11 Gurney Drive

Sunrise at 11 Gurney Drive. We have been seeing a lot of them! Gurney is a very busy street that runs right along the North coastline of Penang. Penang is a small island on the North West side of Malaysia. There are a lot of people who live here, and major mix of people. Mostly Malays, and Indians. I am not sure if that is the correct term, (people from the country of India.) There are also a lot of Australians, Philippians, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and English.

Malaysia is a vacation spot for the English and Australians, we are only six hours by plane from Australia. The building we are staying in is right next to the Gurney Hotel which is huge! Down the street a little ways is the Gurney Plaza which is a giant mall. I think I counted five or six stories of shops and restaurants. In the bottom of the mall is the grocery store, which kind of reminds me of a Walgreen's, except with food. There is a great walking path that is on the other side of the street and right on the water's edge. If it wasn't so warm all the time I think I would like to run there. ha, ha,ha, run yea right! I see a lot of the people who are staying in the hotel running there. I am sure that we are going to get use to the heat. I think it will just take a while.

The "current" is very expensive here, (electricity) so they do not run the air conditioning in their homes. There are room Ac's in the bedrooms, so its not to warm to sleep, but the main area of the home is open and the windows open to invite the breeze in from the sea. (It is a soothing warm breeze, and very welcome!!) It feels so tropical. The home we are saying in is lined with sliding glass doors, and a balcony that goes most of the way around! Beautiful!!!

The area of the house that houses the washer and dryer has an open wall that doesn't have a door, its always open. I asked Lyn, the housekeeper what they do when the rain comes and she just looked at me like, What are you talking about," so I suppose it doesn't get wet. The woman that we are staying with, Joanne is short like me, and she had her her counter tops and stove custom made to fit her size, its really great to be able to look into a pot without standing on your tiptoes. It must be how everyone else feels:) We do not wear our shoes into the home and there is no carpet anywhere, my feet are achy! I am sure I will get used to that as well. Lyn couldn't believe that we wear shoes most of the time, or slippers. She says bare feet are best. Here they most definitely are.