Penang Island

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Klaudia and I had a new and swanky tourist van, which usually seats around 12, all to ourselves on the way to Penang Island, off the Western cost of the Malaysian mainland. It was a nice surprise, but the few-hour journey from the Eastern Coast took a bit longer than planned because it was another Malaysian holiday and our driver, an amiable and quiet Malay, could not find a gas station that had prepared for the holiday by preordering refills of its tanks. In other words, there was no gas at the first five gas stations at which we stopped, forcing our driver to travel slowly in between them so as not to run out.



The lack of preparation and forward thinking in Asia in general - but especially in the tourist transportation sector, on several levels - is an astounding phenomenon to me. Assuming that you’re a Westerner as you read this, would you not have your gas tank filled before you picked up your passengers, especially if there’s only two of them? And if you’re a gas station owner, wouldn’t you have the foresight to fill up your tanks before the holiday, knowing that you may not be able to do so during a holiday? That seems reasonable to me. But that is not the case in Asia. Instead, gas station owners prefer to empty their tanks to the last drop, while drivers of vans and large tourist buses that can accommodate up to 60 people, drive all over town collecting passengers and, once they’ve picked up the final one, then, and only then, do they stop for gas, with a van or bus full of people. Why tank up earlier when you can tank up on the way? Don’t get me wrong, I get it: inconvenience the tourist to save on gas.



The driver, happily, kept to him self the whole way after finally finding gas, so it was nice and quiet, allowing the both of us to get some shut eye. We arrived in George Town, the main city on Penang, and followed a new travel rule for us in Southeast Asian cities: when looking for a place to stay, look in Chinatown first. For some reason, the proprietors of Chinatown guesthouses across Asia seem to have the cleanest places at reasonable prices, and are willing to negotiate, sometimes conceding to a good deal.



Connected to the mainland by Penang Bridge (at 8.5 miles long, it is one of the longest bridges in Asia), the island of Penang is one of the principal tourist destinations of Malaysia, with a diverse ethnicity composed of mainly Chinese, Malay, and Indian. We started our visit by renting a motorbike from an eccentric Thai man with long flowing black, but partially graying hair and a Fu Manchu mustache that extended well beyond his jaw line and chin. He brazenly tossed around profanities like an Asian who had watched too many American action movies, especially those that might feature an actor like Vanilla Ice, if he could be called an actor, as he explained to me how the motorbike worked and jokingly warned me not to “four-letter-word” crash it. I told him I wanted the “four-letter-word” fastest one; he pointed to a zippy-looking yellow one, but warned me not to “four-letter-word” drive too fast. I told him to relax: I’d bring back the bike in one piece. As we sped off, I could hear him laughing again, screaming behind us not to drive too fast.



We explored town a bit surrounded by very attentive, patient, and cordial drivers who gave me, and the rest of the thousands of motorbike riders, room to maneuver. Driving there was a cinch and, after familiarizing ourselves with the roads and accommodating conditions, we headed to Penang Hill, or Bukit Bendera in Malay, on the outskirts of George Town. At 735m/2723ft, it is one of the highest points on the island. We wanted to walk up the hill, but couldn’t find a path or communicate our desires with the security outside the tram station, so we headed up the way everyone else does, using the Penang Hill Railway, a funicular railway completed in the early 1920s. It’s been modernized since then, of course, and is a pleasant, air-conditioned ride to the top. The summit provides some magnificent views of Georgetown, which is an even prettier city when viewed from above, with the coast and sea providing a backdrop for affluent beach-front high-rises. At the top, after taking some wonderful pictures and visiting some of the sights, including a Hindu temple and a Muslim mosque, we enjoyed some traditional Malaysian food, such as satay and, what most locals consider the national dish of the country, nasi lemak, which is essentially rice cooked in rich coconut milk. It was tasty - if not a bit routine at this point for us since it was another rice dish - and served with grilled chicken and anchovies. We also ate a dessert called ais kacang, which is, in my estimation, quite possibly the strangest dish we’ve eaten in Asia so far – forget the insects. The main ingredient, ice cream, is innocent enough, but it’s a few of the toppings, other than the shaved ice and chocolate syrup, which you’d find on a normal ice cream sundae, that take this dish beyond the earthly sphere. First off, the dish includes some colorful gelatinous slivers that, because of the texture, we initially thought were orange, blue, purple and green noodles; next, some evaporated milk is added to the mix; finally, the ice cream is augmented with black beans and exceedingly sweet creamed corn. It is all a hodgepodge of tastes and textures that first dismayed, then weirdly satisfied me.



Klaudia and I continued to confer with ourselves on whether we enjoyed the ais kacang or not when we left the restaurant. We then noticed a road heading down the hill and realized that this was most likely the path we could not locate when searching for a way to walk up, as opposed to comfortably riding up the funicular train. It was indeed a way down, but not back to where we started. We ended up at the Penang Botanical Gardens, approximately five kilometers from our motorbike. Unable to find a cab, we decided to walk, but, as expected, we became lost and ended up walking the opulent neighborhoods of George Town for several hours before at last locating a bus stop that returned us to our motorbike.



Seeing that we brought back the motorbike in “four letter word” working order, the Thai man allowed us to rent the motorbike again the next day. We began the day by visiting Fort Cornwallis. It was built by Francis Light, who was a captain for the British East India
Company, in 1786. Having never seen military action, the fort was mostly utilized for administrative duties, but the cannons of the fort leave no doubt as to the real purpose; they also possess the most historical significance and interesting stories, especially the largest of these, named Seri Rambai Cannon. Cast in the early 17^th century by the Dutch as a gift to a Sultan, the cannon was later pilfered by the Portuguese before being seized by the British in Java in the early 19^th century. It was at this point when it was transferred to Fort Cornwallis.



We spent the rest of the day travelling counter-clockwise around the island’s beautiful coastline, with views that would rival any coast: the water was exceptionally blue that day, reflecting a deep blue sky; clean beaches would occasionally show themselves through the branches of trees as we sped along a corner. We stopped at Penang National Park and took a short walk through the forest. We then visited the Penang Butterfly Reserve, which boldly claims to be the world’s first butterfly sanctuary. Like many places of this type, the sanctuary’s goal is conservation and sustainability of nature through education, mostly geared towards children. It’s an exquisite place with pretty butterflies fluttering around through a tropical garden with a pond full of giant fish. My only complaint was the humidity, so I headed indoors to view the rest of the exhibits, which featured insects and reptiles of all kinds, including scorpions that fluorescently glowed in the dark if a black light was shined upon them. Interestingly, no one knows why this occurs.



Heading back to town, we stopped at the Penang Snake Temple, which is full of living pit vipers ominously hanging from the rafters, statues and anything else above head level. The snakes have been de-venomized; however, we did not discover this fact until after our visit of the temple had concluded, providing us with some uneasy excitement as we watched the roof for falling vipers.



We returned our motorbike to our new Thai friend in the evening, ending our time in Penang with some traditional food and sushi at Red Dragon Food Paradise, an outdoor food pavilion with several different ethnic cuisines from which to choose. I am hesitant to claim that the fish on our nigiri was better than what we can purchase in California, but I now know for certain what a difference rice can make: I never thought such a simple thing as good rice, packed tightly, can offer so much flavor to sushi. The rice back home just doesn’t compete. Outside the pavilion, we’d also left room in our stomachs for a strange street hamburger concoction in which the beef patty was wrapped in an egg omelet then placed on a bun with various types of Asian sauces. It was delicious, as was all the food in Malaysia.



We enjoyed our time tremendously on Penang, a truly beautiful island with a lot to offer.

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