 Day 128: Enjoying the Soccer Game |
Sunday was surreal on so many levels. A good friend of ours from Sydney, who had been living for the past 3 months in Cambodia, decided to fly over to Penang and hang out before she went to Thailand. So, we started off Sunday morning, early, meeting up with Anna at the Golden Sands Resort for a glorious buffet breakfast followed by a morning swim, where we practiced our underwater photography and tried to work off the calories from the meal.
After that, we checked out of the Golden Sands up in the Batu Feringgi section of the island and into the E&O over in the George Town section, which was heaps nicer and classier than the Golden Sands (I do not deserve this). So, yes, a place that serves you with fresh towels and watermelon juice on arrival, and with a room that is 3 times the size as the last, is definitely surreal.
The afternoon consisted of afternoon tea with some of the nicest cakes and pastries ever, a walk to the shops and a quick nap before heading to dinner in Little India and finally on to a pub to watch soccer. That’s when the fun began.
While taking a taxi (a teksi) to Little India, we asked our driver where a good place to watch the Manchester vs. Chelsea game was and he pointed to SoHo — a place that looked quite cool from the outside and was later proved to look just as cool on the inside. We asked the guy behind the bar if they were going to show the game later on and he said, “Of course,” which quickly convinced us to plop down in front of the big screen TV and order a tower of Tiger beer to pass the time.
SoHo is awesome. The decor is so Victorian inside with huge comfy chairs and that TV screen was massive; it seemed like the perfect place to enjoy the game. We started drinking our little glasses from the beer tower, giddy with our decision to be there, until we noticed the music.
It was song after song of slow, “easy listening” type music from the 80s and 90s — perhaps ballads is the word I’m looking for.
After a long day of walking around and now beer, the last thing we needed were ballads to lure us to falling asleep. My ears hurt, and I wasn’t the only one. We suddenly felt trapped in Hell with our giant tower of beer keeping us there as ballad after ballad rolled on to the radio.
We turn to the bar area to see the guy there with a laptop and headphones on (a dedicated DJ perhaps) intently working on the computer. Anna gets the idea to ask for a music change.
“Are you the DJ?” she asked.
Indeed he was, but requests he was not taking. She tried to emphasize that we were falling asleep and needed some peppier songs; he was still not feeling it. Finally, he put on another set of music, only it turned out to be the same type of music, but just from the 2000s. I’m not sure how it happened, but every slow, slow song — even from good bands — were put together into one playlist to slow-sing us into a deeper sleep. It was Hell. We wanted to escape, but we were trapped after buying that stupid tower of beer. Our only hope was that he would stop playing the music when the soccer game finally came on.
But, then it hit us. What if they don’t stop the music at all during the game and they continue to play music while the game silently plays on the screen. That was a surreal thought.
We just endured over an hour of music nightmare before coming to this revelation. Pat had to ask the waiter, and he confirmed our worst fear. It was at that moment that we decided to drink like mad to get the tower done and over with so we could head out to find somewhere… wherever… we could watch the game with sound.
We felt kind of silly because as soon as we started to walk down the street, we happened upon about 5 different outdoor places where you could get towers of beer and watch the game, outside in open air, with commentary and with tons of other people also there to watch the game.
Why in the world did we spend so long in Hell before coming to this amazing place? We are still confused to this day.
Sounds like you picked the right hotel, getting fresh waterlemon juice and cakes on your arrival
Very different from the average hostel I usually stay in. Can’t believe they would keep playing music through a sport event like that….
Yes, this is the classiest hotel I’ve ever stayed in ever. Would normally be at a hostel, but Pat’s dad booked everything
You should watch the football match at Kedai Mamak instead of that bar. That is how most of Malaysian enjoy the game.
If only we knew that the other night
Who set up the tripod for the pool photo? Almost missed you guys completely!
Haha, Anna took that photo!
That’s pretty funny but only because I know that you escaped and found a much more enjoyable place!
Fresh watermelon juice sounds amazing, do we get a post on the hotel?
Enjoy Penang!
This hotel is outrageous! Pat’s dad book this for us, so I had no say. It is CLASSY!