Sunday 19th August - KUL to PEN
Arrive Kuala Lumpur 0700 - Depart Kuala Lumpur 0830 - Arrive Penang 0925
We arrived in Penang minus all Grant's luggage. Filled out a report and headed up to the beach resort. Grant is displaying his brand new replacement attire of jandals, shorts & shirt bought locally. We were advised after dinner by resort staff that they had made contact with the baggage people and that the bag had been discovered and will be at the resort later that night. What a relief! Apart from two spare clothing items his wallet and phone, everything of Grant's was in there.
While waiting for our room after we first arrived we thought a light lunch might be in order. After viewing the menu we decided that we would share a single lunch of 10 satay sticks. The waiter soon came back to say something about the difficulty of supplying what we wanted and that the chef has offered us the buffet lunch with a 40% reduced cost. The buffet here spanned over about 20 metres of food of all sorts. We ended up eating more than we needed but all decent food and a Tiger beer each as well.
While in the restaurant staff supplied us our door cards. When we signed for our lunch, the staff there could not reconcile our name and room number. They soon discovered that the room number on our card was 664 when our room was 644. It caused a right kerfuffle at reception when we advised them of the error. They went in to panic mode, worrying that we may have gone into someone elses room. We hadn't even been into our damn room at that stage. We got all that sorted and then waited for what luggage we did still have, to be delivered to the room. After about 30 minutes of waiting Grant spoke to the duty manager, describing what had gone on (there was actually more than that mentioned here) and that we were still waiting on our bags.
After the appropriate apologies were given, Pip's bags turned up around 10 minutes later. We rested up for a little while before venturing out to visit the local shops to buy the Emperor some new clothes. That was pretty hot work. The pavements, where they exist are more of an obstacle course than a means of easily getting around. After visiting a couple of "shops" we had managed to acquire a shirt, shorts, togs and jandals for Grant. Pip has an aversion to walking out of clothing shops without having gained an outfit, so she over indulged in a NZ$7 Kaftan.
While waiting for our room after we first arrived we thought a light lunch might be in order. After viewing the menu we decided that we would share a single lunch of 10 satay sticks. The waiter soon came back to say something about the difficulty of supplying what we wanted and that the chef has offered us the buffet lunch with a 40% reduced cost. The buffet here spanned over about 20 metres of food of all sorts. We ended up eating more than we needed but all decent food and a Tiger beer each as well.
While in the restaurant staff supplied us our door cards. When we signed for our lunch, the staff there could not reconcile our name and room number. They soon discovered that the room number on our card was 664 when our room was 644. It caused a right kerfuffle at reception when we advised them of the error. They went in to panic mode, worrying that we may have gone into someone elses room. We hadn't even been into our damn room at that stage. We got all that sorted and then waited for what luggage we did still have, to be delivered to the room. After about 30 minutes of waiting Grant spoke to the duty manager, describing what had gone on (there was actually more than that mentioned here) and that we were still waiting on our bags.
After the appropriate apologies were given, Pip's bags turned up around 10 minutes later. We rested up for a little while before venturing out to visit the local shops to buy the Emperor some new clothes. That was pretty hot work. The pavements, where they exist are more of an obstacle course than a means of easily getting around. After visiting a couple of "shops" we had managed to acquire a shirt, shorts, togs and jandals for Grant. Pip has an aversion to walking out of clothing shops without having gained an outfit, so she over indulged in a NZ$7 Kaftan.
On the way back we picked up some cold drinks from a convenience store. In this store they make paper bags out of a few sheets of newspaper. We appreciated the eco friendly act and the effort gone to to do it.
Now with something to wear, Grant could now shower and freshen up with a complete new ensemble and be a little more presentable than before. He somehow wondered if the fresh feel of the dry clothes was not matched by the look they presented to the people of Penang. We went down to the pool area to have a cocktail before the happy hours ended for the day. We also grabbed a very nice pizza to have with the pina coladas.
We then moved to the indoor/outdoor lounge and tried out another couple cocktails. After a nice chat to one of the ladies who has worked here for 28 years, we retired for the night. On the way back to the room we checked with staff if they had news on Grant's bags. The answer was that they were still unable to reach the people at the lost baggage section of the airport. A little while later we received a call to say staff had now spoken to the airport people and the bag had been recovered and will be delivered later tonight.
We ordered some fresh milk to be delivered to the room but ended up using the horrible powder creamer for our teas. It never did turn up. We will buy some fresh milk tomorrow.
We then moved to the indoor/outdoor lounge and tried out another couple cocktails. After a nice chat to one of the ladies who has worked here for 28 years, we retired for the night. On the way back to the room we checked with staff if they had news on Grant's bags. The answer was that they were still unable to reach the people at the lost baggage section of the airport. A little while later we received a call to say staff had now spoken to the airport people and the bag had been recovered and will be delivered later tonight.
We ordered some fresh milk to be delivered to the room but ended up using the horrible powder creamer for our teas. It never did turn up. We will buy some fresh milk tomorrow.