My stay in Penang was short and sweet, for I leave today for Bali. The price for the Grab price was shockingly high but after a brief wait, it came down to the regular price of about one third.
I had a delightful ride to the airport with an Indonesian-born driver who was half Bugis and half Sumatran Malay. As per the constitution, once he acquired Malaysian citizenship, he was considered a native which entitled him to special rights that I didn’t get despite being born a citizen.
The constitution defines someone as Malay (the main native group) as a Muslim who speaks the Malay language and conforms to Malay customs.
But he was so pleasant, intelligent and hardworking that I didn’t mind. He works as a marine engineer on a cruise ship, having graduated from an Indonesian university and done additional studies in Brunei and Poland.
He met his Batak (Christian highland ethnic group) wife in Poland. She’s still Indonesian but being married in Malaysia has converted to be a Muslim. Since she’s now Muslim and speaks Malay fluently, if she ever becomes a Malaysian, she would also acquire native status (but not if she remained Christian).
I went airside with my mobile boarding pass and enjoyed breakfast in the lounge and catch up on admin on the computer before boarding the 1205 Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore.
My mobile boarding pass was rejected pending verification of my onward ticket leaving Indonesia, which saw me being the last person to board the B737 Max 8. Fortunately, there was locker space left for my pack.
Landing in Singapore, the pilot braked hard in order to make the exit off the runway, so as not have to take a further one.
The 2h40 connecting time gave me about 1h30 in the lounge before having to go the gate for my onward Singapore Airlines flight to Bali.
Arrival in Bali was as easy as last month and I was out instantly. The Bintang Kuta hotel was even nearer than my last choice, taking less than 5 mins drive.
Kim had already been here for 3 nights. We caught up briefly before having dinner across the road and a walk at a nearby mall.
Underwater scene at Singapore’s Changi Airport Terminal 2.