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Yesterday we took the Penang Ferry over to the mainland to do a little exploring in Butterworth. Actually, the entire trip was predicated on Brenda's desire to travel across the 13.5 km long Penang bridge that joins Penang Island to mainland Malaysia.
When we arrived at the dock, a ferry was just pulling away from the moorings so we had to wait 20 minutes for the next ride over the water. Oddly, the trip to the mainland is free, but if you ferry back it costs 1.20 Ringgits. In any case, the ride over was pleasurable and offered very nice views of Georgetown's skyline and the clan jetties on the waterfront.
Built by the clansmen of the 19th century the jetties were segregated into distinct communities of Chinese immigrants arriving in Georgetown to work as traders, fishermen and dockworkers. The jetties were traditionally occupied by people of the clan that lived on them: Ong, Lim, Chew, Tan, Lee, New and Yeoh. The descendants of these early immigrants occupy the homes that line the jetties to this day.
We learned that the only buses crossing the Penang Bridge run as Park 'n Ride shuttles during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The departure point in Butterworth is the Sunway Festival Mall, which we decided would be our destination.
We boarded a bus bound for the mall and, after a very roundabout one hour ride along the milk run, arrived at Sunway at 3:00 PM. A quick walk through the mall (seen one, seen 'em all) where we discovered no bargains and we struck out to find our ride home.
Just as we exited the mall, we saw our bus pulling away from the curb and turning the corner. It was definitely not our day! It was a little before 5:30 and we confirmed with one of the transit company employees that we were, in fact, at the right stop for the shuttle back to the island.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes go by and every other bus number has driven by, save the one we need to catch. We again ask one of the drivers if we were at the right spot and he told us the bus would be by at 6:30! Then the same guy we first asked came back and told us the bus would be at 6:45!!! WTF! No sooner had he left our sight then our bus rounded the corner. Hallelujah! The driver confirmed he was going over to he island, so we got on. We were the only two passengers, but we anticipated he'd be picking up many others en route to the bridge. Nope. No one. Nothing. Nada. Just me, Brenda and our driver.
Now you have to appreciate that all of this is happening at the height of rush hour and traffic (slow at the best of times) is almost at a standstill. Once we get onto the bridge, we move at a pretty good clip, but the fun had only just begun.
Once we arrived onto the island, the traffic got heavier and heavier. To make matters worse, we were now on a highway heading towards the airport, in the complete opposite direction of our desired destination. I asked the driver if he could let us out and he said, No, not until Abedibdidagadoudi." Huh? OK then. With the barely moving traffic, it was clear he was extremely frustrated and probably would have stopped off at a bar for a beer if he didn't have these two stupid Farangs on board.
On and on we crawled until at 7:20 we arrived at Abedibdidagadoudi (or at least that's what I think the driver called it).
After another 20 minute wait for our bus to bring us back to Georgetown, we finally got on the 302 which, you guessed it, turned out to be another milk run through heavy traffic.
We had chosen to have dinner at Lily's Vegetarian Restaurant and arrived there at 8:30 to be told they were closing. Utterly dejected (and very hungry) we stood out on the sidewalk to come up with a plan B. As we were discussing our options, the lady who refused us entry, came out and informed us we could still go up to the second floor and order A la carte. Yahoo!
Up the stairs we go and after perusing the menu choose stir fried Gai lan, fried asparagus, broccoli and mushrooms and clay pot tofu and mushrooms. We place our order and the waiter says, "No Gai lan, no asparagus, Chinese New Year." So be it. We ordered a plate of stir fried sweet potato leaves to replace the unavailable dishes and were, in the end, very happy with all the food, it was delicious!
Once again we waddled our full happy bellies back to our hotel and retired for the evening.
Despite all the time we spent traveling around and the aggravations of the journey, Brenda's excitement over crossing the Penang Bridge made it all worth while. And I have to admit, it is a pretty impressive feat of engineering.
- comments
betty oh my...what a day! thank goodness for the fabulously engineered bridge.