If you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain...

Sorry about the dodgy title but it captures the essence of our holiday in Singapore and Penang. So here goes...
After several pleasant days catching up with family in Wellington, Christchurch and Hokitika we left for Singapore on 13 April. 10 hours later we were greeted by the Singapore heat and humidity. Thanks goodness for air con!
We had one day in Singapore to kill before heading of to Penang so we decided we'd make the most of it. Unfortunately a lot of the stuff that used to be free on the Stopover package is no longer so, so we had to amuse ourselves.
First up was a trip to Chinatown full of crazy looking shops and people selling 'top quality' silk products. We visited the wet market, which was truly amazing. Everywhere you looked people were selling live turtles, frogs, sea cucumbers, eels and hacking up huge fish to sell. It smelled of the sea and it was very chaotic. And that was just the fish part! Elsewhere there was meat, flowers and fruit, but the fish bit stood out the most.
After that we headed for the air conditioned wonderland that is Orchard Road, where all the main shopping complexes are. However, with 21 kilos each in our backpacks already it was strictly window shopping only. The afternoon was marked by a torrential downpour which made walking anywhere a bit difficult.
Now, everyone knows that you're allowed to be a bit tacky on holiday, so for dinner we went to a touristy seafood restaurant to have chilli crab with a free Singapore Sling. The Singapore Sling wasn't so good but the crab was great, and so much fun to eat as you have to use your hands. Very messy - I think we went through about 15 towelettes. Then we went on a free river cruise to end the day.
The next day we had to get up early to get to Johor Bahru in Malaysia for our flight to Penang. We knew that it was going to be a bit of a mission to get there but it turned out to be ridiculous. We travelled by taxi, underground, then bus to get to the border and then had to get on and off about three buses to clear customs on both sides. Then had another 40 minute bus ride to get to the airport. We hadn't known how long it would all take and had left the hotel quite early, but we only made it to the airport 25 minutes before the flight. Now in NZ that would be fine, but here the check-in counter CLOSED 45 minutes before the flight. We were lucky to strike a nice guy who let us on anyway but it was a bit fraught for a few minutes. But everyone needs to have one of those experiences at least once in their life!


Fishing village just down the beach from the hotel...

Our resort in Penang was great, right beside the sea with a huge pool (cause you can't swim in the sea due to jellyfish) and the sun was shining. We had lunch for a ridiculously cheap price at a tiny 'café' across the road. You took some rice and then had a choice of several different curries, fried fish and vegetables. It looked a bit manky but the food was excellent and we went back there the next day. The afternoon was spent in the pool and lazing on deckchairs, and was only marred by a huge thunder storm that suddenly came up. There was forked lightening and everything, with torrential rain. We had mee goreng for dinner (what else) for the grand total of $1.75 each.
Feeling that we couldn't possibly spend a whole day in the pool, we visited the Penang Butterfly Farm the next morning, which was more interesting than it sounds. It's an enclosure with thousands of butterflies just flying around. There were also scorpions, snakes and the largest stick insects I've ever seen.



The pool was calling us, though, so we just had to spend the afternoon lazing around. And, just cause we could, we drank pina coladas IN the pool, from the in-pool bar. Extremely pleasant. Then a sunset walk along the beach was the perfect end to a perfect day. And of course more mee goreng.



We travelled back to Singapore the next day to catch our flight to Paris, where we're currently hanging out. But that's a whole other story.