Pearl of the Orient

We spent most of January in KL, partially because my Mandarin lessons were supposed to begin in mid-January, but also to avoid traveling during Chinese New Year when lots of locals take to the roads. Don’t worry, we’ve spent February making up for lost time!

Public holidays here have been sneaking up on us, and we learned at the beginning of February that Grant would have two days off in a row: Feb 6 to observe the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday (which fell on Feb 5, a Sunday), and Feb 7 for Thaipusam. Since our Thaipusam outing was early on Sunday morning, we decided at the last minute to take advantage of the bonus weekend and rented a car to drive up to Penang.

Penang is a small state in the northwest part of peninsular Malaysia, made up of a small strip of land on the peninsula itself, and the island of Penang in the Straits of Malacca. It’s a four hour drive north of KL, and can be reached either by bus/train to a ferry or by driving and crossing a 13.5 km bridge – one of the longest bridges in Asia. We wanted to set our own schedule, so this meant enjoying Grant’s first experience driving in Malaysia.

He did an excellent job, especially taking into consideration the fact that we picked the rental car up in downtown KL and spent the first twenty minutes circling in dense traffic while I tried to set up the GPS to get us out of town. Luckily, driving on the wrong side of the road is pretty easy to get used to when there are lots of other cars surrounding you or you’re on a highway!

It was really nice to get out of KL and see more of Malaysia – the only stretch we’d seen before this was the road to/from the airport which is surrounded by palm plantations. Turns out, a lot of Malaysia is covered in palm plantations, but about two hours north near Ipoh we found ourselves driving through a gorgeous valley. Misty limestone hills blanketed with emerald jungles rose up and reminded us that this sure wasn’t Massachusetts!

Four short hours later, I’d reread the guidebook to Penang, and we were ready to explore. Penang is called the “Pearl of the Orient,” and is widely acknowledged as having some of the best food in Southeast Asia. The main town in Penang is Georgetown, which was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008. As you can imagine, the main draw here is the heritage zone, and the shophouses that line the streets there.

There are a fair number of “heritage” hotels in some of these shophouses, but the first half dozen I called were fully booked so we opted for an easy budget option: the Tune Hotel. You may not be familiar with the name, but you’re certainly familiar with the concept – it’s owned by AirAsia, the major budget airline in this region, and the same tenets apply: you get only what you pay for. The base rate (about $30/night) gives you a comfortable bed with an adjoining private bathroom with a shower, then you pay additional fees depending on which amenities you select. We added on 24 hour air-conditioning, but skipped the towel rental fee (seriously?) and brought our own stuff. All in all, it was a decent place to stay in a good location, but I’d rather search a little more next time for some personality or charm in a historic setting.

Penang has the largest Straits Chinese population in SE Asia, and in Penang and Melaka they use the terms Peranakan Chinese or Baba-Nonya (literally, gentlemen-ladies) to talk about their culture. It’s a mix of Chinese religion and Malay language and culture, combined through assimilation and marriage. Today, you can delve into the culture mainly in restaurants and museums preserving the intricacies of the pre-war way of life, as modernization and government policies (like 1Malaysia) blur the lines and assimilate Peranakans into mainstream culture.

We began our stay in Penang with dinner at Nonya Baba Cuisine, just a few blocks away from the hotel. What a way to start! The restaurant was almost full when we arrived, but they seated us immediately and brought out the menus. The lovely owner came out to talk about the menu and the type of food we like to eat, and we put ourselves in her hands ending up with four dishes for the two of us. Everything was good, but the appetizers were fantastic – the otak-otak was heavenly, much more of a custard than we’d experienced before and bursting with flavor, and the spring roll and pork roll were yummy too.

What really made this dinner special to us was the atmosphere and interaction with the owners. They chatted with all of their patrons, and we found common interests with Tony, the owner’s husband, and we felt like old friends by the time we left. Actually, I think Grant may have found a soul mate; they talked about watches and cars the whole night! There’s great food everywhere in Penang – is this the best? No, probably not, but we enjoyed the atmosphere and the experience here very much and will definitely be back on future trips to Penang.

The next day, we set out to walk the heritage zone, and had a long hot day filled with museums and temples. We started off in the Penang Museum, which was really well curated and a steal at RM1 (about US$0.30). Well worth it for the air conditioning alone, but also interesting as it had different galleries focused on the different ethnic groups of Penang and specific historic events (like WWII). My personal favorite was the wall of old postcards, showing how unchanged many scenes are today.

We strolled along the Esplanade, where they were setting up for fireworks to celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration – SO many fireworks over the past few weeks – and wandered into the old British Fort Cornwallis. It only took about 10 minutes to walk around the walls, and we poked our heads into the creepiest old chapel and looked at some archeological artifacts that were unearthed during restoration efforts, including… an old bicycle chain?

Little India was only a block or so away and as always, filled with color and sparkle in the form of sari and jewelry shops. We wound our way through the streets towards Chinatown, where we were blown away by the temples and clanhouses (called Kongsi).

This is heart of the heritage zone. There are many good reasons for Georgetown to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but in my opinion these carefully restored temples stole the show. We probably visited five or six within a few blocks radius, and each was unique in its own way: from the detailed dragons of Choo Chay Keong Temple at Yap Kongsi, to the geometric roof beams at Hang Jiang, and last but not least, the ornately decorated Khoo Kongsi.

Tucked away down a small alley is the entrance to Khoo Kongsi. Don’t let the approach fool you, this is the most impressive clanhouse in Georgetown. The roof explodes in a riot of carvings and inside is just as richly decorated.

Ancestral worship is a core tenet of Chinese religious beliefs, and inside the temples gilded ancestral tablets are arranged according to the ancestors’ positions in the clan hierarchy.

On the advice of our new friend Tony we also visited the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, which recreates a typical home of a rich Baba from the early part of the 20th century.

The house was full of natural light thanks to the large central courtyard, and the wood carvings on the stairs and walls were gorgeous. There wasn’t a tour, so we were free to wander at will and it was so much fun to imagine life there! I would have fit right in…

We spent the evening at the New Lane Hawker Center, stuffing ourselves silly. We started with pork satay, which you don’t often see in KL as many restaurants here are halal, had some delicious char kway teow (a Malaysian fried noodle dish), a big bowl of assam laksa, and finished the night off with a gigantic shaved ice concoction called ABC. ABC is short for Air Batu Campur which is shaved ice topped with tapioca noodles, sweet corn, red beans, sweet syrup and condensed milk – Grant loves it, I’d leave it.

The next day, we circumnavigated the island to make good use of the rental car. The rest of the island isn’t nearly as developed, and we passed through a few small towns, but the most vivid memories are of the twisty and narrow roads on the hilly western side. Lots of sharp switchbacks, and occasionally you’d make a turn and come upon a car stopped in the road while the driver visited a fruit stand! Again, very thankful it was Grant driving and not me. We ended up taking a walk on the beach at Batu Ferringhi. It’s a narrow beach and the water was a bit cloudy, so we weren’t overly impressed. I know, I know, how can I complain about this? I guess I’ve been throughly spoiled by the gorgeous beaches of Southeast Asia!

All in all, Penang was a great weekend trip, and I will happily go back and work on eating my way across the city. I think next time I’ll take it a little slower in Georgetown, and spend more time exploring the heritage zone. Since we were there on a long weekend, the main market and many shops were closed, and I’d like to see it at its vibrant best!