Friday morning left the longhouse and headed to the airport in Sibu. As we made our goodbyes I realized how sad I felt to leave their warm hospitality and generosity. I gave the chiefs wife a hug and she told us that her daughter had cried because we were leaving. I couldn't believe how well they had treated us as complete strangers.
Our first flight had a two hour layover in Kuala Lumpor (KL), the capital. Dr. Perumal explained that this was not the international airport of KL and was only used for domestic flights. The first thing I noticed was the strong Muslim presence. The picture below is of a prayer room in the airport.
Almost all the women had their heads covered and most of them were wearing black robes with only their eyes showing. What was fascinating was how elegant and stunning they looked with only their eyes exposed. Whatever was showing was adorned with either eye makeup or henna on their hands.Their husbands created a stark contrast, stylishly decked out in modern apparel. I have to say it bothered me a little bit. Coming from my western worldview, it seems unfair that women have to walk around masked from the world with no way to express themselves through their adornment, while the men sport the latest fashions.
After waiting 45 minutes for an teeny-tiny, expensive pizza (airport food is universally a bad deal), the girls and I barely made it to our gate in time and boarded the plane for Penang. As soon as we stepped out of the airport I could tell the climate was more temperate because of the beach. We settled our things in the Georgetwon City hotel and joyfully took showers and sat down to use the lieu for the first time in four days.
A man from the Adventist church met us before dinner to show us the Adventist college next door on the seventh floor.
He then took us for an amazing dinner of Thai food and coconut ice cream!
Sabbath morning I woke up with a sore throat and headache but the excitement of going to Stephanie and Euguene Looi's home church helped distract me. By the time we got to their lovely church I was feeling a little better.
As we were warmly greeted at the front door one of the members asked us if we were the Looi's friends because they recognized us from FB. The service was very organized and timely, I'm not used to such punctuality at Spanish church. The Chinese service was right afterwards at 11:00am.
We were all so excited to see the Looi parents! They happened to be having a potluck at their house that day and Dr. Perumal was kind enough to accomsdte the schedule for that. So after church we visited the beautiful botanical gardens and then went to the Looi's home for the best potluck ever. When we arrived we got the best surprise of all. Eugene was on Skype at La Sierra and we sdded Stephanie who was with my family at my home for vespers! She was at my house and I was at hers by total coincidence! It made my day to get to see them and my family all at the same time across the world via Skype.
The rest of the afternoon we drove around the island. The first stop was a Batik store wear they made traditional patterns for shirts, dresses and skirts by hand.
We also stopped to get some amazing acerela, a sour cherry, mixed with pineapple juice. And drove across a huge, long bridge that connects Georgetwon, Penang to Butterworth on mainland Malaysia and the Korean bridge which took us back to Georgetown. It was a beautiful drive and thankfully we even got designated nap times that helped me rest get over my mild sickness a little more.
We finished our island tour and arrived back at the church in time to prepare a little sundown service that they asked us to do last minute. I even got to borrow a violin and do special music! I was so happy to be reunited with a violin!
After sundown worship the Looi parents took us to a delicious Indian restaurant, although I only had nibbles of food because I was still full from lunch. By the time we got back I quickly talked to my parents and did the bare necessities of laundry in the hotel sink before I hit the hay, happy and tired.
So far, Penang has probably been my favorite place we have visited. We are by the ocean, the water is an amazing color, there are hills and mountains, the food is so good, the climate is temperate and the people are friendly.
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