Batu Ferringhi and Back
25th November, Penang, Malaysia
We hadn't had much luck with the motorbike rental yesterday. I actually tried out two motorbikes, but returned the first one after just a short distance because it was nigh on impossible to change gears. It should be just a gentle tap on the gear changer with my toes and hey presto, a higher gear; what I had to do was literally stamp on the shifter with my heal and it might, if I'm lucky, move up a gear but more likely it would do nothing while the engine would sound like it was revving itself to an early bike grave. At other times, it would change gear, but about 5 seconds after I'd expected it to (all I can assume, with my limited knowledge of bike mechanics, is that at a certain amount of revs, something would fall into place). That was the first bike. The second one, the one that broke down because it was reporting a half tank of fuel that wasn't there, was only marginally better in the gear changing stakes. So the message was clear - get an automatic.
That's what we did today, but not until about midday. I had other matters to attend to today - a sore throat that had been bothering me for about 3 weeks. I finally realised that just taking Strepsils was not actually helping to resolve the problem, so I ventured out to find a clinic nearby. The first I went to I was told "Doctor not here, he on leave," in a brusque manner by the lady on reception. That being the case, I wondered why the door was open and what purpose she served being there ... and just what (or whom) was that man in the waiting room waiting to see? At the second clinic I tried, I was told by the two ladies who were on reception that the doctor would not be in until about 11:30am; they told me this in between the mouthfuls of soup that they were both consuming in a fashion that suggested they might be racing each other to finish. The third clinic was billed as an ear nose and throat specialist. Excellent, I thought, until I realised that they also specialise in not arriving for work until 2pm. Finallly, just at the point where I was going to give up (or wait until late afternoon to see a doctor), I found a clinic with a doctor who was there, was available and who had reception staff who were receptive to their clients.
The doctor took a quick look at the back of my throat, diagnosed tonsilitus then began writing down the various medications that should put me right again - antibiotics, anti-swelling and pain killers. For the next few days I'd need to take these pills 4 times a day on an empty stomach. That was gonna be difficult - not taking the pills, but finding four times in any given day when I hadn't recently snacked!
Feeling better that I'd done something to shift the throat problem, I collected the automatic bike and we headed off around the northern tip of the island towards Batu Ferringhi. This was billed as a nice beach area with resorts and lots of shops to wander around, but personally I thought the best part of it was getting there - lots of winding roads, shaded from the sun by the trees lining the route with views out to see here and there. When we got to Batu Ferringhi, we ended up riding all the way through and out the other side before returning once more. This was because it wasn't really clear that we'd 'got there'. Where was there? Where was the great spot that was supposed to be Batu Ferringhi? We did pull over and find a route down to the beach to see what the fuss was about, but the weather was not great now - quite overcast and, as such, made the beach look gloomier than it would otherwise.
We didn't stay long in Batu Ferringhi, and on the way back to Georgetown the weather took a turn for the worst. We got caught in a downpour as I tried, in vain, to find a shopping centre called Midlands (the one that Li Ping had taken us to the previous evening). In no time at all, that idea was scrapped in favour of returning to base and putting on some dry clothes.
In the evening we headed out to another shopping centre nearby, called Komtar, but I still wanted to track down that Midlands place. After an hour or two in Komtar, just mooching around, I decided I should try to find the other place once more, while we still had the bike to hand.
I ended up seeing quite a lot of Penang's main streets, some of them three times as I looped round again and again, but still that shopping centre evaded me. If only I'd brought a map with me!
Anyway, seeing as today wasn't exactly a day for photos, here's a picture of some more goods bought from the local 7-Eleven. Note, you should check your Aussie slang dictionary for the meaning of 'root':
Sac Sac and Power Root - together, they form a powerful combination. Probably.
