Penang Island - The Trip

This was an interesting experience; the trip from Sydney to Penang via Singapore was one of the more involved ones I have experienced in many years.

It started well, with the taxi I booked arriving precisely on time, and even those weather gods decided to play nice with me, and the rain stopped as I was loading my bags into the taxi.

Anyhow, the trip to the airport at that time of the morning was as expected, quick, and even though those weather gods decided I needed to experience more rain, most of the trip was in heavy rain.

So, getting to the airport, the taxi dropped me off, I paid the bill, and the driver just took off. I think he tried to spin his wheels. Read into that what you will.

Does not matter, as I made it to the airport and was dropped off right outside the departure hall, where my luggage drop-off desk was

And yes, it was fairly busy, with me having to queue for about half an hour, so not too bad.

The interesting part is that when they put my carry-on bag on the scale, it was too heavy, so the agent told me I needed to remove something to get the weight down.

So I moved my laptop and one camera lens to my other carry-on bag, which was just a small shopping bag I use for my neck pillow.

Not a clue why they wanted me to do this, as after going through security, I just put my laptop and camera lens back in the too-heavy bag, and no one said anything.

The agent was not a Karen; it was obvious she was doing what she was told, and was professional and friendly at all times.

If I ever figure this one out, something tells me my brain will melt.

Talking about security, as always, it was quick and efficient, and unlike other airports I travel through all the time, laptops do not need to be removed from carry-on bags, a big plus for someone who travels all the time with a mountain of tech.

Well done, Kingsford Smith Airport, and time for others to play catch-up. I am talking about you, Changi.

At least this time, I remembered not to wear a belt, as having to remove it is one thing that drives me nuts.

Getting to the gate, the usual queues were already growing, and that was before the gate opened. Not unusual, just annoying.

Looking out the window while waiting, there was my ride, but not the usual Singapore Airlines-branded plane, but one with Star Alliance branding, and a smaller Singapore Airlines.

I'm not sure what this means; it's just something I have not noticed in the past.

Anyhow, the boarding was the usual professional, efficient experience I have come to expect from flying with Singapore Airlines.

First, the plane, which, from the moment I boarded it, was very clear it was an older one, although on the surface it looked well maintained with the latest in-seat entertainment systems.

All that worked well, and I even managed to watch a few movies from my list.

What was not good was the air conditioning, which was all over the place during the flight. It started too cold, then settled down to make the majority of the flight very stuffy.

And no, it was only me that noticed this, the couple in the seats close to me commented on this, as did a few others I spoke to. Singapore Air, you need to do something about this.

Moving on, getting into Singapore Changi, nothing new to comment on, other than the amount of walking needed to get from my landing gate to the departure gate for the Penang leg.

In this case, my Sydney flight arrived at terminal 3, and the next leg was from terminal 1, so it was off to the sky train to switch terminals.

It's been a while since I last used this, and nothing has changed; it just works.

Eventually getting to the departure gate for the Penang leg, it was time to remove the laptop again, ahhhhh, Changi, if Sydney can do it, why can't you?

This leg was very short, a little over an hour, so it was a smaller plane than usual. As always, zero issues with this flight, the usual Singapore Air experience.

That's where the experience went downhill.

Getting off the plane at Penang International and heading for the immigration desks, there were a few signs talking about there being too many people, so we had to wait in this holding area.

Now I have experienced this before, although it's way less common than it used to be.

So after waiting about half an hour, we were directed to the immigration desk hall, down several escalators, to be presented with a sea of people.

The above photo shows only a small fraction of the sheer number of people who were waiting.

Yes, I know that photography is not usually allowed in these areas, but I saw no signs, there were no staff around, and many of the other people were taking shots, so why not join them?

This queue must have had at least a thousand people, all getting frustrated over the total lack of organisation, other than some barriers funnelling the crowd into a single queue.

Talking to a few people around where I was waiting, all were getting very frustrated, with a Chinese man commenting, "inefficient" via Google Translate.

I think it's a mess, and even Kuala Lumpur was not this bad, with the closest to this sort of crowd being the border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. And even that was better organised than this.

Anyhow, it took about an hour and a half to get through this.

Getting from the airport to my hotel was via a fixed-price metered taxi. The costs for this were about the same as they would be for a similar distance back home.

The traffic was a nightmare, and from talking to the driver, it seems I picked the worst time to make that trip. The driver told me that it's better in the middle of the day or later in the evening.

That's one to note for further trips.