find the laundromat the concierge spoke of. It turned out to be a dry cleaners, so we walked back to the entrance of our hotel.
Soon we found Eugene! It was so good to see him again!! Sandra, Meggie, Nikki, and I hopped into his car (with our laundry in tow) and he took us to dinner! We went to an open-air Indian restaurant where we got lots of curry, rice, naan, and mango lassi. It was delicious. After dinner, Eugene drove us back to the laundromat we had used on the trip last year, which is still the closest one to our hotel. We started our laundry, then went for dessert. Eugene took us to a hipster ice cream place called Honey Comb. Their specialty is fresh plain frozen yogurt with a slice of honeycomb on the side. However, he encouraged us to try the option that has drizzled honey instead of the honeycomb, so I did. It was soooo good! After dessert, Meggie got some new shoes because hers had gotten stolen at the longhouse. Then, we headed back to the laundromat to switch our loads to the dryer. Once we had done that, we still had to wait for a while, so we went to Starbucks down the street. Starbucks here has so much more to offer than the Starbucks does in the United States. For one, their tea menu is much larger, and they sell even sell tea lattes! Their pastries also look much better than they do in the states, and they sell affogatos (ice cream with a shot of espresso). C'mon Starbucks, step up your game in the United States!
We had a great time hanging out with Eugene! He was an awesome tour guide, and was so nice to drive us around and take us to do laundry, and even wait with us while it was drying! He's the best! It's been so fun to catch up. I'm really glad the schedule worked out so we could visit Penang while he was home for the summer!
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