[Vai Freak] Glacius

Stay safe

Be extra careful in shopping malls and crowds, as they are the spots of petty crimes such as pickpockets and snatch thefts although rape crimes occasionally happens.

Local men like to yell things to women walking alone, and sometimes they can get "too friendly". It is not rare to get suggestions to see the sizes of local men's "organs" for example. If you are a woman you should travel in a group. Local men think that westerners are much more "open" to such suggestions, because they have been taught in schools and newspapers that the westerners are infidels with no moral, and that they can have lots of promiscuous sex with multiple partners. Men walking alone will have to deal with a similar amount of harrassment too, especially aroung the Love Lane/Lebuh Shulia areas. There are large amounts of prostitutes and/or ladyboys prowling the streets here and they can be very aggressive. Exercise great caution walking around at night.

If you look like a tourist, you will get considerably higher prices from the salesmen in markets, like Batu Ferringhi Night Market, or the market near the Kek Lok Si temple. The real price of the product is always a lot less than you would pay for it in western countries, and at times "the best price" is five times the normal price.

Taxis generally do not use meters, even if it is compulsory by law. The meters are always "broken". You should anyway ask for a meter, because you might get lucky. The metered price is always less than a price given in advance. Again tourists are often cheated, sometimes even left by a roadside in a middle of nowhere, if they refuse to pay a considerable sum of money. Serious crimes are pretty rare, but you should find out about normal prices for taxis somewhere in advance. Taxis taken from Penang Airport are safe, you pay using slips given in a small office in the airport building.

Do not use drugs, and stay away from them! You can easily get a death sentence even from a possession, because the local police are ordered to raise charges of trafficking instead. Synthetic drugs are quite widespread even with this kind of legislation.
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