Sunday 10th April
After a leisurely lie in after a slightly later night than usual... ahh, you're all getting it now, we stocked up with a few vital supplies from a shopping mall that was almost umbilically attached to our hotel. It was then just a short stroll round to a smaller Herritage site, the one we'd been to on our first night here, in search of brunch.
The Nagore Square area of town is probably one that is missed by the masses who hover round the central and pier areas of Georgetown but nonetheless one with an interesting selection of boutique shops, restaurants and bars. We stumbled across a little coffee house called siTigun. It is situated on a street corner on Jalan Nagore, across from a bakery and we were soon kicking ourselves for not discovering it earlier.
It calls itself a micro coffee roastery that is so evident from the aroma when you walk in. It also has a fine selection of cakes, pies and pastries. The apple pie (served with ice cream) caught Lynn's eye whilst the bread pudding interested me. None of those were sampled as we both had eyes for the smoked salmon, cream cheese, rocket and scrambled egg toasted sandwich, now, that would get the day off to a fine start. The coffee was strong and tasteful. Well it should be as they roast it themselves and the orange juice was freshly squeezed - a perfect Sunday Brunch (£6 a head with an extra cup of coffee).
We investigated the bakery just to see if there would be anything we could buy in advance for our early start for the ferry when we were due to leave. The sights and smells from in there were sublime as a steady stream of customers kept their tills rattling.
At that point we decided to ditch any thoughts of melting as we walked round town in the oven like heat and made our way the short distance back to the hotel - time to hit the pool.
Situated on the 4th floor the pool was an adequate size and for most of the day was in the sun, thus it was like stepping into a bath. We bagsied the two loungers in the area of complete sunshine and settled in for the afternoon, fully expecting to be sharing the pool with other sun seekers. Amazingly that wasn't the case as this particular hotel is patronised in the main by Malaysians, or so it seems. They don't have a culture of sunbathing or lounging round the pool and only come out for a dip around five in the evening - we had our own private pool for nearly all afternoon - bliss.
What a great way to spend a Sunday, a delicious brunch followed by a session round the pool and a read of the online version of the Sunday Times, who said travelling had to be all about sightseeing?
It was during our lazy afternoon we decide to stay in Georgetown another day. I logged onto Booking.com and got the room at the same discounted rate as the past six, easy. Now we would only require one night in Kualar Lumpur before our flight to Perth.
That evening we ventured back to Naughty Nuri's (stopping off to photograph the lit up streets and artwork) for a bite to eat. The place was full so we were asked to sit at the bar. It gave us a chance to talk to the staff, most of them young Philipino's. We didn't want to ask if they were employed because they were cheaper labour but I think I worked it out. Perhaps they were employed because they could handle a lot of the pork and ham products on the menu, it's a theory! They were a very professional crew and we hung around until 10pm to watch the floor show as the waitresses performed their dance routine for us again.
The following morning (11th) we woke up to discover it had rained during the night; a great opportunity to walk into town then. Our first mission of the day was to head off to the Jetty. From there, I read on the web, we could book our train for KL on the Wednesday morning. I'd actually woke up filled with the idea of catching the ferry across to Butterworth to complete this task but we were saved that unessesary journey. It also gave us a chance to recce the jetty area and discover where foot passengers got on the ferry.
Remember that rain? It didn't make it any cooler and we were starting to flag after purchasing our tickets (£6 for a four and a half hour journey). Time to find a place for brunch.
We eventually found ourselves on the popular Lebuh Chulia which has the famous Love Lane as one of its side streets. The whole area is geared up for backpackers but we managed to stumble into a bohemian looking eatery called The Tavern (Where East meets West). It's part of a group of hotels and eateries owned by the YKH group one of which is a revolving restaurant on top of the Bayview Hotel.
It was chilled, laid back and was playing a great soundtrack of smooth samba sounds over the PA system. There is a central round, wood panelled bar with two side rooms, one of which you can lounge around in on sofas. We chose the light and the hearty breakfast with chilled fresh orange. The coffee, like siTigun, was perfect as was the food when it arrived - another great find.
The weather was still hot but hazy as we ventured down Love Lane and further into town. It would have been a waste to get a taxi to the hotel so we walked it, hot as it was I'm sure we burned off the calories of our meal. As for the busses. We attempted to get on one earlier in the day to take us to the Jetty. As we didn't have the exact change the driver wouldn't let us on - what a cheek. Oh well, it proves now that Georgetown is definitely a walking town.
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