We're back from our short holiday and one that was filled with drama, no less! In order not to make this blog entry a drag, I'll summarise the events by each day that went by.

Saturday : 

Left home for the airport early as I had wanted to bring K to explore the airport. Singapore Changi Airport is not amongst the best for no reasons! Thankfully, we left home early too as the sky threatened to pour. And due to the heavy rain, we could only look at the Sunflower Garden from under the shelter. :( Another time, I suppose. Boarded the plane, which arrived slightly late but otherwise everything else was the usual. As the plane was descending to land in Penang, it suddenly took off again! It started ascending, going higher and higher for some time until it started cruising again. 

Captain announced that due to the heavy rain and strong winds in Penang, we were unable to land and we were circling for a while until the plane needed to divert to KL for refueling. We waited on board when we arrived in KL for almost 2 hours.

Finally, when we departed again, we managed to arrive safely into Penang airport at 8ishpm. What was scheduled to be a 2.30pm arrival time, saw us arriving at about 8ish. LC who had been waiting for us at the airport was advised by ground staff to return home as no one knew what time we would return.

Sunday :

Drew open the room curtains and saw clear weather. But the roads looked wet. Must have been raining while we slept. Decided to start our tour after breakfast and went to Penang Hill. Waited quite a while for the tram ride up and when we reached the peak, we were all looking forward to the start of a beautiful trip. Especially since K is aware of everything now. After a 5 minute walk, it started drizzling. The hubs suggested going to the coffee house to wait out. After cendol and an hour later, the rain was still so heavy! Back to the tram station for our ride back down. :(

Monday :

Finally, the sun is out and it's here to stay! Took almost an hour's taxi journey to the Butterfly Farm, where I must say we enjoyed ourselves. Then another hour's ride back to town. Not much of a drama here, other than the totally innocent kind. We went to a museum where they had a history of Penang, which we simply breezed through as our both countries' history is pretty much similar. Then the fun part was the 3D interactive museum! What drama K has! It was really fun.

Tuesday :

All good things must come to an end. We checked out after breakfast and the same taxi uncle who drove us yesterday sent us to the airport. At the airport, the hubs went ahead to the check-in counter ahead of us and I realised we didn't have our passports with us!!!! The flight was due to depart in about 1 1/2 hour's time! Thankfully, we have been talking to the taxi uncle and he had given his name card to the hubs, who then called him. I went to the check-in counter, borrowed a mobile phone and contacted the hotel and told them our passports were in the room safe. By then, we had only 1/2 hour left. 

Hoping that we could still make it on the flight but knowing it will be somewhat impossible, I went to check the next budget departure. The hubs returned to the airport about 15 minutes after the counters closed.

I paid for tickets for the next flight out, thankfully it was only an hour later. Went through immigration and saw our original flight taking off. :( 

This is the first time we made such a boo-boo and hopefully the last! A short trip on a budget carrier, using Bev's staff privilege ended up costing so much more!

Dramatic by no means but I would still want to return to Penang. The food and the sights that we missed due to the weather, due to the typhoon, will be what I want to enjoy once more.