Penang

By: Matt
Getting out of Langkawi was much easier than arriving. There may or may not be a metaphor in that statement related to our feelings about Langkawi, but Emily's last post summed up our mixed feelings about Langkawi so I won't get into it here. Instead, I'm going to tell you about what may be our favorite destination of our trip so far...

We had to take the late ferry out of Langkawi, and arrived in Georgetown, Penang (which is usually just referred to as 'Penang') around nine in the evening. We had decided to stay at the Straits Heritage Hotel, which only has two rooms and is a converted 115-year-old mansion. The proprietor of the Straits, Tee, picked us up from the ferry quay and drove us to the hotel, showing us a few of the sights and major thoroughfares along the way. He was very nice and helpful, and already we were getting a good feeling about Penang. The Straits Heritage is located on Armenian Street in Penang, which is a historical street featuring many of the preserved old homes and shop buildings originally built by Armenian immigrants. The street now is a mixture of heritage residential properties, art galleries, and cafes that give it a really cool vibe. We loved it immediately.

In the hotel, Emily and I occupied the entire top floor, which was a loft-style design with space for a large bed on one end and on the other a sitting room. In-between was the bathroom and an open shaft that ran from a skylight in the roof all the way to the ground floor. Originally, these were open to the sky and provided air circulation and light throughout the house and allowed rain water to collect in a pool on the ground floor. This is the Peranakan architectural style. Now, the collection pool is a pond for koi fish.

Red Chinese lanterns adorn the streets of Penang.

The beautiful entrance to our house: The Straits Heritage.

Inside our room, looking towards the bed area.

Beautiful antiques near the shaft in our room open to the sky.

After Tee introduced us to the workings of the house and to some of the places to visit in Penang, Emily and I ventured out to eat at the lively food stalls on Chulia Street – deep in the heart of Penang's Chinatown and near our house. The food in Penang is world-famous – having been highly praised in all sorts of 'Best Food in the World' lists – and, even though these lists are mostly ridiculous, Penang did not disappoint. I dare say that the street food in Penang is amazing and definitely the best I have ever had. And it was super cheap! We ate until we were stuffed, and had only really spent around $15.
We went to the food stalls and open cafes on Chulia Street all three nights we were in Penang, so I will post all of the pictures of this here instead of spreading them out. Since Penang, like many parts of Malaysia, is a melting pot of Europeans, Hokkien Chinese, Malay, Thai, Javanese, and Indians (to name a few), the food is an electic and harmonious mix: the original food fusion before it was trendy. We ate things like hokkien mee, which is a dish of yellow noodles and rice vermicelli in a thick broth of prawn and pork, garnished with pork belly, boiled egg, prawns, bean sprouts, water spinach, fried shallots, and chili paste. Another famous Malay dish we tried was laksa, which is another noodle dish featuring thick rice vermicelli in a mackerel broth stewed with lemongrass, chilies, and tamarind and garnished with ginger flower buds, onions, cucumber, chilies, mint leaves, and prawn paste. We also had plenty of satay, spring rolls, yam cakes, sesame balls, roast duck with oysters, braised chicken with rice, and chestnut and chicken dumplings steamed in banana leaves. All while eating, we were washing it down with the most delicious fruit concoctions we've ever encountered. Our particular favorite is sour plum, which is a perfect blend of salty, sweet, and sour tastes all at the same time. (I'm salavating just thinking about it.) Another drink specialty of Penang is fresh-squeezed nutmeg juice, which is exactly what it sounds like. For dessert, it was the Malaysian specialty of ice kacang, a heaping bowl of shaved ice covered in red beans, sweet corn, palm fruit, dried nutmeg, and jellies. The whole bowl is doused in palm sugar syrup, sarsi, rose syrup, and condensed milk.

The busy and popular night market on Chulia Street.

Hokkien Mee

Emily drinks from amazing bags of fruit juice goodness.

This is called 'steamboat' and is quite popular. Basically, you just stand there and take skewers of whatever you want and boil them yourself and then dip them in the sauces. At the end, they count the number of skewers you used and you pay based on that.

Satay.

Laksa.

Banana-leaf dumplings.

Ice kacang.

The next day we were up in the midmorning and wandering around trying to find breakfast. Penang is a city that sleeps in late and stays up late, Barcelona-style. This is why we couldn't find any breakfast at 9:30/10:00am, because most breakfast places didn't open until 11:00am! My sister, ever the night-owl, would have loved it. We ended up finding an okay place called Who's Brian, which felt like a TGI Friday's-type chain but served a standard Western breakfast. Everyone in Asia does not really do breakfast like we do in Euro-America – mostly eating the same things that they would eat for lunch or dinner like rice with spicy curries or roti bread with vegetables. Emily is more open to this kind of breakfast than I am. For me, there's just something about having special 'breakfast' foods like eggs and potatoes and breads and I don't like to mix up my meals. I can't even have breakfast for dinner like some people in the States. That's an insult to both breakfast and dinner. The magic meal is brunch, and Emily and I can agree on that.

After breakfast, we wandered through the oldest part of Penang to Fort Cornwallis – the first British settlement. The fort itself was nothing special and we were getting hot walking around the barricades that were open to the intense sun and heat of Malaysia. I can't imagine how the British red coats felt, forced to wear their full uniforms while on duty. Penang was 'established' by Sir Francis Light of the British East India Company in the late 18th century as a perfect place for the spice trade route. The British brought many Indian laborers with them, and Chinese merchants flocked to Penang on their own accord. (Penang was also a major player in the opium trade to China in the 19th century). By the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, Malaysia was recognized for its bountiful supply of rubber and tin and, more than spices and opium, this became the rise of a booming and dynamic Penang. After the devastation caused by the Japanese occupation of Penang during World War II, Penang has once again risen and it is fast becoming a player in the international high-tech economy. This presents an interesting dynamic, as Penang's other large industry is tourism and many – locals and foreigners alike – want to preserve Penang. This effort lead to Georgetown being named a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998.

The grounds of Fort Cornwallis.

If Emily were an English aristocrat.

The is actually a very famous canon named 'Seri Rambai' that has been in the possession of the Dutch, Sultans, and Pirates before being taken by the British.

Seeking to escape the midday heat, Emily and I found a lovely coffee and pastry shop called 12 Cups that we really loved. They specialized in mille crepe cakes, which is a cake made up of layer upon layer of the thin French pancakes. In-between the layers are different fillings, and it was absolutely delicious. Twelve Cups also gave me the best espresso that I have had in Asia – an appropriate mixture of sweet and bitter and frothy goodness that is hard to find on this continent. My Seattle friend Erik would have definitely approved. For a late lunch, we went to a popular Indian claypot (aka tandori) restaurant in the Little India section of Penang.

In the afternoon, we took a cue from the locals and escaped the heat by going back to our hotel for a little rest and air conditioning. That night we went back to the night market on Chulia Street for another excellent meal. Below is a collection of photos from walking around Penang. These are from a couple of days put together, but I thought I would put them all in one place. Penang is a photographers dream, and it's almost too easy to snap artsy and interesting shots that are print or postcard ready. Here's what I came up with...

The is one of several mosques in Penang (Malaysia is majority-Muslim), the Masjid Kapitan Keling.

Bicycle tri-shaws take mostly tourists around nowadays.

A whole series of this amazing street art by Ernest Zacharevic is all around Penang.

Outside one of the many Chinese Buddhist temples in Penang.

More art by Ernest Zacharevic.

On our last day in Penang, we slept in and had a late breakfast at a good cafe that we had researched ahead of time (rather than the previous day wandering around with nothing open). Then we went to the excellent Penang Museum, which was a good mix of cultural information, history, and art in a doable size without getting 'museum malaise' (see also: The Louvre). After the museum we walked back to Chinatown and ate at the local favorite, Sky Restaurant. It was satisfying that we were the only Caucasians in the entire busy restaurant. Then we knew that we were in the right place for local food! Across the street from the Sky Restaurant was a very nice local jeweler that was doing some affordable and contemporary things with pewter, steel, and other materials. Emily and I really liked the place and the people were very friendly. We actually ended up getting new wedding rings there! Our originals, being not of the highest quality, are starting to get pretty beat up (especially mine). Because we bought rings and struck up a conversation with the artist, we also were given New Year's scrolls with beautiful calligraphy done by the artist's father – a trained classical Chinese calligraphist).

The ever-amazing sour plum drinks.

How often do you see starfruit juice advertised?! (it's delicious, by the way)

Roast pork, rice, and Chinese cabbage at Sky Restaurant.

Emily outside of Laconic Jewelers.

After lunch, we walked to the place where we were told to buy our bus tickets to our next destination. What was a hand-written 'x' on our map turned out to be a huge modern shopping mall as only Asia can do. Since Chinese New Year is right around the corner, the mall was all decked out as any American mall would be decked out for Christmas. We had already done a lot of shopping in Bangkok, and we knew we had Kuala Lumpur and Singapore left in our itinerary, so we didn't spent too much time there. The late afternoon was spent, again, away from the searing heat and in the comfort of our room. As the sun was going down, we ventured out again to explore the art galleries and shops of Armenian Street, before returning to Chulia Street to gorge on the fabulous food of Penang.

Chinese drumming show in the Mall rotunda.

We were sad to say goodbye to Penang the next day, and wished that we had booked at least a week there alone, but we were on our way to what would turn out to be one of my favorite cities I've ever been too: Kuala Lumpur. I'll let Emily tell you about it in the next post...

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