Austrian Parties, Indian festivals

Oct 25 Austrian Parties, Indian festivals

Today would be my flight back 'home' to Bangkok. I have decided to stay and move on to Indonesia. Like I said I would long time ago, if given more time on this trip. No I have been given more time and I will use it to travel some more. My first stop I decided, will be Pulau Weh, at the Far Northern End of Indonesia for some diving. The sites are supposed to be breathtaking. The next big decision to be made will be when to leave for Indonesia. I called my Kufstein friends and will be staying with them from tonight for a few nights to decide the next move in a bit more detail.

Laura is getting packed to head back to Bangkok. While we wait for the airport bus for an hour it is a quick and sad goodbye. Both heading into lots of unanswered questions.
While I am waiting for Sabine to pick me up from the bus stop I get to meet another friendly Malay. After two minute conversation I am scared his next question will be if I want to marry him but my very obvious disinterest just has him ask if I don't know a friend like me who would be interested in him. That is quite unlikely and I am very happy to see Sabine come around the corner and head toward her with my backpack, that broke this morning coz it's stuffed full with way too much that I am planning to leave here (mainly books, chocolate and alcohol – the regular reader may be surprised that the Milka chocolate from 5 days ago has not disappeared yet and that alcohol, Baileys in this case also happens to survive for weeks in my presence).

It's a chilled day with story telling, chit chatting and yes, a job interview for my internship as of April. Quite a challenge to set it all up from the other end of the world but it went well. That's the good news. Juliane is also 'handy lady' and manages to fix up my backpack well. So all the worries for nothing.

I still do need to go shopping though. For the trip to somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Indonesia I wanna shop for a flashlight, some anti-malarial, a mini-mouse for my laptop since my trackpad has gone on strike and some sun-screen and the like. So one shopping afternoon is planned soon. Still haven't decided when to leave but it's gonna come to me soon.

For dinner Sabine, Martin, Juliane and me go to their favorite Food Court... meaning a paved area with lots of food stalls next to each other. Their favorite chef Sam, is unfortunately on vacation. Deepavali the Indian festival, leaves lots of shops closed and food stalls unattended. There is still other good food to be had and with Martin's recommendation I am opting for kebaps with saffron rice. Maybe not Malaysian cuisine but tasty, and that's what matters. Beers and chitchat until late at night. And a nice apartment to go back to.

Oct 26

There's two things to celebrate today. Austrian National Day – lucky my spending time with a few Austrians today – and Deepavali, the Indian festival. As you would expect they celebrate Deepavali here much more than the Austrian National Day. After all over 30% off the inhabitants of Penang stem originally from India. After chilling, pooling and Interneting the four of us set out to explore Georgetown. Even living there almost every day off is used to travel somewhere around Malaysia or close by so they haven't seen some sights in Georgetown yet either, or haven't seem them in detail. So it's going to be an interesting afternoon for all of us. First stop as always is Komtar to switch the bus to the Jetty. Close by is the Chew Jetty. A settlement of mostly Chinese out in the harbor. They live in houses built on stilts above the water, apparently this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited village of this kind. People still live here, conduct their business, kids play with balls and other toys, grandmas sleep by an open door, barber cuts hair and so on. Just like in a Chinese village with the exception that everything happens on wooden planks on the water and tourists (though very few today) are free to walk right through their lives. They are collecting donations for the upkeep and since they are extraordinarily friendly there I do donate and receive postcards and water as a gift. Feels good to have helped someone out with only a bit of money.

We stroll by the harbor, take in some hidden courtyards, handicraft shops and walk along to the Clock Tower and the Fort. The Fort is going to close any minute so no use visiting it today. Past the City Hall and other colonial buildings, all important in some way or the other. It has a very European style to it with a big park /square in front of it and stone walls.

For Deepavali we want to go to Little India to see some celebrations, except as we find out Deepavali here is more celebrated like Christmas back home. Everyone is home with their families. There is nothing going on in the street and almost everything is closed. You can still see some decorations on the windows and streets as some have celebrated the previous days but today is purely family time. No colorful festivities as we expected.

After walking through Little India and almost all other parts of Georgetown (with pretty much everything closed) we decide to go for dinner on Upper Penang Road, Georgetown's Bar street.

Expectations are high since they've been to Smoky Jacks before and liked it. Today is quite different. They do not have most of the items on the menu, all supplies are running low since deliveries are not made during Deepavali. What? I almost feel like in Bangkok (no pun intended). Everything closed and nothing available. We settle on the few things they still have available and my 'steak' sandwich is full of bones. Yikes! It's Ladies Nights with Buy 1 Get one free cocktails. No surprise there, most cocktails are not available and the ones that are taste absolutely horrible. Safer to just stick with beer. By that time 4 other USM exchange students have arrived. 2 Austrians Thomas and Clemens (studying in Kufstein) and two Germans, Basti and Henrick. Same thing with the food, but now not even burger buns are available anymore and they just get Focaccia bread instead. Martin, Sabine and I take to card games 'Dreier Schnapsen' with original Austrian playing cards. It passes the time, we continue with some Botellon on the streets until it's time to hit the Clubs. Ladies Night again with free entry for us but heaps of money for the gentlemen. So they settle on getting a bottle, which makes more sense in the end. Clubbing is pretty much the same anywhere in the world. The club is more than chilled, it's freezing cold, the music is good and more and more USM students show up. They hold a Sexy Dance competition which in the end is won by an USM exchange student from Iran. Fully dressed she won against a local girl that stripped down to your underwear. Newsflash: if you CAN dance there is no reason to go half naked. 1^st prize is 800 R (~200€) which is a L O T. The runner ups all receive a bottel of Wodka, which at nightclub prizes is pretty good too. And the show was fairly entertaining with more or less American style presenting.

The dancefloor is packed, of course in here you need to move just to stay warm, and that's what people do and we right in the middle! Party half night looooooooong!