Hawking away

Getting a place in Penang was quite an ordeal. We uncharacteristically decided to leave finding a guesthouse to chance when we got into town. Unfortunately, it was some sort of holiday and according to our gruff taxi driver, "all of Malaysia" was vacationing in Penang during the weekend. We kept on getting turned down from every hotel the guy took us to until we found the equivalent of the Bates motel run by an old, mean Chinese man in the middle of what looked like the most run-down part of town. Grudgingly, we decided to get a room as it seemed to be that or the street for the night. We were reassured by the cabbie that the next day, we would be able to go to another place as the island would clear up, and he hastily handed us his card and got out of there with screeching tires. Ok - that's just a bit of hyperbole, but seriously, the place we were in was nasty. I put up some pictures for proof.

After walking around Georgetown, the main city on the island, for a few hours, we luckily came across a clean looking hostel with a bar/restaurant downstairs that had one room open. We quickly paid for the room on the spot and moved our stuff.

Penang is a pretty cool place. If we'd been here 300 years ago, this would have been one of the commercial centers of the world as it was the Asian base for the East India Company. Today, it's an ex-colonial city that is falling into disrepair, but that just heightens the mystique and gives it character. Still, the people here seem to be trying to bring the city back up to speed though it seems as if it's already seen its best days, and in that respect, it reminds me of Philadelphia. It's very popular with Malaysians, and seems to attract odd backpackers from other parts of the world, meaning that it's still mostly "undiscovered".

Possibly the greatest draw of the city is the hawking. Hawkers are set up in patches all over the island and eating a meal is always an experience. Each item costs pennies, and you can just walk down the street sampling what each hawker is selling. Most stands sell Chinese or Malay food, and there are some that just have dumplings or oysters on skewers that you dip into boiling water and cook on the spot. There are also some "food courts" set up where waitresses take your orders and save you from having to graze.

With all the backpackers around, going out is very chill. The most interesting person we've met was this 65 year old Austrailian man who had been all over the world several times in his life and was currently traveling off of his pension. He had a lot of interesting stories, although he kept on forgetting key details. For instance, he couldn't remember the name of our "prime minister" who lived in "that house in Washington DC". I wonder how many drugs he had done in his heydey. Comicly, he reminded me of probably the craziest traveler I have met --- this 6 foot 5 British guy with a long ponytail, Jason, in Istanbul in 2004 who had backpacked to some of the most dangerous parts of the world. I suspect that that guy will be like this Austrailian when he gets to be that age.

We weren't able to see as much in Peneng as we would have liked. The island is big and really hot and humid, even moreso than the other places in Southeast Asia we've been to so far. It also rained a lot when we were here. All those factors combined made travelling slow. You have to take taxis to many of the sites. Here more than in other places, when the cabbies see that you're a Westerner, they jack up the prices and won't bring them down past a certain level no matter how much you haggle.

Jason and I went on an exploratory walk the day after we got here and only managed to make a small dent in the island after several hours on foot. It's pretty tough to navigate as the streets are set up willy nilly, there's a ton of traffic and it takes a while to cross the street as you're continually dodging cars, and the sidewalks stop and go all over the place making you have to jump onto the road and back every few steps. All in all, it's quite a workout. To make matters more complicated, many of the attractions give tours at odd hours of the day. We unfortunately kept on making it to the site right after a tour had taken off and would have had to wait for hours for the next one. We still managed to see some big temples, hike the botanical gardens, and get a good feel for the island.

Another interesting thing to be witnessed at night here are the fabled "lady-boys". It is truly unstettling to see someone that looks 100% like a woman, and then hear a mans voice come out. The rumors are true, and Tommy, thanks for the warning.

Here are some links to my friend Jason's blogposts for a flip side to some of these stories:
Bangkok
Phnom Penh
Siem Reap


Here are some videos:
Being fitted for a suit in Bangkok
360 Panoramic of the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh
Buying fried plantains in Kuala Lumpur
View from the Kek Lo See Temple in Peneng Malaysia

---

---