Friday in Penang

Finally, it was time for our trip to the island of Penang which is located on the north western side of mainland Malaysia. I had to wake up at 5am to pack my suitcase and get in the bus to the local airport. Some people in the other room went out the night before and got home at 3am so it was not easy to get everyone up and ready to go in the morning. Surprisingly, we were all in the vans by 6:30! The airport was very small with only one gate and we enjoyed a nice north american breakfast at starbucks! The security check was super slack, they put us through the scanners but didn't really check anything. People got through with liquids, and I got through with food and  a metal nail file! We waited in the gate for a few minutes and then walked outside to the plane. It was raining a little bit so we got an umbrella to walk to the plane. It was a propellor plane which was interesting, small, and very loud. We flew low so we could see the land and the ocean almost the whole time. We even got a snack and drink on the 45minute flight!

Propeller

We landed in Penang, grabbed our checked luggage and boarded the university bus. This weekend trip was organized by the Woman's development Research Centre (KANITA) from the University Sains Malaysia (USM). They funded our visas so they organized a visit for us. We drove to the university from the airport, got seated in the board room and listened to presentations about gender issues in Malaysia. It was very interesting and post graduate, masters, Phd, and professors joined the discussions. We had lunch there and had an hour of "free and easy" otherwise known as free time. 

A view of the ocean from the USM campus

After exploring around the USM campus, and cooling down in the air conditioning, we got back on the bus to go to the "Women's Centre for Change".

This center is similar to the Women's emergency shelter in Red Deer. They help women who have been abused and need to help, advice, counselling, or to get out of their current situation. It was very sad but good to hear that they needed to open another center on the mainland because there was excess demand for it. Most cases dealt with domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse and rape. They also produced a lot of programs for students to inform them about abuse. As soon as the bus got back, we hopped on and drove to our apartments. 

View from the 27th floor where our apartment was.

We had a short time to settle in, change and get ready for supper. The ladies of KANITA took us to a seafood restaurant on the beach. They had preordered all the food so we just had to sit down and eat it. We had clams, calamari, fish, chicken, rice, spicy soup and local fruit for dessert. Some of it was better than others but I enjoyed the clams and the fish. 

View from the restaurant

Clams

Poached fish

 After dinner, we hiked up the hill to where the bus was parked and drove to the apartments. Everyone was tired from a long and intensive day of travelling, lectures and food that we went straight to bed. 


The first thing that I noticed about Penang was that it was so much cleaner than KL. There was no garbage everywhere, the grass was cut, hedges were trimmed, people were sweeping the sidewalks and it didn't smell like sewer. It was also hotter but not as humid and there was always a breeze from the ocean. There were also many tourists and resorts along the coast.