Arriving in Penang was a breath of fresh air, literally. Finding our way from the train to the ferry was made very easy by following the friendly Malay man we met on the train. Sitting down on the very slow moving ferry from Butterworth to Penang set the pace for the next leg of our journey. After a free bus ride through the streets of Georgetown, complete with a commentary on all the passing sights from our newly found friend and guide, a short walk through the streets brought us to our guesthouse, a beautiful, if somewhat noisy, pre-war building.
Walking the streets of Georgetown is like stepping back in time. The buildings have a very rustic charm to them- wooden window shutters, colonial detail and peeling paint. If you took away the many modern cars that squeeze through the streets, the scene would be almost unchanged from the time the buildings were built. Incense burns from bricks on the side of the hazardous pavements, oranges are offered on shrines to the Gods, a temple appears on every street. I get distracted from looking out for very deep monsoon drains, the pavement suddenly ending without warning and motorbikes passing within a few inches of us. Here the rickshaw drivers offer their service and smile at your no thank you. Here you can walk down the street and get only curious glances. Here is where I start to really enjoy my Asian experience, and feel that I can really start to appreciate a life that is so different from ours.
For dinner that night we went to a little local Chinese place, recommended to us by the lovely girl at the desk of the hostel. Full of chattering locals on big tables surrounded by lots of interesting looking food, we sat down to realise we were the only Western people there, something we took delight in. The lady that served us saw we obviously had no clue what was going on, so whenever some food was placed in front of us she came over and showed us what to do- dishing out some bean curd onto mine and Rich’s plates, pouring sauce out of the two bottles on the table into little dishes and signalling that we should dip the spring roll in them. She understood that I was veggie, so when Rich’s fried chicken and onion came over, she put the chicken on his plate and spooned off the onion into a dish for me. When she asked if we wanted any desserts, and we said no, she brought us one to share anyway- a mixture of lychees and squares of some kind of milk-based dessert in juice. Sat on our white plastic chairs, in an open air restaurant and surrounded by locals, we felt we were finally getting a taste of real Asian life.
Now back over to Richard.
Our first day in Penang gave us chance to explore the higgledy piggledy streets of Georgetown, it’s an amazing place to find yourself getting lost in; a maze of small alleyways that seem to lead back into themselves.
Even though the streets are maze-like it’s a very easy city to get around- well signposted and if need be there’s always KOMTAR (Penang’s State Government building and the largest building on the island) to get your bearings from.
Our first stop was the Penang National Museum to get some information on the culture and history of the island. The museum is full of many intricate Chinese and Indian artefacts that display an unfathomable amount of detail- I’m pretty certain that Jen was spying out the security cameras so she could come back and loot the lot.
After our short walk around we strolled the streets with no real aim, but as said so poetically by Jenny Georgetown encapsulates times of old and you just can‘t help but stroll with no purpose. While strolling around we stumbled upon a few examples of great Chinese and Hindu temples; first of all ‘The Goddess Of Mercy Temple’ founded in 1800.
And then Mahamariamman (mouthful or what?!) which was built in 1883 and is the oldest Hindu temple in Georgetown.
It wasn’t until we found Khoo Kongsi, built in 1906 and home to one of the most notorious clans on Penang island that we decided to have a nose around inside. The temple is a wonderful example of Chinese architecture and Jenny was very happy to snap away. For 5 Ringgit each (approx 85p) you get two postcards, entry to the grounds and also a small museum which gives information about the clan and their arrival in Penang…. a bargain in my eyes.
As is the case with most days in Asia, a hot humid start is met by an epic downfall in the afternoon, though the heat never resides during this period, and then generally (though not always the case) after a very short time, under an hour the rain ceases. Today was no exception, so we scurried along the slippery surfaces in our flip-flops in the heavy downfall like a pair of Geisha (obviously myself in a more manly way) back to the hostel to wait for the rain to stop.
The weather brought no surprises and we headed out on the modern air conditioned buses that replaced the clapped out bangers I knew from my visits some 8 and 10 years ago to an area I was all too familiar with (being the place I resided in Penang on both previous occasions) Batu Feringhi. After a small stroll down memory lane we both came to the conclusion that bar the lure of the five star hotels and beachfront we were glad we were staying in Georgetown- mainly due to it being such an interesting, historical area, and also the amount of places to eat helps. We strolled through the night markets where hawkers all try to pedal their fake Rolexes and DVDS, we bought nothing on this occasion but they will see us again ready to throw money in their direction.
After some walking we decided to stop off at the brand new Hard Rock Hotel and Café for a drink- wow that was a mistake, if overpriced drinks and all too familiar western surroundings are your thing then it will probably suit you, however we were more at home having a beer and chapatti (though just to inflate his ego they are nowhere near as good as my dads) at the Batu food court.
Our third day was put by for exploring some more of the attractions around the Georgetown area, we set off first of all to one of the traditional fishing villages. The area is a series of wooden houses that are built on stilts over the sea, a series of interconnecting wooden walkways give off a maze effect when walking through them, in that sense they’re not dissimilar from the rest of Georgetown. It’s an interesting sight, though we felt a bit obtrusive strolling past and looking into people’s houses.
After here we decided to stroll around to Fort Cornwallis, the remains a British fort and the only one on Penang island. Inside you are hit with a lifetime’s worth of information to absorb, though it gives a great look into the history of the British colonisation. My photographer was unfortunately struggling with the heat, so no photos.
Our late afternoon/evening was spent dining once again al fresco at the Esplanade food court this time, where we were joined by a few of the locals.
After filling ourselves we walked down the esplanade to an outdoor cultural event (so we thought) called ‘Esplanade In Action’, which from what we were told by our Malay friend, is a free Penang culture event held every week. Unfortunately, we managed to be there on Halloween and we were treated to a variety of dances including a rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller… though good we left feeling bemused. We did however meet a friendly Indian guy who gave us a run through on where to get cheap things, how to haggle etc..
Day four was a series of interesting and amusing events. We started our day with a venture down to the mall attached to Komtar. After a bit of shopping Jen picked up a pair of shorts for RM10 (£1.80) and so begins misfortunate/amusing story number one; when Jen finally got the shorts home she proceeded to try them on- not a comfortable fit. She then decided to try and force them on, all was going reasonably well until she began to take them off and every piece of short she grabbed to pull down ripped off until she was left with, well…nothing. Moral of story one- £1.80 is far to cheap for a pair of shorts.
While walking round I decided now would be the ideal time to get the haircut I’d been talking about and I stumbled across a place that did haircuts for RM12 (£2.10) and so begins amusing story number two; myself and my Malay hairdresser came to a mutual agreement as to how my hair would be done. It went along the lines of; Me: Trim. Hairdresser: Oh! Trim! Me: Yes! As you can see it wasn’t a great deal of information but we understood each other. Anyway he got his tools of the trade and proceeded to cut my hair, Jenny looked on giggling uncontrollably in the background while I looked in fear. Fifteen minutes later and I had a short back and sides to which Jen decided a series of salutes amused her. In all fairness to the hairdresser he did a good job though I guess the moral of the story here is, never assume you have an agreement, especially when it comes to haircuts in Asia.
After our stressful day of shopping and getting my haircut we had dinner at the Red Garden food court in Georgetown, a surprise it had taken this long as it was literally down the road from us and did amazing food. This also brought forth the third and final amusing story of the day! Jen decided that she would try one of the more famous Malaysian desserts Ais Kacang, it had to be done. It was brought out to her and at the start it was all going well, a scoop of chocolate ice-cream on top of lychee flavoured ice shavings, like a sorbet. Anyhow she dug further into her mountain of dessert until she came to some black jelly, which turned out to be grass jelly- if you think that’s peculiar read on… Next she came to some small yellow things, they turned out to be sweetcorn, you’re probably looking as confused as we were at this point but she dug further in to find the final ingredient *drum roll please*, kidney beans- just your average dessert really. Moral of story three; never judge a book (or in this case dessert) by it's cover.
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