Babymoon - Dec 24-27

Matt and I went on a Babymoon to Penang, Malaysia.  We have not been to Penang and perhaps there was some resistance about going on a babymoon but I knew if we hung around Singapore Matt would be working the whole time so I intervened.  I thought Penang would be a nice mix of beach and culture and everyone says how good the food is there. It was nice to get away.  We stayed at the Shangri La Rasa Sayang Resort, the old grand dame of Ferringhi Beach. 

Remarkably well preserved - the Shangri La Rasa Sayang.

The hotel was lovely and geared towards families - among the sprawling mega resorts that we have stayed at in beaches across Asia. 

The view from our room

The room, service, and food was good - though the place really is meant for well-heeled parents with rugrats in tow versus (short term) DINKS like us.  We had a Christmas lunch buffet in our shorts.  I was hoping they would spike the desserts with rum or port but was disappointed with the kid friendly fare (though it was very pretty).  I had iced kachang for the first time (sort of a DIY sweet ice slushie thing) but elected not to have the requisite corn and kidney beans.  For a change Matt was the one eaten alive by the mosquitoes.

Matt, imitating Edward Norton post mosquito bite.

We didn't exactly eat a lot of the local fare (Matt had some Japanese BBQ meat and I had a kebab at the local hawker stand).  The place was busy over Christmas, and traffic was atrocious.  It was bumper to bumper virtually every time we left the hotel.  We made it to Georgetown for a few hours, walked around a bit and thought we were again in Macau with the Colonial buildings left in various states of disrepair. 

Sort of belly shot.

 

If you look closely - you can see us.

I eventually found a banana pancake stand run by a smiley guy with no teeth and then met a lovely rickshaw driver who gave us a "pedal by" of some of the sights of Georgetown.  This was the highlight of our trip - meeting some of the locals who worked hard and with humility to earn an honest ringgit in the mature tourism economy that inhabits Penang.

Nice rickshaw guy.

Our last night we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe down the beach from our hotel.  Matt wanted a pulled pork sandwich and we realized that there was no pork to be had on the entire island!  Blah.

Penang served our purpose - we slept, we ate well, we left our little corner of Singapore for a weekend to reflect on the fact that weekends away like this will never be easy again.  We landed back in Singapore on Sunday afternoon and fell in love again with our American imported bed for a well-deserved nap.

Blissfully nice to be back home.