The only visualization I could retain of Penang was that the straits between the island and the mainland had many floating plastic bags (we were in a ferry), some rows of typical Straits Chinese shop houses and monkeys chasing screaming school girls in uniform with donation cans at the Botanical Park. Well...that was way back at the time where there weren't any bridge and as we made our way to Penang on the ferry, people were busy doing the piling work for the bridge. Voila...
Enter December 2009 - my wife and I was offered a room with my sister's family for a short 2 day vacation in Penang and I actually hesitated because I didn't know what to expect of it. Would reality collide with the mental picture I have of the place? (I sometimes keep idealized mental pictures of places I knew as a child for sentimental value...and don't ask me why!)
We bunked at the Park Royal at Batu Ferringhi and boy, the journey from Kuala Lumpur was quite a long boring ride on the North-South highway...
Firstly, maybe because it was December, the weather was pleasantly warm and NOT overtly hot and humid. as I imagined the Northern part of the Peninsula would be (like in Langkawi for example...) Secondly, I was surprised by the fact that there weren't that many tourists around eventhough it was the school holidays. Thirdly, the ride from the bridge towards the hotel actually took us round the island and I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that the suburbs look a bit retro 70s. I can't make out that I was in Penang. The environment resembled bit of Malacca, bit of some unknown Chinese towns, bit of development here and there but still, absolutely NO memories of any of it in me. I felt like a walking zombie in a car ride down amnesia lane. Then...at the turns towards Batu Feringhi, the ugly twin sister of development rear its head. Almost entire slopes facing the sea were developed for the upper market residential areas and everywhere, there were traces of mud, dust and sand. Personally, any development that calls for a 'temporary' change of landscape is going for disasters in later times...
At the hotel, we didn't do much but lunched at the resto. The afternoon was spent at the pool and evening eating out. I don't even know where we were...it was a secluded Chinese seafood restaurant adjoining to an old straits mansion-hotel somewhere by the sea. It was dark and I wasn't paying attention. My attention was drawn to the strange mantis prawns that we had for dinner (very expensive) that I saw swimming in an aquarium just before being served.
After dinner, the children were uneasy and it was time to return to the hotel. Not wanting to be defeated, my nieces' husbands made it a point to buy (actually 'ta pau') hawker food synonymous to Penang. In no time, we were parked next to some hawker stands buying laksa Penang. Hawker stands are so aplenty in this island that it is hard to remember where one was, really. Next, the children had to go first and we in the second car went on to Gurney Drive to 'ta pau' some more night hawker food. That night, everyone had to choke on the food at the hotel. Personally, the hawker food in Penang is not to my taste and I find them a tad too sourish or 'fishy' at times. No offends meant.
The next morning, after a very nice buffet breakfast, we spent some time at the beach with the children and later at the pool. Then, it was check-out and we lunched (we were the last customers) at a nice seafood restaurant...sorry, can't remember the name again. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Kek Lok Si Temple complex. After some late afternoon snacks at yet another hawker complex just before the funnel car station at Penang Hill, we headed home to KL.
a view from the window of the car of the bridge...
Enter December 2009 - my wife and I was offered a room with my sister's family for a short 2 day vacation in Penang and I actually hesitated because I didn't know what to expect of it. Would reality collide with the mental picture I have of the place? (I sometimes keep idealized mental pictures of places I knew as a child for sentimental value...and don't ask me why!)
We bunked at the Park Royal at Batu Ferringhi and boy, the journey from Kuala Lumpur was quite a long boring ride on the North-South highway...
Firstly, maybe because it was December, the weather was pleasantly warm and NOT overtly hot and humid. as I imagined the Northern part of the Peninsula would be (like in Langkawi for example...) Secondly, I was surprised by the fact that there weren't that many tourists around eventhough it was the school holidays. Thirdly, the ride from the bridge towards the hotel actually took us round the island and I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that the suburbs look a bit retro 70s. I can't make out that I was in Penang. The environment resembled bit of Malacca, bit of some unknown Chinese towns, bit of development here and there but still, absolutely NO memories of any of it in me. I felt like a walking zombie in a car ride down amnesia lane. Then...at the turns towards Batu Feringhi, the ugly twin sister of development rear its head. Almost entire slopes facing the sea were developed for the upper market residential areas and everywhere, there were traces of mud, dust and sand. Personally, any development that calls for a 'temporary' change of landscape is going for disasters in later times...
At the hotel, we didn't do much but lunched at the resto. The afternoon was spent at the pool and evening eating out. I don't even know where we were...it was a secluded Chinese seafood restaurant adjoining to an old straits mansion-hotel somewhere by the sea. It was dark and I wasn't paying attention. My attention was drawn to the strange mantis prawns that we had for dinner (very expensive) that I saw swimming in an aquarium just before being served.
After dinner, the children were uneasy and it was time to return to the hotel. Not wanting to be defeated, my nieces' husbands made it a point to buy (actually 'ta pau') hawker food synonymous to Penang. In no time, we were parked next to some hawker stands buying laksa Penang. Hawker stands are so aplenty in this island that it is hard to remember where one was, really. Next, the children had to go first and we in the second car went on to Gurney Drive to 'ta pau' some more night hawker food. That night, everyone had to choke on the food at the hotel. Personally, the hawker food in Penang is not to my taste and I find them a tad too sourish or 'fishy' at times. No offends meant.
The next morning, after a very nice buffet breakfast, we spent some time at the beach with the children and later at the pool. Then, it was check-out and we lunched (we were the last customers) at a nice seafood restaurant...sorry, can't remember the name again. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Kek Lok Si Temple complex. After some late afternoon snacks at yet another hawker complex just before the funnel car station at Penang Hill, we headed home to KL.
a view from the window of the car of the bridge...
calm waves of the Batu Feringhi beach on a balmy afternoon...
Washed up stars from the sea...
Moored boats waiting for tourist dollars...
plants at the beach 
a curled up bloom of a sea convovulus on the beach...
a white cockle shell washed up on the beach
a view from the hotel room's terrace
Fried mantis prawn with pepper...too 'fishy' for my taste. I find spiny lobster better.
The mantis prawns in the aquarium. They look like monsters from Ultraman...
Pickled cuttlefish (in soda water) for a special rojak sotong kangkung...
Spiny murex snails were eaten too. Apparently they taste good.
The pagoda of the Kek Lok Si Temple
Beautiful ornate carvings of the temple doors.
part of the temple complex
A view from the complex towards parts of the island
Patting one's astrological sign for good luck...
Swirls of colour in the pond
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