First day in Penang

… which means that once again I’m on an adventure and the reason behind this trip is work. 2 weeks in Malaysia, 1 week in Denmark, and 2 months in Malaysia. This post will be short as I’m tired (jetlagged).

I left Denmark yesterday morning (local time) and arrived safely today also in the morning. I got picked up in the airport by a chaueffeur that had a tag with my name on it. This is a first for me. It is also the first time for me in south-east asia so everything is very exciting.

I checked in to my 2 story suite and promptly fell asleep. I needed the sleep as I had only slept for about 3-4 hours scattered across various timezones  and planes. I woke up about two hours later, took a shower and ventured out to see the local malaysian life.

Everything was very quiet. Maybe it’s because it was 3pm and everyone was working, or maybe it’s because it’s a muslim country and Ramadan is happening. I don’t know. What I do know is that I got a very delicious course that Emily, the waitress, suggested. Forgive my ignorance but i think what I got was Pho phan (which translates into pho noodles, where pho is a river) which is called that because the dish looks like a river 🙂 I also recieved very fresh double orange juice. All for the total of 8 ringgit, or about $2. Come to think of it, she just asked for $1?

I managed quite well with spoon and chopsticks. Apparently you just put the spoon under the chopsticks so as to both being able to stuff food into your mouth really quickly but also so that any spill from the chopsticks doesn’t fall back into the soup and splatters your clothes. It really helped learning that and my clothes are clean 🙂  I also came to learn the story of how she was a student in structural engineering for 2 years in Malaysia when she was young and was supposed to go to England to finish her degree but because her mother got sick they couldn’t afford it. 6 months later her mother died and she has been working in a restaurant ever since. She is over 70 now although she looks much younger.

I also learned from the security guard at the hotel that food is “puta” or something like that. Nice to know 🙂

Now it’s 6pm and I have to prepare for first day at work in Malaysia tomorrow.

/Thor