Rob and Anna's travel adventure

Having visited and written about Penang countless times during prior trips, I thought I'd share only new observations and experiences, which I found somewhat entertaining or unusual.

We crossed into Malaysia from the land border with Southern Thailand, and Penang was a natural stop to spend our Christmas (sorry about this blog being months overdue).  I have selected a hotel away from tourists crowds, in a more genuine part of town, but still very centrally located.  Because we stayed a relatively long time, we received a very comfortable corner room on the top floor with large windows overlooking the ocean and harbour on one side, and a Chinese neighbourhood on the other.  At night, when we had enough of the city, it was fun enjoying our caramel pop-corn (purchased from a supermarket minutes walking distance) and watching from above the blinking ships' lights, brightly lit houses and temples, and the human activity (local families would get together for a meal after midnight taking plastic tables and chairs set up along the street, and cooking stalls would run into early a.m. hours exerting all kinds of spicy aromas).

Penang had its own interpretation of Christmas.  The multiple-hour Christmas Street Parade consisted of Lion and Dragon dances, Hindu folklore, gaudily decorated trucks of snowmen (with graphic details like sewn together lips), and odd combinations of ducks, peacocks, cranes, monkeys, Chinese dolls, and enthusiastic locals walking on stilts. It was brilliant!   At some point Rob and I got lost in the parade, and became a part of walking procession of "Koh Teng Chinese Holding Corporation" - still have no idea what it meant, but we clearly became part of it.  We also, attended an elaborate (and again multi-cultural) Christmas festival arranged on premises of the gorgeous Chinese temple.  The "master of ceremonies" had a few questions for the public, and at one point Rob was the only one with the right answer - and the only raised hand up in the air.  In the middle of photographing the temple, with his back towards the crowd and oblivious to what was going, Rob found himself singled out of the crowd and was asked to the stage by that "master of ceremonies".  Having no choice, Rob had to perform in front of the huge audience - he did it very well, and was met with the audience's enthusiastic applause (and giggling).  See, this is how the theater career can unexpectedly start! 

Also, during Christmas, shopping centers were alluring the patrons to try all kinds of foods on offer - dozens of salted/pickled/sundried/curried plums/nutmegs/water apples, etc. followed up with dragon fruit vinegar samples.  So, you couldn't really go wrong with any of it.  Personally, Rob and I chose heavenly Indian tandoori for Christmas Eve, and Chinese Vegetarian for Christmas morning.  That, combined with roti chenai, chendol, jack fruit, and durian white coffee - and you get yourself a winner!  We also came across a super-popular by locals Chinese eatery with an un-presumptuous name "Economy Rice".  The variety of dishes displayed in trays was unbelievable, you can just help yourself with whatever you wanted to try.  Some items looked very strange, but surprisingly very tasty.  As an example, my personal favourite - what looked like Peking BBQ duck imitation turned out to taste like sweet cinnamon dessert-like flat croissant pastry.  It was so delicious, that later on I began seeking it out in other Chinese eateries, but other versions never tasted as good as in that "Economy Rice" place... 

In general, Penang is one of out top culinary adventure destinations (other competitors are Melaka and Kuala Lumpur).  It also helps that we know the city well, and people know us by now.  Sometimes, it is shocking what people remember about you.  As an example, we went for our favourite tosai (known as dosa in India) - the place.we haven't visited in two years.  At the end of the meal, I headed to the glass display cabinet to pick up my dessert.  I thought I remembered what I had had last time and inquired if it was still available, and in response, the restaurant guy told me that two years ago I had such and such sweets.  He was absolutely right, but HOW could he remember what I ordered two years ago?!  OK, I had almost shattered the glass display two years ago after closing the door incorrectly and all pasties nearly flew away, but so what?

To escape the city, I always "drag" us (as Rob puts it) to Penang's lovely Botanical Gardens.  It is always hot and humid there, but I love it.  Wild monkeys always put up a show, and walking around is just so peaceful...  This time, it was exceptionally hot, and to cool off Rob and I found a couple of hidden waterfalls and a stream.  Bathing in a waterfall was a kind of spur of the moment thing, but we seemed to have created the following.  We tried to be as discrete as possible (we didn't have a proper swimming attire), but my exit from the waterfall was a little bad timing...  Apparently, there was a small bridge near by where a park's train would carry local tourists back and forth.  For whatever reason, this time around the train with all passengers (mostly traditional Muslim) had to suddenly stop right on that bridge, and it happened right when I ascended from my refreshing bathing with not much on (at least in the local traditional way of thinking).  Talk bad timing!  I quickly exited the waterfall pool, hoping that no cultural norms had been violated (I always try to adhere to the local customs), and to my relief, a few minutes later a few Chinese tourists came to cool off as well.  So, business continued as usual.  

In additional to Christmas week, we also returned back to Penang during the Chinese New Year in February (again, sorry for the delay of this blog entry). 

Chinese New Year is a HUGE event here in Penang, and Rob and I got "into the action" with it.  The schedule ended up packed for the entire week. 
--We attended a big public lunch  (LOTs of food) with the Chief Minister of Penang, and
-- a smaller local one with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce,
-- we had a fantastic street celebration (with also LOTs of free food) on Nagara Square, and
-- a more important one - with our friends (Chinese-New Zealand couple). 
-- We spent a night at the colorful (and my favourite) Kek Lok Si Temple that lits up 10,000 lights every evening during the CNY. 
-- We also witnessed Night Glow Hot Air Ballons "show" (all balloons were in the shape of various zodiac animals - and the monkey, of course, was the star of this year's show).
-- We joined the festivities at the Snake Temple where we ran into a few peculiar things (again), specifically lots of Chinese traditional displays with instructions how to properly approach the first wedding night (?!) - can only guess, but still have no (logically explained) idea how THAT can properly relate to the Chinese New Year theme? 
-- And, my personal favourite among the more unusual ones - we learned about "professional" Chinese New Year beggars...  While enjoying festivities at one of the Chinese temples elaborately decorated with hanging lanterns and human-figure sized burning candles, I had a lengthy conversation with an intelligent local Malaysian gentleman (who spoke excellent English), and who educated me in detail about the real world of begging, its rules, regulations, rewards and repercussions.  I should add here, that my knowledgeable interlocutor was an ex-prisoner (and prior had served his 10-year term).  Among many other things,  I learned from him that Chinese New Year Eve is the big "payout" for professional beggars here.  They bring entire families with them for the entire night waiting on the bamboo mats, and then lining up (and if necessary ruthlessly fighting for their spots) to receive pretty hefty donations from the local wealthy Chinese families (donations are apparently done for good luck, not really genuine charity).  The donations are brought out randomly in sealed red envelopes, several times a night.  And, you'd better be ready for it.  Sounds exciting, doesn't it?  See, what you learn if you stay away from tourist crowds and go rogue with the locals?

We finished up our Penang visit with a nice long (public) bus ride to Balik Pulau.  It felt like a different world - except familiar large scale murals on building walls.  The bus route took us around the island with its mountains and hills covered in dense and seemingly untouched forests, with the ocean in the distance and coastal views.  We were seeing a glimpse of what Penang used to look like...  During those times, the UNESCO World Heritage status was refreshingly  irrelevant. 

We have explored Cameron Highlands on several occasions, its cooler mountainous air has always been a welcome retreat after the scorching tropical heat of the Malay Peninsula.  As always, we stayed at the same basic hotel in the village of Tanah Rata.  When I was reserving (the same) room, the hotel owner told me that they would honor the room rates for us from two years ago - the last time we stayed there.  I was also told "Welcome back home, Anna!".  I always feel touched by things like that.  When a person spends so much time on the road in far-away places, a notion of home changes its meaning - it becomes more of a feeling of being accepted, something that Rob and I learned to appreciate having led a unique travel life-style for a while.  Anyway, our hotel room felt more like a "Glamping".  At $9 a night, we had a private room with a small window overlooking a little garden with Chinese puja and hibiscus flowers.  The hot strong showers were located outside, and it felt great to warm up on a chilly night after walking around tea plantations.  At night, the wind would bring a campfire smell, and it felt actually quite cozy (unless you had loud neighbours next door, i.e. Western tourists, that would talk about nothing until late hours - unfortunately, unavoidable).  We would take a public bus to the surrounding tea plantations, and being the only non-locals on the bus, we would get a caring attitude from the conductor and bus driver.  The bus was not very frequent, so it was very important to get the schedule right.  Luckily for us, we had developed over the recent years a good rapport with a local bus agent lady, who shared with us her local knowledge, along with work and family stories.  Tanah Rata also had a decent food selection, Malaysian-Indian being our preferred choice.  Great taste, fresh, fast, and very cheap.  We had developed a knowledge by now which local restaurant cooked what-and-when-the-best, so it was pretty easy to get what we liked.  Tandoori, naan, roti, tosai, thali, chai tarik - all good, both of us could easily eat under $5.  

After Cameron Highlands, we took a direct bus (about 5 hours) to Kuala Lumpur - our unofficial headquarters/base of this trip.

We had been here several times before, but this trip Kuala Lumpur (KL) became our "home base" of sorts...  This year, we spent our New Year's week here, then joined festivities of the second half of the Chinese New Year (in February), and celebrated Rob's Birthday (in March).  We also made three additional international trips during this KL visit - to/from Sri Lanka (In January), then to/from Indonesia (in February), and later on to Hog Kong (in March).  So, yes - KL has become VERY familiar by now.

We stayed at the same centrally located hotel (as two years ago).  We enjoyed our New Year's EVE meal at a (new for us location) Indian restaurant - tandoori chicken with freshly baked buttered naan served with curry gravy and sliced fresh lime and onions, and accompanied by mango lassi were the best to-date in Malaysia.  Everything was a reasonable walking distance from our place, including Petrona Towers which I chose for us for supposedly best New Year's fireworks display in the city. The fireworks were good (but not great), the crowds were really bad though.  We couldn't make our way for the best viewing area, and found an alternative spot to enjoy the fireworks near the Petrona Towers' construction site.  Luckily, the site's night guards brought our plastic chairs just for us, so it ended up a comfortable viewing.  However, working and walking our way back to the hotel against huge crowds was like swimming against a strong ocean current.  I still remember thousands of faces and bodies, that kept coming and coming towards us, and us trying to squeeze our way along the streets and traffic, it almost felt surreal...

Chinese New Year was another story.  We ended up attending KL Mayor's reception with LOTs of delicious (free) food reflecting multicultural cuisines of Malaysia.  It was GREAT!  For whatever reason, the master of ceremonies picked us from all attending guests, and both Rob and I got interviewed on a number of occasions throughout the entire event.  It almost got silly!  When he would start talking about new dishes brought out for the guests to try, he announced in his microphone something like this "Well, Rob and Anna - here we have a new KL curry specialty made of ...", and then he would continue describing various cuisine styles, and would always add our names to his narration as if he was talking just to us...  The Chinese New Year finished up with the traditional Chap Goh Mei celebration, we chose the elaborately decorated Thean Hou Temple for this occasion.  And, the traditional fireworks that took place at midnight, we actually ended up watching from our own hotel room window. 

For Rob's Birthday, we went back to Petronas Towers and a lovely park that surrounds them.  For a change, after all ethnic culinary endeavours, we enjoyed something more Western - pizza and various types of (surprisingly) tasty cakes and pastries.  We also had a special treat "bestowed" upon us by our hotel reception staff - a complimentary cable TV with tons of channels in English.  Having spent so many weeks away from modern luxuries (sometimes not having any electricity at all), that was quite a treat.  Among other programs, I remember watching the "Divergent" movie - relating to it and feeling like one myself...

We also have Rob's university friends living here in KL.  We've known each other for over twenty years now, and every time we come to KL, we try to get together.  They are of Chinese-Malaysian origin, so we are fortunate enough to get to know the insider's perspective about what life is like in KL. 

Having spent a relatively long time in KL, we did a number of various things that normal locals would do in their free time.  We took a commuter train to Batu Caves, walked to and around Lake Titiwangsa, watched local kids handling a pithon for their family photo shoot, walked all over around various neighborhoods and markets, witnessed a number of street performances, and thoroughly  indulged in local treats -  mango lassi, coconut shake, teh tarik, jack fruit, tandoori naans and chicken, roti chenai, dosa, biryani, sweet coconut rice, battered shrimp-chili-vege fries, and among many other treats, the new for us in KL - huge vegetarian buffet at a Buddhist temple.  Also, it's amazing how many unconventional things one could notice while walking around.  As an example, during one of the street band performances, a traditional Malay woman was singing "Guns & Roses" album, and did quite well at it.  Then, another Muslim lady (in full traditional dress), had a shirt on top of h​er attire saying ​"Do i​t like no one's watching"​!  Cute, isn't it?  Independent long-term travels (as opposed to short-term traditional package tours) are so much more about learning about the actual people and the world, and most importantly - is there a better way to learn about ourselves? 

After a night slept on a bench at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport​ (we had just landed from Indonesia), followed by four bus connections and four hours of bus journey, we finally reached Port Dickson area...  We had a place in mind where we would stay, however, no one knew or heard of it.  Eventually, a local guy selling something by the side of a road told us where to find it.  We found the area all right - but the entire building was razed to the ground - most likely, for a new resort/condo construction.  By now, we had walked several kilometers in excruciating tropical heat with heavy packs on our backs.  Out t-shirts were soaked in sweat, one kilometer felt like five, 30°C felt like 60°C, we were hungry and exhausted... 

We walked along the highway paralleling the beach in search of another (existing) accommodation.  We checked out one "motel" with dingy and over-priced rooms run by a manager who seemed drunk, and avoided staying there.  We continued walking further.  My joints were hurting, at that moment I felt like I had enough of SE Asia.  We escaped from heat for a few moments in an air-conditioned KFC which was located along the highway - after consuming a small bag of french-fries and replenishing the salt lost through pouring sweat, my clear thoughts slowly came back.  We boarded a local bus and got off at "KM 13" - my back-up plan was a Chinese-run hotel.  Our GPS had a "burp", and we ended up getting off the bus about half a kilometer too early, but this time the hotel was "alive".  We were very happy to settle in our room on the top floor with two windows over-looking the ocean and beach, and fell asleep to a sound of waves - our bodies and minds got finally soothed...  We seemed to have been the only guests there during our several-day stay, it was peaceful and quiet, and it was pleasant to sit on our terrace enjoying nice ocean breeze, waves and sunsets.  The only visitors we had were wild monkeys that would jump around a bushy canopy of a large tree covering our terrace roof.  

Because it was mid-week, most eateries were closed, but we found a few stalls/restaurants on the beach that served a Malaysian version of fast-food (chicken burgers) during lunch hours, and then for supper we would pick up some spicy noodle packages from 711 store along with fruity slurpy (for Rob) and latte coffee (for me).  During one of our lunches on the beach, a local guy was celebrating his Birthday, so Rob and I were invited to share a delicious cake with him and his friends.  At that very "restaurant, another guy (I think he was a husband of the lady owner) was comfortably sleeping on a table next to a baby crib surrounded by other tables.  We'd gotten used to such sights by now, business as usual...  

We also  made a special trip to Tajung Tuan (Cape Racado) National Park. 

After walking a couple of miles to the park entrance, we hiked and climbed several more miles in about 40°C (105°F) heat, almost had a heat stroke, but I was determined to find migrating raptors - the main reason I "dragged" us here.  Around early March, as many as 2000 raptors per day were making their journey via this route on their way from Australia to Siberia.  I found a great observation place with clear views, with one caveat - we had to sit on super hot rocks under excruciating sun, our bodies were soaked in sweat, but we reached the perfect recommended time for watching raptors - between 1 and 3 p.m. (also the hottest time of the day).  If you travel with me, you might pass out from the heat, but you sure would have the schedule down...  Anyway, we saw 2 raptors (were hoping for me), AND an (unexpected) giant marine turtle playing and feeding in the ocean waters below - we were about 300 feet up from the sea level.  Then, while walking around the park, we also encountered languor monkeys - a refreshing behavior of wild monkeys after all those mischievous macaques we've been so long around. 

After all, we enjoyed our visit to Port Dickson.  It was non-touristy, felt real, and even though there was not that much to do, it really felt refreshing...  We finished up our last evening on our breezy terrace enjoying the sun setting in the ocean - I've always found that view very poetic, but slightly sad...  Next morning we were heading to Melaka.