Oodles of Noodles in Penang

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Nick: Penang, the island located off the western coast of peninsular Malaysia, was to be the first stop of the last country on our itinerary. After the lazy days spent relaxing in docile Ko Phangan, we were both looking forward to being somewhere a bit busier once again, and following a short international flight from Ko Samui, and taxi ride across the island, by Thursday mid-afternoon we had arrived at our latest accommodation. We'd opted to stay in Georgetown, the neighbourhood located on the northeast of the island, and despite the abundance of guesthouses and hotels in the area, finding a room that ticked all of our boxes at a reasonable rate had proved trickier than expected. Checking into our hotel, we were given an enthusiastic and warm welcome by two guys that worked there, who spoke good English and one of whom was keen to talk footy (he was, like half of all Malaysians, a Liverpool fan...the other half support Manchester Utd). Unfortunately, when we got up to our room things took a slightly disappointing turn; the room was cramped, with no windows and a broken a/c unit that only served to circulate warm, musty air. There was an 'attached bathroom’ as described on the booking website - a perspex enclosure in the corner of the room with a small sink, shower unit and bog all squeezed in, and an ample supply of mould to boot. Well, we'd stayed in some grotty enough places already and it would put a roof over our heads for four nights, we would just have to spend as much time as possible out and about! Dumping our bags, we got straight out to take a look around.

We took a stroll around the immediate vicinity of our hotel, but it was by now too late in the day to strikeout much further. Both of us were immediately impressed with Penang; the old colonial buildings gave the place plenty of character, and the overall mixture of shabby old buildings alongside newer constructions, the absence of pavements in much of the town and the bustling ever-present traffic in all directions all reminded me a lot of Hanoi, one of our favourite places of all. Having spent a good twelve hours or so travelling, we found a bar near the hotel and treated ourselves to a couple of well-earned beers, and sat watching the world go by for a while, before scouting out the options for dinner. Penang has a reputation for excellent street-food, and with stalls lining the road in both directions we were spoiled for choice. After perusing some of the stalls, we settled on one that sold 'wan tan mee', a dish of yellow noodles served with small pieces of pork, spring onions, greens, chillis, and (best bit) two or three prawn dumplings. It can be eaten dry or in a broth - we both went for the latter, and it was delicious. Whilst we ate, we fell into conversation with a couple of young local lads who were sitting at the same table, and they gave us some helpful pointers about visiting the city - use the buses instead of the taxis (who charge well over the odds and refuse to use their meters, apparently), which dishes to try, and so on. After dinner, we took another stroll around the town to get a feel for the place before retiring to our delightful chambers for the night.

Friday morning came around, and we were grabbing our breakfast from the hotel buffet. It was certainly an interesting change from the ubiquitous eggs-and-bread offerings of so many other places. There were a few noodle and rice dishes, some toast, some fried eggs, and a selection of local sweet cake-type things (we hadn't been offered cake for breakfast since Brazil!). We had our fill and got ourselves out into the sunshine. Equipped with a map, we spent the morning walking a good distance around Georgetown, finding the many examples of street art that adorn otherwise drab concrete walls about the place. Apparently it all began during a project in 2012 called 'Mirrors Georgetown' and other works have been popping up all over town ever since. Many of them are fantastic works of art that would rival any 'Banksy' (in my humble opinion), although I didn't pick up on any particular political commentary...instead, cats seemed to be a popular theme, my personal favourite being a portrait of Bruce Lee kicking a cat (which sounds a bit weird putting it in writing!). Now the works of art are a popular tourist attraction for visitors to Georgetown and we found ourselves competing with plenty of others when taking photos. Our wanderings also took us to 'Chew Jetty', which runs out into the strait between Penang island and the mainland and offers great views out over the sea, with boats of all shapes and sizes bobbing about. By the time we'd seen most of the major street art attractions, our walk had taken us far and wide around the town. Wilting under the heat of the sun, and a little footsore from the mornings excursions, we found a food hall to grab some lunch. Like Singapore, Penang has a number of food centres where street-food vendors congregate, affording us punters a cracking selection of delicious local food at bargain prices. After a brief review of what was on offer, we ended up with a bowl of 'hokkien prawn mee', which was another noodle soup dish with pork, prawns and greens, which sounds on paper very similar to the aforementioned wan tan mee but in reality was an entirely different dish (but equally tasty).

Refreshed, we carried on our explorations of Georgetown, this time making our way down to 'Little India'. With loud bhangra music blaring out of numerous stores selling Bollywood DVDs and wafts of wonderful spicey scents from the open doors of cheap restaurants, the neighbourhood was a real change from the rest of Georgetown. We nosed around the area for a while, and spent an hour at a nearby cafe sipping on a cold drink and having a good read. Lovely. Later on, we braved our hotel room for an hour or so to shower and rest a bit before heading back out for the evening. Keeping an eye out for a place to eat dinner, the weather made our choice for us when the heavens opened, forcing us to duck into the nearest convenient place - a small food centre with a handful of vendors. We took the chance to get some grub down our necks, another couple of noodles dishes, 'hokkien char' and 'char koay teow', the former being a yellow noodle soup, the latter a flat rice noodle dish. As ever, both were tasty and cheap, and by the time we'd finished up the rain had eased enough for us to carry on. We spent the rest of the evening chilling out and reading in a small but cosy bar near our hotel.

Saturday morning found us on a bus to the botanical gardens, which were themselves located at the foot of Penang Hill. The plan was to take a walk around the gardens before walking up Penang Hill itself. Although not especially far from our own part of town, the bus journey took the best part of an hour due to the grinding traffic that appears to be a constant feature of the area. Still, in due course we arrived at the park and headed in through the main entrance. The first thing we noticed was a long-tailed macaque monkey, prowling about near the path, eyeballing the passers-by for anything that may resemble food. Having encountered plenty of macaques in Bali, I was well aware that they could be pushy little gits and surprisingly bold - many of them wouldn't think twice about trying to pinch some 'treasures', be they food, sunglasses or whatever! We kept our wits about us but thankfully he didn't seem interested. As we pushed further into the park, however, we encountered larger groups of monkeys, one of whom - just a small little baby in fact - gave me an aggressive little snarl and made as if to run at me, until I gave a loud clap of my hands and he thought better of it! The park itself was well kept and well worth the visit, a pleasant escape from the constant noise of car and bike motors. It was also a relatively small park and within perhaps forty-five minutes we'd completed our circuit. On our way round we'd seen a signpost to the entrance to the adjacent Penang Hill, so we headed off in that direction. Somewhere along the line, we must have missed the entrance as we found ourselves back inside the botanical gardens, walking along another, lesser-used route through the park. This turned out to be a happy mistake, however, as we spotted all sorts of wildlife along this much quieter stretch, including a family of 'dusky leaf monkeys', small fluffy black monkeys with white circles around their eyes, which seemed much more retiring than the aggressive macaques. We also spotted a couple of whopping lizards lazily tramping across the grass, and a 'black giant squirrel' which looked pretty much as the name suggests.

Following our failed attempt to find the walking trail up Penang Hill, we decided to start heading up the road, assuming that it would join up with the pathway at some point. Prior research had indicated that the walk was about five kilometres long and would take about three hours....which sounded like an awfully long time to walk that distance. The numbers made more sense after thirty minutes of steep, steep walking uphill, by which time we'd reached the 0.8 km point (as indicated by convenient blue markers every 100 metres, to remind you how little progress you've made!). We stopped and sat on a wall for five minutes before cracking on. It was only when we'd walked another three hundred metres that I realised I'd accidentally left my sunglasses on the wall and would have to go back and get them, thus adding to our overall journey. We took a moment to reassess: we were hot, tired, our calves were burning and we'd only managed just over one kilometre so far with a further four to come. Just this once, we decided, we'd call it a day. Going back for the sunglasses (which were exactly where I'd left them on the wall) provided the perfect excuse to pack it in! Instead, we made our way back to the bus stop and after a bit of waiting about jumped on the bus back to our part of town. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got back and we stopped into one of the local food centres to grab a late lunch. This time we went for an 'Assam Laksa', a very fishy bowl of soup with a mackerel base that is very much different from the coconut-ey seafood laksa that we'd enjoyed so much in Singapore (and which I definitely prefer).

After lunch and the usual mid-afternoon recuperation back at the hotel, we found ourselves back out and about. It was Saturday night, after all, but not just any old Saturday...it was the first day of the new premier league football season! The plan was to find a bar with a tv and try to watch the first televised match, Man Utd versus Tottenham Hotspur. Being screened at 12:45 back at home meant that it would be kicking off at 19:45 local time, an ideal time to catch the footy over a few beers! Happily, with so many football fans in Malaysia there were plenty of bars to choose from and we soon found ourselves in a hostel bar alongside increasing numbers of Englishmen who were all arriving with the same intention of watching the footy. The match itself was so-so, but we enjoyed shooting the breeze with a few of our countrymen, critiquing the footy, comparing our fantasy football teams, and so on. We ended up chatting with a couple from Wigan who were travelling through Malaysia prior to spending a year working in Australia. We hit it off well and we're having a jolly old time of it, so when they suggested moving onto another bar we were on board. We ended up in a bar run by a boisterous Serbian fellow with huge personality and a seemingly endless supply of fascinating anecdotes (including the backstory to the photo on the wall of him in a London pub with Paul Weller...that sort of thing). We all had a whale of a time, playing whatever music we wanted, and enjoyed ourselves so much that when the time came to say goodnight to our new muckers, we agreed to hook up again the following evening.

Sunday proved to be a decidedly uneventful day (not least owing to the exuberant night that preceded it) and as such there is little to report! After a much needed lie in, we headed out to make sure of the location of our bus departure for the following day, which turned out to be a useful precaution to take, given that it was not the easiest place to find. The remainder of the day was spent pottering about and reading, before we headed out once again to link up with our new friends Eddie and Beth. After a gentle wander about the place, enjoying the wonderful sunshine, we ended up in yet another food centre, eating - wait for it - more plates of noodley goodness (mee goreng and char koay teow, for the record). Afterwards, we walked dinner off for a little while before ending up back at the hostel bar we'd met up in the previous night, and spent another enjoyable evening gassing and sharing anecdotes. Our respective itineraries suggested that our paths would likely cross down the line, so we swapped numbers with a view to hooking up another time down the line, before calling it a night.

It was a 06:30 alarm on Monday morning in order to catch our bus; too early for any breakfast at the hotel, so we grabbed a sweet steamed bun with an apple filling from a vendor on the way to the bus station. It's fair to say we were relieved to checkout of our grotty, dank little room! The bus turned up on time (which sometimes feels like a bit of a novelty), and was fitted with comfortably spacious seats as well. After a five hour trip, we have left behind the humidity of Panang and journey further south and up into the Cameron Highlands, where it is decidedly cooler, and evidently a lot rainier too...come to think of it, it reminds me quite a bit of England! It is fair to say that Malaysia is off to a good start, and we both truly enjoyed our few days in Penang...let's hope the rest of the country can live up to this high standard!

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