Here is another look at my November/December 2007 trip to Asia. This time we look at Penang and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia!

Other stuff
We went to see the "Golden Compass" movie that we've been looking forward to seeing for months, after having read the books the movie is based on, by Philip Pullman, some time ago. Disappointed?! Is that how I felt coming out of the theatre? yes, perhaps...but something more, too. I don't know what. The theatre we went to - the Oakridge Empire, is quite nice and within walking distance to our place. We had most of the theatre to ourselves, too. Too bad the movie wasn't more thrilling. We also watched 8 episodes of Murder She Wrote on DVD from the first season. I was never into that show but Greg was. I used to watch Matlock instead. Now, I find myself wanting to watch more and more episodes.

Malaysia

First stop after 24 hour train: Penang/Georgetown . The train took us to Butterworth, where we took a 20 minute ferry to Penang. The ferry was only about $1 one way and free back to Butterworth!
Although most people go to Penang to bask on the beaches, that sort of thing isn't what we most enjoy. We mainly wandered around the city going to the $2 a meal (for 2!) chinese (Jay) Veggie restaurants, walked around the nearby shopping mall, watched movies, went to the museum, walked around Georgetown (the British Colonial district with lots of old buildings and an interesting fort), and tried to beat the heat. Since we were able to leave Auckland a week early, we decided to tack on this week of relaxation.

Penang/Georgetown pictures:

Next stop Kuala Lumpur - After a 9 or 10 hour train ride (at night), we made our way to Kuala Lumpur. KL is a rather expensive city so we used our free hotel voucher from 'airmiles' and stayed for 1 night at one of the Sheraton hotels. The hotel was nicely located and was really nice. We spent most of the day at the Islamic Arts Museum (so incredible! i wish we could have taken pictures there) and on public transit. we watched some movies in our hotel room on the nice LCD tv mounted to the wall and checked out the next day. We spent the half of a day we had at the Petronus Towers and in the shopping mall below it. In the evening we headed to the train station and made our way to Singapore...

Kuala Lumpur Pictures:

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