Dosboy's Bits and Bytes

Finally made it to Penang.  Like Phuket, it is a tropical island.  However unlike Phuket, it takes about an hour to get to a beach from where I'm staying (I can walk to a non-swimming beach in Phuket in about 2 mins, or a 10 min drive to the nicest beach on the island).  Also, the nightlife doesn't seem as promising as Phuket.  But the location I chose is apparently the heart of the bar/club district, so that's a plus.  Wandered around for a bit upon arrival.  Found a nice dingy pub to eat some food and drink some beer at.  Then followed the 4HWW advice of trying to find shaving paraphernalia instead of bringing it with me.  Which took me to both a pharmacy and 7-11 (as the pharmacy sold razors, but apparently not shaving cream).  Also got a haircut which is a fair bit superior to my last one, but which also cost $6.30, or 2.5x more than my crappy Thai haircut.  But it is better.  The woman actually brought out a book of haircut pictures and let me point to one - take THAT language barrier!  I've also discovered that all (or a lot anyway) of the beer here is super strong.  There's Guinness Special Export Stout in the minibar which purports to be 8%, and at the 7-11 I picked up some Carlsberg Special Brew, rated at 8.8%.  In fact, most of the beers at the 7-11 were of the "Special" variety, all with higher than 8% alcohol content.

At any rate, tomorrow I'm going to go to some sort of Visa Agent who apparently brokers the whole Visa process, thus saving me both time and money (when you factor in 2 return cab rides to/from the consulate).  It's too bad I'm not a big fan of Chinese food and even less a fan of Indian food, as those seem to be the prime genres of food here.  Oh, and also, get this... no one sells pork!  That's right, there's no bacon to be found.  Except for some sort of beef bacon, which I'm quite hesitant about, but will likely try at least once before leaving.  Damn religious ideals!