May 4 - I'm Back Among The Living

So far this trip is shaping up to be one which will only feed the fears of would-be travelers -- because the "head cold" that I previously blogged about, turned into full-on flu - complete with temperature, body aches, loss of appetite, and desire to sleep.  This morning, my last day in Penang, I'm feeling much better and hopeful that I'll stay on this road to recovery.  A sure sign that I was getting better was I woke up hungry!  What kind of flu?  Where I got the flu? Who knows.  All I know is it certainly robbed me of much of the fun of traveling.  Thankfully here in Penang I had a perfectly situated, air conditioned room right in the center of the activity -- but it's definitely a bummer that I wasn't interested in exploring the cullinary delights this area has to offer.

And while I'm feeling much better -- I have changed up the onward portion of my travel.  I decided to skip taking the overnight train from Penang to Bangkok.  And wonderful destinations like Koh Tao and Ko Samui will have to await my return another time. Instead I fly tomorrow directly to Phuket ($88USD) where I have nice, near to the beach, accommodations reserved.  More about all that in a future post.

For now, let me backup in time and catch up the blog:

As previously posted, I arrived KL on April 27.  The next morning I figured out the free downtown bus system (complete with onboard wifi) and got myself to one of the many KL meccas of capitalism: Suria KLCC.  There should be no doubt that capitalism is thriving in KL after even a brief visit to this shopping mall.  I spent little time there, instead choosing to enjoy KL's central park which is just across the way.  The walk afforded me many wonderful views of the Petronas Towers and it was a lovely, though empty, park.  Given the amount of children's play equipment, I'm guessing it is a busy place on weekends.

Before I left the park, I noticed a fellow traveler sitting at a park bench, looking over a tourist map, and my curiousity allowed me to learn that she was from Finland on the last day of a 4-month journey throughout SE Asia -- an experience she had saved and planned for.  We compared notes on Bali where we both had visited -- and she suggested I might want to visit KL's Chinatown and City Gallery that she had enjoyed. We exchanged blog sites -- though hers, written in Finnish, is translating by Google: http://vorssagoesasia.blogspot.com .  I bid her safe travels home and caught another free bus to Chinatown.

And visited the nearby City Gallery both for this much photographed icon:

And a wonderful slide and light show that highlighted a miniature city mockup:

Another free bus route got me back to my accommodations.