Malaysia Day 8

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Day 8 Today started as they all will while we are on Penang with breakfast by the pool. We were picked up at 9am for our half day round island tour.

The first stop was the Penang Batik Factory where we were shown how the batik products are made. A lot of batik made at this establishment is for institutions like schools and hotels and is made using a stencil. Of course a lot of these designs are unavailable to the public as they are for a specific client.

The art of the making of batik is fascinating to watch. Initially, the design is drawn on the cloth and then stamped with molten wax using a die made of metal which blocks areas off to which the colour can be added later. If a freestyle design is required then a copper cup with a small outlet called a thunter is used to line the areas to be painted later. I assume it is called a thunter because the application is called thunting.

Once the wax outline is dry, the cloth is then dyed or painted several times until the desired colour effects are achieved. These also means blocking off painted areas with wax up to three times. Once the finished colour scheme is completed the batik is then boiled which removes all traces of the wax and the fabric is then preshrunk. Once the wax is removed you will then see the white areas where the wax once was. The wax is then recycled and used on other batik products.

Once we left the batik factory and shop we drove through a coastal area which had been hit during the 2004 tsunami. A total of 68 Penangis were killed and a lot of them were resettled around the coast closer to Georgetown in medium density buildings. Not much compared with living on the coastal lowlands but at least they survived.

Penang is quite hilly, not mountainous, and we then started to climb up the ranges on the western side of the island. Around this area are a lot of “farms” and in particular a lot of rambutan, durian, nutmeg and other spices are grown. We stopped at a roadside stall and were shown a lot of these fruits and the trees they are grown on.

The durian is known as the king of fruit in Malaysia and has a very pungent smell. It and mangosteen, which is used as an antidote to the smell one you eat durian, are banned in most hotels. A lot of people find the smell of durian pungent and offensive but I have never found that. The taste of the fruit is something unique as it has a rich and creamy texture. The fruit does not ripen after it comes of the tree, so the farmers either have nets below the trees to catch the fruit as it falls or attach a string to each fruit to prevent it falling. The string is only used if the fruit is expected to be of premium quality and and he is able to get a premium price.

We did not taste durian but we did try some cacao seed, the outer covering which tastes of lemon. You cannot eat the seed itself as it is very bitter until it’s processed into cocoa and cocoa butter for the making of chocolate. We also tried several spices including some grated dried nutmeg. Looks like mixed peel but with a beautiful spicy taste to refresh the palate.

Once we left the roadside stall we proceeded to the south eastern corner of the island, where we went to the Snake Temple. Here, Pit Vipers guard the alter of the temple, although their numbers have been dwindling over the years. There were maybe a dozen there, but I think the heat got to them as they are very lethargic, possibly due to the incense burned by worshipers. A bit like us tourists in this heat. Like most Chinese temples, this one is very elaborate and ornate and impressive for such a small place.

After the temple we went the Duty Free industrial zone, duty free to multinational investors, not tourists, where we were treated to a tour of a jewellery factory which exports around the world. We were, of course, offered special discounted prices for buying direct. Luckily we didn’t have to buy anything from them before they unlocked the security doors.

This was the official end of the tour apart from the 40 minute or so drive back to Batu Ferringhi. The bus took up the eastern side of the island, past the Penang Bridge to the mainland and through Georgetown to the northern part of the island and back to the hotel. Granted, most (all) of the stops were at tacky touristy type of locations where commissions are paid to guides, it did give a brief insight into the types of things the island has to offer.

We had a quiet few hours back at the hotel and then we caught a local bus to Gurney Plaza in Georgetown for a bit of old fashioned shopping for a change. This a fairly large shopping centre on 7 levels with a vast array of local traders and international brands. We spent a few hours looking around and decided to have dinner before we headed home for the night.

We had a good feed at a place called Manhattan Seafood and the plates of food looked as good as the photos on the display menu. Once we finished here we got a cab back to the hotel for night.

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