Yeah... the guys at the front door are wearing pith helmets... and knee socks with short pants. I had read about the pith helmets in the Lonely Planet guide, but still found them remarkably like something out of a Rudyard Kipling story (did I mention that Rudyard himself was once a guest of the E & O?)
When we arrived, we sat in the foyer sipping our welcome drinks and toweling off our sweaty necks with cold, lavender scented cloths. Slowly, discretely, I slipped the coaster out from under my drink and into my purse. Not so discretely apparently, as Sean smirked and said, " I knew you were going to do that!"
This place was right up my alley... I loved the marriage of Anglo-Indian architecture with Chinese inspired decor (the population on the island of Penang is more than half of Chinese decent.) I loved the telephone @ the reception desk, and the old tableware @ breakfast with the timeless E & O logo. I loved the idea of stepping back in time, and in Georgetown it is in some ways possible since they have somehow moved slowly into the 20th and 21st centuries without loosing all evidence of their colonial roots.
Who cares if the hallways are loud echo chambers with hundred-year-old hardwood floors, that the screen less windows lack soundproofing, or that the plaster walls, in some parts, were showing their age? (My husband, for one, cared... he found the place quaint if not a bit itchy... but the girls jumped hook, line and sinker on the bandwagon with Mom!)
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