Malaysia, Penang Island: Colonial and Chinese Influence

After all the effort we went through in order to change our Malaysian itinerary to include a couple of nights in Cameron Highlands, we ended up changing our plans again in order to leave the highlands after one evening. We had pretty much seen everything we wanted to there, and it was really cold so we sought out the beaches and warmth of Penang a day earlier than "planned", which actually ended up being the same day we had originally planned! We wanted to include some historical and other factual information for you about Penang, and hopefully you will find the next could of paragraphs rewarding.

The island of Penang is unique in Malaysia because, for all intents and purposes, Penang has all of it: fun beaches, beautiful resorts, rich history, diverse culture, and delicious food. We stayed west of the capital, Georgetown, on the north shore of the island in Batu Ferringhi. There, we found a number of popular resorts, sprawling complexes along strips of sandy beaches. Unfortunately, because Penang is located in the Strait of Malacca, the waters were not the idyllic crystal clear azure we were hoping for in this tropical part of Malaysia. Yes, there was sun, sand and water sports on offer, but no snorkeling or scuba. At the time of writing this journal we had already visited the Malaysian island of Langkawi which is more of the tropical paradise we were searching for and would expect to see, and therefore we would suggest that people spend more time in Langkawi and hop on a ferry to Georgetown for a day trip of sightseeing.

Knowing that the deadly cobras could strike us where we were sitting, we were on the edge of our seats in anticipation and fear

Penang gets its name from the Malay word pinang, in reference to the areca plant, which grew on the island in abundance. The nut of the tree, commonly called betel, was chewed habitually throughout the East (and in some parts still is). In the 15th century it was a quiet place populated by small Malay communities, attracting the interest of some southern Indian betel merchants. By the time Captain Francis Light, an agent for the British East India Company, arrived in 1786, the island was already on the maps of European, Indian, and Chinese traders. Light landed on the northeast part of the island, where he began a settlement after an agreement with the sultan of Kedah, on the mainland. He called the town "Georgetown", after George III. One story claims that to gain the help of the locals for clearing the site, he shot a cannon-load of coins into the jungle. We searched and searched but couldn't find any.

Our journey to Penang from Cameron Highlands was a long one. We booked ourselves on an air-conditioned VIP bus, "VIP" meaning there are fewer and slightly larger seats. Due to the larger more comfy seats, we were able to get quite comfortable for the scheduled 5-hour journey and took out our music players, books, Lonely Planet guide, snacks and drinks. There were unfortunately no pockets in the seat backs in front of us as the bus was an older model, so we stored all of our gear in the seats with ourselves. This would be the cause of a major problem for Kyle later in the Penang portion of our trip as he didn't realise until 3 days later that he left his new Sony Ericsson mobile/mp3 player in the seat when he left the bus. You can read more about Kyle's loss of his "handphone" (Malaysians refer to mobile phones as handphones) further down this page, but for now let's continue on with our journey to the island.

The bus was delayed one hour getting out of Cameron Highlands and since the VIP bus we booked was a really old model, there was a lack of strong air-conditioning which became more of a problem as we descended the mountain roads into the much warmer part of peninsular Malaysia. The older bus also struggled quite a bit on the mountain roads and had to travel much slower than its younger and newer VIP bus-friends. This meant that our 5-hour journey turned into an over 6-hour journey and by the time the bus arrived in Butterworth for us to catch a ferry across to Penang, we were flustered, hot and very ready to get off the bus. We quickly gathered up our things and departed the bus before following a group of backpackers heading for the ferry terminal. We had our backpack straps packed away so we rushed to open up the straps, load our packs on our backs and fasten them up to dash across the bus terminal car park ("parking lot" to the Americans reading this) to catch up with the others. These few precious minutes of rushing around would lead to the problems explained above for Kyle. Still more to come on that later, though!

The ferry from Butterworth across the channel to Penang cost just over a quid (around $2) and only took 15-minutes. It was actually quite an easy crossing and on the way we were able to see Georgetown lit up against the night sky. The capital town on the island, Georgetown was surprisingly larger than we anticipated. Penang as a whole was much larger than we thought it would be, with the island being 285 square km (171 square miles) and having a population of a little more than one million. We were surprised to learn that the population is mostly Chinese (59%), followed by Malays (32%) and Indians (7%).

Upon arrival in Georgetown, we caught a local bus to Batu Ferringhi to check into Baba's Guesthouse, where we had booked our accommodation. On the journey we met a friendly Indian who was also heading to Batu Ferringhi, and we chatted with him for a large portion of the journey. He didn't speak English very well at all, and when we tried to explain to him that we had already booked accommodation, he didn't grasp this and kept trying to push his friends guesthouse on us. Finally, when we arrived in Batu Ferringhi and we told him to go away, he cottoned on to the fact that we weren't going to follow him to his friend's guesthouse, and he left. Relieved, we walked to Baba's and checked into a very cosy, friendly, family-run guesthouse right off the beach. We don't know if the owner of the guesthouse, or his brother or his wife (or the grandmother or the kids) are called "Baba", so we will assume that they all are and say that Baba was very friendly and helpful during our stay. From Baba Granny washing up our dishes when we ate meals in the guesthouse, to Baba Wifey hooking up the TV and DVD player for us to watch some of our DVD's, to Baba Hubby and his twin (we think) Baba Lookey-Likey giving us excellent tips for touring the island and getting to Langkawi, all of the Babas were a treat. There was only one drawback to Baba's and that was a strange smell emitted from the bathrooms. We later decided this was not just a problem with the guesthouse as the smell seemed to be universal around the island - must be some really bad plumbing problems all around.

The food in Penang was really amazing and we had several tasty meals there. One of our highlights was eating at an Indian restaurant in Little India on a day trip we took to Georgetown. Kapitan's served tandoori chicken meals and it was an experience watching them cook the chicken on long iron rods which are submerged in huge clay pots, or "tandoors". Tandoors are probably the most versatile kitchen equipment in an Indian kitchen. Barbecued meats, breads, dahl and gravies made in them acquire a unique taste, very different from the food cooked on the regular oven. The tandoor cooks by a combination of hear from smoldering embers in the bottom and heat which has been retained by the thick, clay walls and is re-radiated as cooking continues. The intense heat cooks meat very quickly and seals in the juices, producing the distinctive and succulent results which characterise Tandoori food. For those of you who have chucked your microwaves or ovens into the bin in order to replace them with tandoors, please do post a comment on this journal so we know where our first meal after our trip ends in January 2008 will be.

One of the other delicious items we tried in Penang included a Malaysian curry that neither of us had tried, beef rendang. It had a very thick, spicy curry sauce and despite giving both of us diarrhoea the next day, it was good going in. We increased our appreciation and love for roti canai and thosais and got our fill of these as we knew our time in Malaysia was coming to a close. We went "western" one evening and had pizza, but I think we can be excused for this as we ate pizza at an Arabic restaurant. Baba's was one of the few guesthouses we have stayed in which didn't offer some kind of breakfast (most places offer toast and tea/coffee) and therefore we bought ingredients to make kaya sandwiches each morning in Penang.

Each day in Penang was bright and sunny with a clear blue sky, and the temperature was very hot. Our bodies were still adjusting to the heat and force of the sun in Southeast Asia, so we didn't spend long amounts of time on the beach. We did, however spend enough time to get extremely sweaty and hot and take a cool dip in the sea. As the water around Penang is not that clear, we didn't venture very far out into it. The first day on the beach and in the water, we met up with and started talking to a Swedish girl who was also staying at Baba's. Katherina is finishing her 12-months of travel at the end of February and has spent the majority of her year in Australia, surfing at as many beaches as she found possible. After half an hour talking and laughing in the water, Katherina yelled out in pain as she was viciously stung by a jellyfish on her arm. The arm swelled up immediately where she was stung and the three of us were out of the water quicker than you could read this sentence. Apparently there are quite a few jellyfish in the waters around Penang and at the beaches in Batu Ferringhi, so we suggest booking somewhere that has a swimming pool if possible. Needless to say, we didn't bother getting in the water again and spent the next few days lounging in the sun and then running back to Baba's to shower and cool off.

We took a day trip to Georgetown and did a lot of walking. The Chinatown is very large and there are a lot of buildings which have retained their colonial architecture from the time of the British settlement. When we walked down Love Lane (yes, the street name is correct), we bumped into Erik, our friend from Kuala Lumpur and Cameron Highlands. He invited to sit on the porch outside his guesthouse and treated us to cool drink - mineral water - while we talked about his upcoming trip to Indonesia. Erik is from Norway and is driving his motorcycle around Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand whilst completing his degree from an online university. What a great way to go to university! We were having a lot of fun in Georgetown and did not bother to rush in order to get back to Batu Ferringhi, but when we arrived at the bus station at 10:15pm, only to discover that the last bus left at 10:00pm, we had to fork over some cash for a taxi back to Baba's. Luckily we managed to negotiate a discount with an off-license taxi driver and paid a reasonable fare.

We wanted to hire scooters to drive around the island one day, in order to see some of the sights spread around the island, but we both discovered we forgot our drivers licences! Penang is very strict with its driving laws and therefore we could not convince any of the scooter hire companies to rent to us without a licence. So instead, we had to hire a car with a driver, who would drive us around for a few hours. This worked out well and was probably the right choice. Once we saw how heavy the traffic was, and how big the island was, and how BAD the driving was, we were content to sit in an air-conditioned teksi (taxi) and be chartered from place to place.

Our first stop on the whirlwind tour around the island was at Wat Chaiyamangkalaran temple. Try to read this aloud three times fast, or even once. This beautiful place is a unique blend of Chinese, Thai and Burmese architectural designs and was built in the 19th century. It was extremely colourful and inside the temple lies the 3rd largest reclining buddha statue in the world (it is 33 metres in length). An interesting fact is that the eyes and toenails on this statue are made of seashells.

The next stop on the tour was at Snake Temple, also known as the Temple of Azure Cloud, built in 1850. This is the only temple in the world that houses poisonous vipers, and despite knowing that there would be snakes in the temple, we had no idea what we were in for. We walked through the temple entrance and suspected something exciting was about to happen as our teksi driver eagerly joined us in the temple. He guided us to the back of the front room of the temple and pointed out several poisonous snakes which had recently given birth. He showed us the parents and the baby snakes and explained that the snakes come to the temple to give birth. Apparently the smoke from the burning joss sticks (huge incense sticks) dazes the snakes into sluggishness so they become harmless. We suppose that the snakes go to the temple to give birth and receive a kind of epidural to ease the pain.

Also in the snake temple, there is a snake zoo which houses at least a hundred different species of snakes, all extremely poisonous and deadly. The keepers in this zoo are extremely brave and were agitating spitting cobras in their cages, so we could see the cobras flare up and try to attack us through the glass tanks. Dan was able to go into a large cage and pet an enormous python curled up in the corner, but as the python jerked and reacted quite negatively to Dan's stroking, Kyle advised him quickly to leave the cage and move on to the next exhibit. What we saw next was amazing but also very scary. The keepers brought out three very poisonous snakes, on a small raised platform in front of the area where we were sitting. The first was a pit viper and the keeper let it slide around on the little stage and hiss at us in the audience. The next snake was a cobra with a beautiful O-shaped mark on its back. Of course, for us to be able to see the mark on its back, the keeper had to agitate the snake enough to want to attack him. The third snake was a king cobra, the longest poisonous snake in the world. This lighter-coloured snake did not like to be messed with, and if you look at the photo album for this journal entry, you will see that the snake keeper has been bitten by the cobra once before, almost losing his arm (there is a long scar on both sides of his left arm). Knowing that the deadly cobras could strike us where we were sitting, we were on the edge of our seats in anticipation and fear until the show was over. We were happy for the snakes to have been returned to their cages but very satisfied with the experience.

The final stop on our tour was at Kek Lok Si Temple, built in 1886. The Kek Lok Si Temple is one of the largest and grandest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia. In the temple compound is a 30-metre, 7-storey tall pagoda. This temple, set on a hill is one of the most alluring monuments in Penang and the different buildings with the temple are beautiful. Chinese New Year decorations adorned the temple and therefore we could get an idea of what the temple would look like when festivities would be in full swing. The temple had spectacular views and overlooked the edge of Georgetown and the eastern coast of Penang. We highly recommend this place if you ever venture to this island.

On the last full day, Kyle discovered that his mobile was missing, when he wanted to make a call back to the US. It was a nightmare spending hours trying to sort out retrieving his handphone from the bus company we travelled with to get from Cameron Highlands to Penang. In the end, Kyle was not able to retrieve his phone and ended up buying a new one. The lack of organisation in the Malaysian bus company was appalling and whilst we won't go into details here, it made us realise that even a nice, modernised country as Malaysia in this part of the world still has a very long way to go, at least with regards to some things.

Batu Ferringhi in Penang has a truly excellent night market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs and crafts, as well as clothing. Unfortunately, we couldn't buy anything as we aren't on a trip which warrants buying souvenirs, but we both spotted many interesting things which we liked. Despite not getting really good beach time in, we were extremely happy with our stop in Penang and the four days we had there. We were, however, ready to advance to our next tropical destination Langkawi, and were excited to board the 8:30am ferry the day we left Penang.