Well Penang prob­a­bly isn’t as bad as we first thought. We were stay­ing in a less than desir­able area after all even if it was the rec­om­mended “tourist” area in George­town. After taxi/bus dri­ving about a bit, we did see some other res­i­den­tial areas that looked quite pleas­ant. And although Penang is not the quin­tes­sen­tial beach hol­i­day get­away, the beaches out­side of George­town are appar­ently safer for swim­ming and water sports. There’s a whole other area in the north that is clut­tered with big resorts and tourists that offers another alter­na­tive, albeit ster­ile, to seedy Georgetown.

Have just now arrived in oh hell my jun­gle par­adise night­mare. We are holed up on a small island called Kecil in the Per­hent­ian Islands off the East coast of the Malaysian penin­sula in the South China Sea. No hot water, inter­mit­tent inter­net, no elec­tric­ity from 9am-5pm, shark-infested waters (host says they’re only “reef sharks”) and all the crea­tures of the jun­gle for free. Our host told me wel­come to the Robin­son Cru­soe expe­ri­ence! And I felt a strong wave of dizzy come on. To be fair, that could be still from my altitude/equilibrium issue. He also said that night­fall brings a whole new set of delights (or chal­lenges, depend­ing on whose side of the jun­gle you’re on) such as huge geckos come out to play and par­tic­u­larly like the light in rooms ‘cause that’s where the insects are, close to the light, which means you have big giant lizards in your room!! And herein lies the rub: want to keep light on for com­fort and secu­rity blankie but in this sce­nario light equals very bad things so what to do? Have already seen (and heard, yeesh they’re loud!) a few out­side and am cer­tainly not look­ing for­ward to them as room­mates this evening.

(Pics to fol­low soon if sur­vive this night).

Yan says I should just let go and he mar­vels at, more like rev­els, in it all. I still got the cold heart con­crete of NYC in me so not as easy done as said. Besides, I could let go and then get eaten. Host also said that there are lizards fur­ther up in the jun­gle that are half his size. I don’t think he was jok­ing ‘cause he didn’t laugh when I did.

Oh no just heard a crazy sound com­ing from the bath­room, gonna go see what’s next….