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Published: February 13th 2010
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Georgetown Accommodation
Beautiful colonial style guest house We like Penang...we like Penang because Penangites like food! Good food is everywhere and so cheap! We all had dinner one night for RM12, that's AUD$4! The place we booked was also good and cheap, a lovely restored colonial style house.
We went to Cheung Fatt Tse's mansion in Penang. He was some late 19th century Chinese tycoon that built lot's of luxurious houses and had 8 wives. Wife no. 7 lived in Penang and was apparently his favourite, but he had business in Shanghai, got bored and acquired wife no. 8. That's the way you roll when you're a Chinese millionaire. His house in Penang was built as a traditional Chinese courtyard house, and Feng Shui'd all over. As I know from reading my Mother's Woman's Day when I was younger, Feng Shui is largely to do with the flow of 'chi', life giving energy or something like that. But the way it was conveyed at Cheung Fatt Tse's mansion was that it was all money, money, money. Everything is about bringing in the money! Our guide, a Chinese lady, showed us some photos of Mr. Tse's wives and explained that the Chinese believe in face reading, i.e. your
Penang Hill
After catching the funicular (fun!) train up to the top. face shows the kind of person you are. Then she eyeballed me and said “You....you save all the money”, and then looking at Phoebe said “and she spend all your money”. Perhaps there's a bit of truth to that.
The following day we'd organised to meet up with Alex Lee from our old work in KL. Alex lives in Adelaide but was back in Malaysia for Chinese New Year. We asked him if we could try some Malaysian fruits, so he turned up with a car full of Durian stink! After a delicious lunch at a hawker stall, he bought out the fruits: durian, jackfruit, mangosteen and dragon fruit. It was mine and Phoebe's first taste of durian and Nick's second. I told Phoebe it tasted like custard (not having had it myself at this point), so she dug in, fingers an all (durian is very messy) and then announced “not really like custard.....I never want to eat custard again”. I had a try, and once you get over the stench, it's actually quite enjoyable, especially the aftertaste. However, we paid for it for the rest of the day, as durian has the tendency to give you terrible indigestion.
Lunch
Carefully selected food by Alex from various hawker stores The nicest fruit by far was mangosteen......delicious!
We've managed to get command of a bit of Bahasa Malay by buying a Malay phrase book. We've been trying out our Malay when we can but have noticed that talking in Malay tends to get you answers in Malay, so not that helpful. For example, quite easy to to say “Where are the ladies toilets?”, but not so easy to understand “Turn left, then right, then up the stairs, then on your right” (which was actually where they were). We also found it quite funny that the socially acceptable way to reply to questions regarding to your marital status is to say either one of “I'm married”, or “I'm not married yet”, NOT “I'm single”. Same goes with questions regarding children, because of course no one would actually WANT to be single and childless in Malaysia.
The presence of Indians in Malaysia has given us a bit of insight into what our trip might be like in India. For example, the food is fantastic for me, but not so much for Phoebe who has mostly been living on roti and mango lassi, plus of course a multi-vitamin every day. Also,
Fruit!
Phoebe digging in to some jackfruit, with a mangosteen in her hand the Indians LOVE children! Phoebe never fails to get the attention of an Indian passing by. There's always a smile and pat on the head in store for her, and whenever we might try to do something basic, like buy bus tickets, order food etc, if there's an Indian serving then we always have to wait until they're done smiling and cooing at Phoebe. It's really very sweet, but quite astounding as I've never seen so much adoration for one child (and this child already comes from a very adoring family)!
The question of what to do for Chinese New Year is an interesting one as it's a major public holiday for all and obviously of huge significance to the Chinese. As our hostel manager said “If you want party, go to Melacca, but if you want quiet, go to the National Forest”. Initially we were thinking we'd go to the National Forest (or 'Taman Negara'), but became disheartened after surveying overpriced accommodation and hearing some lack lustre reviews. So party for Chinese New Year it is!
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christine giles
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good times special,c if u can get some home stays
Try home stays in India,maybe thru uni or engineering firm,they are so warmly hospitable,great for Phoebe.Hydrabad isa good centre.MUCH love AC