Taking a bus in Penang (in 2007) was really a "Malaysia truly Asia" adventure. The buses seemed to be from the 1950s with sometimes wooden seats, partly open windows and of course no air con. But they were cheap. Usually 1 fare cost 1 RM, sometimes few cents more and you really could save a lot of money that way. If you took a cab from Gurney to Komtar, it cost 12-15RM. Imagine, that was 12 to 15 times more than the bus. And when they saw an orang putih like me, they would usually charge more. So I took the bus many times and didn't mind the shabby condition and the slow ride. Those were some fun times. I've just read that since Aug 2007 new comfortable buses were launched. I missed that by few months, because I left Penang in May that year. I was a little shocked at first to see such buses in Malaysia's second biggest city. But not shocked for too long, because I've seen a lot of odd things in the country. With that said, I still love it.
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