After some confusion as to which bus station we were to meet at we finally connected at the entrance to the train station 100 meters down the road. As always it is nice to see a familiar face when traveling in foreign land. She greeted us with a big smile and quickly whisked us away to eat some local yum cha. There we ate steamed pork with century egg and a variety of other exotic savory and sweets, all delicious, though occasionally dubious in origin. Fully consumed we got back in her car and headed south out of town to a cave that has been renovated into a buddist temple. The managing family has worked for many year to and a elaborate on the caves raw canvas. Along with requisite statue the walls of the cave had the moulded and smoothed to allow for a large array of paintings to be created. All in all it is one of the nicer cave temples that I have seen and included a well formed staircase to take to the top of the limestone karst in which the cave is found, from which you have panoramic views of Ipoh. After about 1 hour in the cave Millicent introduced us to pomelo which is a slightly less bitter grapefruit before we headed towards Penang.
The trip takes a few hours but is quicker when traveling by car at 140kph. So we arrived safely at the ferry terminal in the early afternoon and with a bit of coercion managed to jump the que cutting the waiting time. Penang is an island that probably has more people on it than it can handle and so even with a bridge and ferry it cannot accommodate effectively the traffic wanting to get on and off the island each day. Traffic on the island isn't much better. We made it to our hotel, the hutton lodge, a refurbished heritage building, took a quick shower and headed off into the city to get some food. Now were not aware of this but my friend ha already been planning all the things we could do. Most of them involving food. First up to help quench the thirst and feed the stomach we stopped in at the famous Chandol and Penang Laksa. Now Chandol is an iced coconut and coffee type dish with green noodles an red kidney bean. It is about the oddest combination dessert that I have come across but is very refreshing in the hot Penang climate. That followed by a bowl of hot Penang lakes in which the coconut is taken out and the fishyness is added was good to satisfy the body and mind.
From there we did a spot of shopping and drove along the northern coastal route to the famous bath ferrenghi. The most famous beach on penang island and where most of the major hotels are located and also a point of particular traffic difficulties. We were taken here for dinner by Millicent who was in turn in invited by and friend she does her morning walks with. Daphne, is also a environmental advocate after retiring from being s reflexology. Rumour has it that she was involved in getting the rapid bus public transport system established. Anyway the restaurant that she took us to was no insignificant restaurant. The ferrenghi gardens restaurant is an elaborate restaurant that as been put together meticulously by it's owner over more than a decade. The place is teeming with plants, flower a waterfall fish that are all real. In addition the seating areas are organized and themed with ornaments and artwork that gives the whole place a personal feel. Daphne who has frequented to place over many years and friend of the owner gave us a tour of the restaurant including the kitchen viewing area.
After seating and eating our meals the owner stopped by for a chat and told us of events earlier in the day when six village houses were burnt down in a fire. One of his staff resided in one of those houses and so the owner generously organized his staff and the staff of other hotels to come to the aid of the villagers and gave them food and accommodation for the night. His whole story was layered with criticism of the government, who he felt had not stepped up and failed in their duty of care to the citizens. The night was roundly finished off by a song played at our table by the house trio. We headed back having had a great night and fully satisfied particularly the deliciously tender satay beef skewers on offer n
Now I had gone to the doctor just before i went on leave and found that I weighed in at a meager 57kg. 3 kilos lighter than I though I was. So as we continued our food tour of Penang there was and underlying need for me to eat enough to put on those lost kilos. So when Millicent picked us up in the early afternoon after again fighting traffic to get to us we went straight to lunch. This time we went in to the Indian quarter and sat on a corner with a collection of hawker stands we we ate yam cake along with other specialities selected by milli. I ate all the plates empty and then we headed on our way. Weaving through the streets of Penang, this time island away from the hustle and bustle to a temple whose name escapes me at the base of Penang hill. This temple which seems inconspicuous from a distance is an impressive complex that even has a cable car to take you to the large statue at the top. To get there however you need to rum the gauntlet of shops of trinkets and trivialities, then past the turtle moat where turtles clamber and compete for each inch of dry land, before finally reaching the entrance to the temple itself. There are a wide range of temples and rooms in the chinese buddist temple in varying levels of ornateness, however it as the main hall whose floor to ceiling stone carved wall and columns left be in awe. On like other that I had seen that were moulded concrete, thee looked like they were all carved by hand from stone. A tremendous amount of work. The interior wall where all painted with large chandeliers on the ceiling. All this to house five statues of Buddha in various guises. Other than the forbidden city at this point I cannot remember a more impressive Buddhist hall.
But that is not all, there is also a six story pagoda which you can climb with spectacular views over Georgetown and then right at the top by cable car there is a large statue of (name to be found and inserted) which was actually burnt down last year, providing a great fire spectacle for the city. A lantern on the hill so to speak and is now in the process of being reconstructed in concrete. Again the view of the city is great and with mini status of each of the Chinese year animals ( there must be a better name??) placed in a garden setting it provides a nice plateau to sit and relax for a moment. Though someone will need to explain to be why all the statues seemed to look as if they were designed by disney.
It was a good 15min walk before we had made it back to the bottom of the hill, past the turtles and back to the car. Which was the start of the next adventure. The is an even higher attraction on Penang island; Penang hill. I had already received and recommendation from my housemates to climb the hill. (anyone else would call it a mountain.). No I am all for a bit of exercise, however in the sweltering heat it didn't seem like a great idea. Fortunately for the lazy member of the population there is a cable car to the top. Driving ip to the entrance indicated that something was amiss. It looked more like a construction site with a small illegible sign at the entrance than a grand cable car system. Further advice from the men on the site was that the cable car was out of action until next year.
Fortunately milli had a plan B, which was to travel to the top using a jeep service starting from the entrance to the botanical gardens. The drive there was pretty quick though the parking wasn't clear so we had a good 200m walk to the jeep organizers which felt more like a group of 4x4 enthusiasts trying to make a buck than a fully organized company. On the way of that 200m walk we picked up some rojak, which is fruit douse in a sweet and something brown sauce. While interesting on the taste buds was not much more inspiring than what it was contributing to my overall weight. Finly arriving at the un-uniformed coordinator and discovering the prices had increased for evening shift we agreed to defer the exercise, concede defeat to this mighty hi and go have something to eat.
Mlicent took us to a we hidden hawker centre ( you would never find it without a guide ) on the shore with views over Penang harbour, Georgetown, and the northern tip of penang island. In this hawker centre you could access food from all over the world including German bratwurst. We stuck with local selections including BBQ'd swordfish, omelet garnished with snail, BBQ duck, soup and more. As usual it was fantastic and further enhanced by good company and all washed down over a glass of beer. It was sad to have the night end as Millicent had to work the next day and had a lengthy drive back home. (she lives in butterworth which is located on the mainland). Before she left and dropped us at our hotel we agreed that rather than making the journey to the island we would catch the ferry and go enjoy the food on what is her real hometown.
The next day was a write off! Well not entirely but without our guide we stumbled and faltered in regaining our independence. After a slow start we finally got ourselves into a position to walk through the city. We didn't make it up the hill, didn't wander the gardens, instead we walked out of the hotel and used pot luck. We stopped in at a book store, asked for information about travel to thailand. By this time I was getting hungry but tool a wrong to into a historical districts which was charming in the collections of buildings, temples and mosques. But was very light on food outlets. What didn't help was the fact that the government was doing maintenance on the water infrastructure and so large parts of the island had no access to water for 8 hours and so many restaurants didn't open.
The one we did find had a poor lady churning out Char Kway Tiew, another local dish to the neighbourhood meaning that it was a good 20min wait before our food arrived. Our apple juice also required the juicer to buy some apples down the road. :) after lunch we headed back to the shopping street to pick a man bag I desired and went back for a second helping of Chandol and Penang laksa. With not enough time left to do anything substantial we headed back to the hostel and surfed the net.
After our brief sojourn we headed with renewed excitement and light rain out to catch the bus and ferry to butterworth. Our timing worked with Dutch efficiency and we were on the far side in no time admiring the harbour on the way over. Even as we exited the bus station as instructed millicent pulled in and took us on board.
After trying to get take out from a streetside hawker and a restaurant, the first didn't have any food available, the second was a 30 min wait we headed to a sea side restaurant with views of Penang island a night. As most tourists spend all the time on the island they rarely get to see what a sight Penang makes a night as more and more bright lights get built in the city. We ate another fine meal in the balmy air with occasional light rain than made walking in thongs a trifle tricky. We had fried snails, fish and other local delicacies. It was a fine way to end our food tour of Penang. We had eaten ourselves around town and come out fatter by the end. The mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian food including the local variation makes Malaysia a great place to eat. My special thanks goes to Millicent for her wonderful hospitality and grace. May we see eachother again soon.
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