Malaysia Day Two: The Waiters

A few years ago I lived in France. It wasn't the traditional working holiday/backpacker experience; I was on a high school exchange. For an entire year I lived with a family and attended school – just like a real French Boy. I also had the opportunity to travel a bit. In fact one of the few things I didn't do while in Europe was go to McDonald’s. I once tallied up my visits and realised, for that year, I went to Italy more times than I went to Macca’s. And yet there we sat in Kuala Lumpur Airport, not one hour after landing, waiting for Bek to finish a less than hearty Macca’s breakfast.

I think I may have mentioned the more than ample time we’d allowed to meet all of our connections. For our next connection, the flight to Penang, we allowed a cool 4.5 hours – plenty of time to account for delays, immigration, baggage collection, check-in, maybe even a quick stroll through duty-free… We've got our bags. We've cleared immigration. We checked the time, 4:45 am. Too early to check-in. Nothing to do but wait. Or blog.

A double power nap and a few strange looks later, we were off to Penang: Land of Adventure. We were greeted at the airport by a man holding up a sign with all of our names (I thoroughly enjoyed that part). We piled into his van and headed off towards the hotel, and he provided us with a well-thought, informative and balanced commentary on current Penang politics (I thoroughly enjoyed that part). The Prime Minister was visiting Penang, and in order to gain some desperately needed votes, paid K-Pop super-star Psy an exorbitant amount of money to perform a free concert for the people (I sensed our driver less than thoroughly enjoyed that part).

When we arrived at our hotel we were relieved that the wait was finally over. We were swiftly greeted by the bell boy who took our luggage and ushered us into reception.
“Welcome to Hydro Hotel,” smiled a friendly receptionist, “do you have a reservation?”
“We sure do,” I handed her my passport, “I’m looking forward to a nice hot shower after that journey!” The others agreed, though we later decided it would be better to take separate showers.
“I’m sorry sir, but your room is not yet available. Neither of the rooms are ready yet.” What went wrong? We've got our bags. We’re at the hotel. We checked the time, 11:15 am. Too early to check-in. Nothing to do but wait. Or blog.

Malaysia Day One: Enter the Adventure

After surviving Highway Madness™ we arrived at the airport with time to spare. A lot of time to spare as it turned out. Actually, we had a lot of time to spare with all our connections throughout the entire trip. It seemed like a good idea, but waiting around in airports, hotel lobbies, and one time waiting inside the bus while the driver inexplicably walked away for 40 minutes... it’s easy to think that maybe we should be leaving things until the last minute. Maybe we should have been running to get there on time, lungs screaming for air; living on the edge! Then again, it did leave us plenty of time to go shopping.

The first (and only) stop on our impromptu shopping tour of Coolangatta Airport was the duty free shop, and I had been looking forward to acquiring a good scotch. I know what you’re saying, and yes, I normally only blog about rum, but if there’s one thing I love more than a good rum it’s a great scotch whisky. Admittedly, I’m something of a novice where fine scotch whiskies are concerned, which is especially embarrassing because I’m a bartender. If only we had a selection of Premium Top Shelf Scotches at work… (Kat The Amazing Manager, I’m talking to you :P)

But seriously, I had to start my Scotchucation™ somewhere, and what better place than at the top end of the Johnnie Walker range! I’ve had my eye on a bottle of Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve for a little while now – I even came this close to buying a bottle during Christmas sales. I decided that the time was right. Bottle number one sorted.

Now what to do about the second bottle? There wasn’t a huge selection in the small shop. The bottles of Double Black caught my eye, but I knew better. I had bought a bottle of that for the Mauritius trip, I found the flavours overpowering and altogether too smokey – not somewhere I wanted to revisit in a hurry. I briefly contemplated a bottle of Blue Label, when suddenly I saw it, in the corner of my eye. Just a glimpse. Something new. Johnnie Walker Explorers’ Club Collection: The Spice Road.
“Exclusive to travellers,” said the shopkeeper, who had sidled up behind me, “not available in stores.” Cool, sounds exclusive. Can’t wait to try it.
“Well that settles it then,” I replied, placing both bottles on the counter. Bottle number two sorted – I foresee a scotch night in the near future J

Our Marvelous Malaysia

So not in the mood for this. We’re on the highway and people are just merging – swerving – into our lane without so much as a thought. There’s a bloke on a motorbike weaving in and out of traffic with a kid on the back – neither are wearing any protective gear besides the Government mandated helmet. This nightmare of a road is unbelieveable; and we haven’t even made it to Coolangatta Airport.

“Airport?” I hear you say, “where are you off to this time Simon: The Adventurous Blogger?” We’re heading to Malaysia, the land of dreams, for a one week séjour. I’ve got to say I was pretty excited for this trip, and I hope I’ve documented things well enough so that now, back in the land of slightly more secure WiFi, I’m able to share a few choice moments. Enjoy.