Swap Meet Sunday

We are still in Penang, still having a good time. Yesterday was Sunday which means that we went to the swap meet. Our friends pat and Alan go to the swap meet every Sunday, so we met them for breakfast at the swap meet.

Last night I had cuttlefish and Laura had sausage, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. You can get any kind of food here you want. Although, we enjoy Thai food more than the Malay food. When we are in Malaysia we have mostly Chinese food for breakfast (Dim Sum) and then Indian for later meals. Last night along with our supper, we had a wonderful ocean view and watched freighters sail into the harbor.

We have found that Subway has invaded here with a daily 6" $2 special that is beginning to look good. Still the only place that has unlimited coffee and soda refills is McDonald's. Yesterday in the mall I looked around and we were standing at the corner of Chicago Rib House, Chili's, McDonald's and Manhattan Fish Company.

We had one lunch in Thailand, where Laura complained that her lips burned for the rest of the afternoon. Now, that was spicy. She only ate part of her mean and then gave it to Jim to finish. So, he ate, hiccuped, sweated, and ate more until it was gone.

We have a Giant supermarket near our hotel. We went in looking for wine and discovered that "Night Train" wine has made it here, and for only $10 US a bottle! They also had shopping bags for sale from Fry's Food Stores, which is part of the Kroger chain and mostly located in Arizona.

Classical Feet

I have been regularly reading the Barnes and Noble free Nook book of the week. In one free book entitled "Curious Folks Ask" by Sherry Seethaler, there is a chapter entitled "Toe The Line". In this chapter someone asked about why the second toe was sometimes longer than the big toe. The longer second toe, also called Morton's Foot, occurs in women more than in men and in some ethnic groups. The author calls the foot with the longer second toe, the Greek Foot. The other foot, with the big toe the longest is the Egyptian foot.

The Statue of Liberty has the Greek foot. The sculptor for Miss Liberty was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi a classical trained artist. Lenonardo da Vinci as well as other Renaissance artists studied the Classical Greek rules for sculpture and drawing. Then the Romans copied the Greek rules defining the body.

T-Shirts

Asia is where the people want a t-shirt with a statement. Here are some of the messages I've seen recently.

"Pong is a Legend. I got Skills."
"Shut Up and Drink."
"I'm A Gorilla Man."
"I am not a Monkey, But I love Bananas."
"Dickies 1922 Redhawks"
"It is not about how you look. It is What you see"
"Chelsea"
"APPROVED for Sex. Clean Instrument."
"Hyannis Port Golf"
"IT ISN'T EASY BEING EASY"
I Miss Your Heart"
"A Heart Live More Than One Life"
"George Washington Abusing" This is across an American dollar bill.
"See Me" "You Are Under My Control"

Then there is Jim's jersey that he bought in Thailand. It is a semi-authentic Manchester United Jersey. It has the team's sponsor, AON, on the front, but it doesn't have the team's logo anywhere. The logo should be on the left breast, but it isn't there, and none of the shirts that the street vendor was selling had a logo.

Dim Sum Morning

We sat in the dim sum restaurant yesterday morning as we always do and read in "The New Straits Times" a newspaper article, "Boeing to close Wichita facilities."

When we have dim sum in the mornings we try to have pu-erh tea with our breakfast. Jim thinks that the tea is not ready to drink until it is as dark as coffee, only then you can get the good earthy taste of the tea. The teapots they serve the tea in have "Tie Kuan Yin" printed on their side. We can't figure out if this is a mis-translation of Tea Kuan Yin, or is a protest against the goddess Kuan Yin.

Jim's Nose

Jim woke up at 4am, and realized that his whole nose had feeling in it! He was so happy. Since the skin cancer surgery, at first, all, them most, then some of his nose had been numb. Now he has feeling in it. Why he had to realize this is at 4am is another question. Dr. Glynn, the Topeka ENT that did the surgery said it would take up to a year to get all the feeling back.

In Bangkok we received free anti-acne foam which Jim has been rubbing on his nose before every shower. First it got rid of the blackheads in the seam in his nose that was created by the surgery. Now, the rubbing seems to have helped bring the feeling back. The furrow that was between Jim's eyebrows was removed by the surgery as well as the hair that used to grow between his eyebrows. Also, the patch of dry skin that was between his eyes was apparently moved somewhere and is no longer a problem.

In Penang, Malaysia

We made it to Penang, only a day late. We left Hat Yai at 3:30pm, and by 8:30pm, were in Penang. We took a nine passenger minivan and the trip took four hours and one hour was added due to a time zone change. The trip was uneventful except in Hat Yai. When we were going from where we were picked by the minivan to the main bus station for more passengers, the driver found the road blocked by a river where a street used to be. The driver, backed up, then detoured and got to the destination. We did hear news of stranded tourists in Hat Yai on Asia News TV, and thought "We are them."

The night we arrived, after checking in at our hotel, The Tune Hotel, we went out for Tandoori chicken. After Thailand, the food here is a letdown, so we eat mostly Chinese or Indian. We generally have dim sum for breakfast and then Indian for supper. Anyway, Jim choked on the dinner and spent most of the night throwing up. So much for our start in Penang. Jim says it's a family trait, and that his mother had the same problem, which may explain why she ate so slowly. They both had the same basic cure, which is to drink a can of soda. Jim swears by Pepsi, while his mother preferred Coke.

We met with our Australian friends Pat and Alan. We had a wonderful lunch. Pat's sister is buying a house in Palm Springs, California. They’ve gone from real estate development to exporting stainless steel laundry parts from China to Australia.

“POTATOES TAKE CENTERSTAGE.” The Berjaya University College of Hospitality, held a potato workshop for chefs in the local hotels. The Black Box Competition gave the chiefs one hour to prepare a dish made from the American potato. The American Potato Board had provided the potatoes. The event was won by an Indian female chef from the Hyatt Regency with an Indian dish. Nobody seemed to care that the “American Potato” originally came from Peru.

We love reading the newspapers. The papers here are still providing news, both local and worldwide. There were articles in both Malaysian English language newspapers, “The Star” and “The Straits Times” on Romney winning the Iowa caucus.

In Hat Yai, Thailand

Yesterday, New Year's Eve, we caught the overnight sleeper train to Penang. The train was freezing (arctic) as usual. Jim wore his nylon jacket and Laura wore her fleece jacket. Around 7am, the train arrived in Hat Yai, Thailand. The train sat, the train moved a hundred yards then sat, the train moved back 100 yards, then sat. After about two hours of the train moving from one track to another in the station, the conductor announced that the train was not going any further. The tracks were flooded. So, all of us in the two cars for Penang, were given a refund on the unused portion of our ticket and set loose. We wondered, in mass, to the nearest travel agent, who explained that not only were the train tracks flooded to Penang, but so were the roads. So, no buses either. At that point we decided to go stay at our Chinese cheapie hotel in Hat Yai, The King's Inn. That is where we are now. This is the hotel where we met Steve the one year we traveled together. He had flown into Bangkok from the U.S., and we had a month earlier flown into Singapore. So, we agreed to meet here because this hotel is central, easy to find, being both on a main road, and close to the train station. The flooding in Thailand has caught up with us.

This is a view of our sleeper car on the train.

This is Jim at the Hat Yai Railway Station checking out our delay and eventual boot.

The train conductor made a hanger for his street clothes with a straight stick and plastic twine. I we should remember how to do this for future trips.