July 27, 2009. Last Morning in Penang. Flight to Bangkok.

Komtower

This morning was our last in Penang. I had planned on going to the Botanical Gardens, then to the airport. Last night the girls were OK with my plan. This morning, however, they didn’t want to go to the Gardens. They said they were afraid we couldn’t get a taxi to the airport from there. In fact, I knew they had no interest in the Gardens and were just looking for an excuse. I was a little angry at them, but after thinking about things I realized they had mostly been good company and I didn’t have to get my way about everything. And I guess we could have split up and rendezvoused later if it was that important for me to see the Gardens.

We compromised and decided to go to the Komtower. It is the tallest building on the island and has an observation deck on the 60th floor from which the entire island can be viewed. It also has the largest indoor shopping mall in Malaysia.

It was about 15 blocks to Komtower, and the sun was bright and hot. When we got there we couldn’t find the entrance. We walked up 150 stairs to a

Old Towne

terrace that encircled the entire building, but the only doors were locked. So back down the stairs, and into a connecting building, which was a shopping mall.

In the mall we inquired about getting to the observation deck and were given various stories by various people. After many minutes of going from one place to another, up and down elevators, and even talking with janitors, we discovered the observation deck was closed. In fact we found out the Komtower was bankrupt and most of the stores and offices were closed while things were sorted out.

I took a few pics of the old buildings on our walk to Komtower.

We returned to the little connecting mall where we entered and walked around a while. Most of the stores were run down and very low end. Maintenance was not up to par. You could tell something was not right about the place.

Then we walked back home, arriving at New World Park about 13:00. We had a light lunch then retrieved our bags from the hotel and got a cab to the airport.

We arrived at the airport at 15:00. By the time we checked in,

Street View

got our passports stamped, and cleared Customs, it was 16:00. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 17:00. It didn’t leave until 19:20. It is a small airport and there wasn’t much to do for three hours. Fortunately we had about 100 ringgit between us, so we were able to have some snacks and drinks. I had a cup of steamed corn and a couple of beers. The girls bought candy and several bottles of water. We went into every store and shop on the premises. We spent all of our Malaysian money except for a few pieces of small change. Finally the flight boarded and we were off to Thailand.