Now that I've been in Penang for a few months, I've adjusted to the routines of daily life. However, there are some things I've encountered that are so different from what I'm used to, they still seem odd to me. I haven't done any exciting travel this week, so here are some Penang observations.
As someone who loves his electronics, one of the first things that stood out to me was the lack of electrical outlets. In a newer house in the US, I'd estimate that there are about 2 outlets every 10 feet or so. By comparison, there's one wall in my apartment that's about 40 feet long with only 1 outlet (outlets here are "single" plugs, not double like at home). Opposite that wall is another 40 foot long wall with 1 outlet. Between the 2 of them, the short wall has only 1 outlet. So in almost 100 feet of wall space, that's only 3 plugs. In my whole kitchen, there are only 2 outlets, and one of them is used for the microwave.
Needless to say, power strips are a must. When I first got here, a friend told me that he had 17 devices plugged into one outlet and I was shocked - what a fire hazard! Now that I'm settled in, I'm almost as guilty. In the single plug near my desk, I have my computer, my monitor, my PC speakers, my cell phone, my laptop, my iPod speakers and a power converter attached to a US power strip which is powering my cordless phone, my wireless access point, and my Vonage router. So far I've knocked out the power in my apartment 4 times - one time I believe I took out the power in most of the building for 30 minutes! But all of that was at least a month ago - since then i haven't touched anything and haven't had any major problems. :)
The power here is 50hz, 220-240v. Some devices support this as well as the 60hz/110v in the US. For devices that don't support both, you need to use power converters. For the most part, my equipment has worked well, but I have seen some issues with my computer which i never had at home (system locking up or shutting down spontaneously and then refusing to restart unless i take it apart and change out the memory or the power supply). It looks like it may have been heat related - once I pulled the power supply outside the case, the issues seem to have stopped. I also had an issue where my USB hub and my printer were shocking me when I touched them - I think that was the cause of at least one of the power outages last month. :)
Another aspect of daily life that is hard to get used to is the hot water situation. This appears to be an issue only in private residence, because I did not notice it in any hotels I've stayed in the area. In the US, the house has a single hot water heater that keeps a large amount of hot water available for every room in the house at all times (most apartments have a similar setup). Here in Penang, each room has it's own water heater that needs to be turned on before you use it, including the kitchen. I've been told that the quality of the heating element is very poor and instructed to shut the heater off when I'm not using it. But this also means that in the morning, I have to remember to turn the heater on before getting in the shower - when I forget (at least once each week), it sure is a rude reminder to get in the shower half asleep when the water is still icy cold!
Perhaps most unexpected is the bedsheet situation. I'm used to a fitted sheet, then a flat sheet, then a blanket of some sort, then a comforter (maybe no blanket when it's warm). Here it appears that people do not use flat sheets (even in some nice hotels). My apartment came with several brand new "sheet sets" wrapped in plastic from the store - each of them contain only a fitted sheet and 2 pillow cases. So the only thing covering you when you sleep is the comforter. Under normal circumstances, this would probably be ok, but the washing machines here are considerably smaller than they are at home, so you can't just throw it in the wash - you have to take it to the dry cleaners. You better not sweat too much, or you'll be at the dry cleaner every other week.
Finally, being this close to the equator does interesting things to the daylight. The sun rises between 6:30 and 7:30 am - at 6:30am it is so dark that you need your headlights on when you're driving, at 7:30am, it is fully bright out. Similarly, the sun sets between 7pm and 8pm - by 8pm it is fully dark and you need lights on in your house to see. As far as i can tell, it's that way all year (no Daylight Savings Time in Malaysia). Compared to Portland which gets dark at 5pm in the winter and as late as 10pm in the summer, it feels pretty different - particularly with how fast it changes from light to dark. A few times I've been working in my apartment and i suddenly realize i can't see anything other than my computer screen. :) If you look at the bottom right of this link (opens a new window for Google Maps) you can see how close we are to the red equator line on the map (Singapore is practically right on the equator).
A few pictures from this week are posted on Picasaweb. I can't get the new Blogger version to upload any inline pictures - hopefully they'll have that fixed for next time.
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