Penang - Sumatra, Indonesia - KL
Anna's entry:
PENANG, MALAYSIA
We have visited
Georgetown/Penang numerous times over the past five years, and posted a whole
plethora of entries about the city on this blog. Thus, not to repeat myself, this entry will
be a little different, let's call it THE NEW, THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE
UGLY. So, here it goes..
Penang, THE NEW
Festivities. This was our FOURTH New Year celebration this
year. The first one was on December 31st
in Ambon (Indonesia); the second was the Chinese New Year on January 31st in
Trang (Thailand); the third was also the Chinese New Year celebration on
February 4th in Hat Yai (Thailand); and this one is the Hokkien New Year on
February 7th. It was an interesting one
- Chinese people of Hokkien descend celebrated it in several ways:
-- with colourful
fireworks display which we enjoyed watching from a temple build over the
waterfront in the community living in houses on stilts;
-- with huge fires
set up along the streets (they were burning stacks and stacks of papers with
written wishes on them), that almost burnt the city to the ground due to the
strong winds blowing the sparkles all over people's vehicles, roofs, and roads;
-- and with a LOT of
dead roasted pig bodies (all parts, including the heads, were preserved)
displayed all over the streets and temples.
The latter seemed to be used as a background of choice for taking
pictures with. Chinese people posed in
various positions right in front of the pigs' bodies - we are still not sure if
the roasted pigs were eventually consumed by families, or they were used
strictly for visual "good luck" purposes? We tried asking a few locals, but never got a
clear answer.
The festivities
continued at (my personal favourite) Kek Lok Si Temple - which for 15 days
exactly at 7 p.m. was transformed into the temple of 200,000 lights. It was a little gaudy (and certainly
wasteful), but also surreal...
Penang, THE GOOD:
-- Fantastic food
scene. The best Malay-Indian food you could find anywhere. By now we know the places to go and specific
people to see, and those locals treat us in the most friendly, family-like
manner. From the Tamil-run Tandoori
House to Malay-Muslim-run Nasi Kandar, from Chinese Vegetarian to Tea Tarik
makers, from night snack stalls to the specific jack-fruit sellers - all good
people who we enjoy. For the record, the
Muslim-run establishments come close to the top best.
--Good value
accommodation. Yes, it is a cell-like
room in a hotel run by two Chinese shirtless brothers, but it is still cheap at
$8 a night, and by now we are used to "the brothers" and their
peculiar sense of humor.
Penang, THE BAD
--horrible,
dangerous, careless, disrespectful driving;
-- congested
streets;
-- no road rules
either followed or enforced (one way streets mean nothing, red lights mean nothing,
sidewalks mean nothing, pedestrians (including blind people) mean nothing;
-- blocked sidewalks
(illegally placed sellers' boxes, stalls, motor-bikes, chairs, tables, unwanted
garbage, a whole range of barricades of anything you can imagine (including
flat laying bodies of drunken individuals), make the city walk-unfriendly. In addition, greasy splashes and waste from
(often) Chinese-run stalls make the surface slippery and unsafe. Combine the
above with uneven steps, pot-holes, and hanging exposed electric wires, and
you've got a perfect recipe for disaster.
Pedestrians have no choice but walk along busy streets along with
traffic, hoping that they won't get hit.
I spoke with a few legally blind locals (I met them at a
massage-by-the-blind clinic), and they shared candid heart-breaking stories with me
describing their lives "as a pedestrian in a city of Penang".
PENANG, THE UGLY
-- the city has sold
out, meaning the Penang I used to love is gone.
Penang sold its soul, culture, and history for a cheap success - meaning
trashy bars, coffee houses, and obnoxious night clubs. The latter attracted the UGLIEST of tourists
- disrespectful, narcissistic, self-centered, stupid, loud, smoking, and mostly
(sorry to say this again) - THE EURO-TRASH (both the Western Europe and Eastern
Europe tourists). The latter brought out
the worst of human traits. It is embarrassing
to be associated with travelers any longer - the behavior has no excuses. And, I also blame the Penang locals for using
it for a short-term profit. In the long
term, it is a loss for everybody.
We've had more than
enough of Penang - time to move on!
SUMATRA, INDONESIA
BANDA ACEH
We rarely return back
to the same places (unless it is practically necessary), but this time we've made an exception. A
few years ago we had a fantastic time on
(island) Pulau Weh off the North Sumatra coast, where we spend almost
one month
(and wrote a long blog about), so we decided to give it another try.
For a detailed blog about the city of Banda Aceh and its tsunami
devastating history, please see the blog entry published in September
2013. This particular entry is a very brief synopsis.
We landed at the Banda
Aceh International Airport surrounded by Muslim passengers (Sumatra is predominantly Muslim, and the
region of Aceh also has introduced a strict Sharia law - which scared a lot of
foreign tourists away). After Penang,
the locals seem so much happier and mellower - a lot more smiles, jokes,
hello-Mr's, etc. When Rob went shopping
for groceries supplies to take to the island with us, a local stall lady
actually returned back to him an over-payment.
We also managed to find an honest labi-labi (type of a small truck turned
into a taxi) driver to get us to the ferry port. It really helps to pick up some Indonesian
Bahasa phrases and numbers - it is really hard to cheat someone when one
understands the numbers. Many tourists
hate Banda Aceh, but for us it was quite OK.
The only unpleasant incident we witnessed was at the hotel. When we were checking-in, an upset Western
tourist was having an argument with a front desk - insisting he was burglarized
and robbed in his room. It spooked us -
we had stayed at that hotel a couple of times before and never heard about
incidents of this kind. So, just in
case, one of us stayed in the room to "protect" our belongings before
the departure to Pulau Weh.
PULAU WEH
After a ferry
crossing we took a scenic drive from the port of Sabang to get to our beach
accommodation. The driver had to pull over on several occasions due to the burning breaks failing to handle
the steep mountain passes. The driver
was a jolly Sumatran fellow, kept teaching me Indonesian words and phrases, pointed out
some interesting geographical and historical landmarks, but when we started
talking about the Boxing Day tsunami, he immediately froze up. "Anna, look!" he said, and pointed
out to his arms - the arms were covered in goose bumps. "P.S.D," he told me. Even after a decade after the devastating
tsunami, his reaction to the topic was quite severe...
We arrived to our
beach, and settled at the same place (and even at the same bungalow) built on
stilts right over the ocean. We had the
sweeping view of the ocean from our large wooden balcony with a hammock. Sometimes we would see a large monitor lizard
(size of a crocodile) right under the stilts warming up on the rocks during a low
tide. In the evening, large bats (likely
flying foxes type) would fly back and forth along the ocean shore, and at night
the tree with smaller bats would come alive when we turned the light on outside. Frequently, the monkeys would
make an appearance. On one occasion,
they stormed an attached open-air restaurant, and scared senselessly the
resident cats; and on another occasion, we found a male monkey staring in our
windows while "indecently exposing himself". So, it was never a dull moment. The bungalow price remained an excellent value - around $8 a night.
However, there were a
few things that had changed for the worst.
The invisible wall between the locals and tourists got even thicker - there
was a clear notion of "them v.s. us".
We knew some local people from a previous visit, and it helped us to
feel "more accepted", but nevertheless, it felt different. Another big (and the saddest) change for us
was the obviously decreased marine presence.
In two years, it seemed like the fish variety had decreased
by about 50%. We spoke with the local
residents, and our "fresh-eye" observations and their suspicion were
confirmed. Further over-fishing, larger
tourist presence and, as a result, increasingly damaged coral contributed to
an even further loss of marine habitat. We
still managed to compile an arguably impressive marine blog during our ten-day
marine exploration, but this time around snorkeling compared to the previous
two years was a sad reflection of reality.
Anyway, here is our
marine blog of encounters (includes a swim-crossing to, from, and around RUBIA ISLAND):
Daily encounters:
Blue-spotted
sting-rays,
anemone and clown fish, crocodile-needle fish, pipe fish, giant and
clown trigger fish, seal-faced puffers (occasionally a group of 6 at
once),
banner fish, bat fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish, razor fish,
lobsters,
oriental sweet lips, lion fish (red, orange, black, grey types),
scribbled file
fish, boxed fish, trevallies, cornet fish, unicorn fish, long-nose
wrasse fish,
raccoon butterfly fish (family of 25 at once), lobsters, moorish idol,
surgeon-fish, A.D.D. Fish (nicknamed for its ever-twisting fidgeting
restless behaviour - need to look up the formal name0, other tropical
variety.
Occasional
encounters:
Squid, shrimp,
peacock mantis shrimp, octopus, mini sea-slug, stone fish, 2 cuddle fish (a
male and female together), porcupine fish, honeycomb eel (leopard colour) hunting
in the open (watched him for at least 10 minutes); starry eels, moray eels
(once together with a lobster; also adults and a baby eel), peacock flounders,
tuna, long fin bat fish, barracuda, groupers, horned box-fish, squamosa giant
clams, Solander's toby, ocellated dwarf lion fish, frog fish; octopus and lion
fish and sting-ray all together.
Other encounters:
Tsunami affected
laying-on-a-side coral (this is the only place in the world we've seen it),
6-legged sea star, brightly coloured crowns-of-thorn, cone-like sea shells,
coral spiny worms, Christmas tree worms, fantastic display of anemone (various
colours including brightly red, orange, purple, white, brown, pink); and a NEW
thing (still need to research what it was) - a large ornamental "Faberge-like"
egg laying inside of the coral.
Prior to leaving
Pulau Weh we made a stop in the port and town of Sabang. What a refreshing change it was after being
in a more isolated foreign enclave...
The locals seemed genuinely interested in us, they wanted to chat,
practice English, asked us questions, kids were smiling and waving at us, etc.
- this is the Indonesia we've learned to know...
It also happened to be a place for Rob's hair-cut. A little group of local men gathered to watch
the event. The professional hair-cut was
followed by what seemed like a chiropractor manipulation and head-and-shoulder
massage that made Rob's neck make all kinds of sounds. The hair-cut was under $2, and when we gave a
little tip for a job well done, the hair-cutter (a young guy) offered to buy us
coffee with his tip. We thanked him, but
categorically refused. I purchased a
freshly brewed Sumatran coffee from the next-door stall run by a local Muslim lady,
and greatly enjoyed it. She also seemed
to be very proud to have a foreign guest enjoying it that much, and kept
smiling at us.
Finally, it was time
to board the ferry. We loaded up our
large backpacks and boarded. During the
two-hour ride back to Banda Aceh, we chatted and took photos with several groups
of giggling Indonesian youngsters who were quite curious and happy to talk with
us. I also spoke for almost an hour on
various topics with an Indonesian military guy whose English was
excellent. He shared with me a lot of
his local knowledge, observations and opinions that Westerners normally do not
come across. It was interesting for me
to discover that even uneducated ignorant rice-paddies villagers are aware of the
climate change and global warming - while our "enlightened" politicians
and businessmen, who are supposed to know better, pretend to be ignorant about
the whole thing. What a shame! The planet is screaming for help, and we just
stand by, and are killing it with both hands.
During the decade of
travels we ourselves have noticed so many changes, and not for the better... The over-population, deforestation, ocean depletion and damage are apparent. It has only been two years since we visited
this part of the world, and I am scared to think what it would be like in the
next ten...
BACK to KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
I've already posted a detailed blog a few weeks ago about KL. This trip had more of a friends' re-union connotation. Rob and I have two university friends from years ago (we went to the same school back in the U.S.) who are the natives of Kuala Lumpur, and with every visit back to KL we try to get together and enjoy going back on the "memory lane".
Prior to KL, we had to make another stopover in previously-loveable-and-now-annoying Georgetown/Penang (I've vented on this town often enough in my writing, and not going to repeat myself); and a peaceful stopover at Cameron Highlands. This was the second time around on the same trip we went there, which is unusual for us - detailed blog about Cameron Highlands had been posted earlier. The only thing I would add is that according to Rob "I ran him ragged" by making us walk 15 km a day to explore "Cameron Highlands' environs" (I just thought it was quite pleasant to do that, especially with lowered mountain temperatures); and that it was so nice to return back to a super delicious Malay-Indian food after more limited choices in Sumatra (Indonesia).
Having said that, our visit to KL went quite well, except for the very unpleasant encounters with the rude city bus drivers who treated passengers like cattle (I had to stand up for passengers' rights and dignity on several occasions which resulted in several cordial exchanges with the riding local passengers who seemed to be appreciative of my efforts); and the most aggravating, vulgar, and rude behaviour of the employees serving the KL Central-LCCT airport route. So, our last impression about KL was left on the bitter note (though locals tried to apologize to us for the witnessed rude behaviour of the employees and a driver). In either case, we had to "kick some ass"...again...
posted by Rob and Anna @ 8:18 PM
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