I found out today that the com­pany is send­ing me to Penang on Mon­day. As a serendip­i­tous byprod­uct of last-minute plan­ning, I will be required to spend all of next Sat­ur­day and most of Sun­day alone in Malaysia, enter­tain­ing myself with the com­pany expense account.

I could spend $6.64 for the 5-hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur. But that’s a long trip, and there are plenty of local attractions.

My co-workers rec­om­mend the Snake Tem­ple, where (for a small fee) the unfaith­ful can have their pic­ture taken with “a vari­ety of pit vipers.” I’m def­i­nitely doing that.

The state tourism board sug­gests that I try the “beau­ti­ful beaches of golden sand and deep blue seas.” Sounds tempt­ing, doesn’t it.

There is also a trop­i­cal but­ter­fly farm. That might be pretty sweet too.

And there are the free Botanic Gar­dens, sit­u­ated “in a deep val­ley, at the foot of 366 feet jun­gle clad hills, bound by ever­green trop­i­cal rain forests, divided by a cas­cad­ing stream that mean­ders through a sprawl­ing 29 hectares of prime and undu­lat­ing grounds.” Sounds like a good place to eat lunch.

I’m start­ing to warm up to the idea of off­shore manufacturing.