Road Trip!

For years I’ve wanted to drive on the left side of the road. The weather conspired against me in Ireland. But here in Malaysia I had my chance! I rented a car, a Proton Saga. Proton is a Malaysian manufacturer who draws technical assistance from Mitsubishi. They are active in rally racing and Formula 1. However I wouldn’t be doing any rally racing in my 1.3 liter Saga—the seemingly suicidal motorbike riders convinced me that slow and steady would carry the day.

Armed with a free tourists map I set out away from traffic up the west coast of the island with a couple of possible destinations in mind, but mostly with the aim of just hitting the road and seeing whatever there was to see.

I later found out from my regular cabbie, Zoo, that durians are a fruit that smell like “weeks old socks”.

Day of Goodwill

Here was the newspaper headline the day after Christian church firebombings in Malaysia. Malaysians of different backgrounds took to the street to offer flowers and smiles to strangers passing by in a gesture of friendship, unity and peace.

When Renee and I were in Costa Rica people that we encountered outside of Intel were often being nice because they were paid to be nice. I’ll call it “Oregon Nice”. As in, “Hello, I’ll smile because I have to, please spend lots of money, and then immediately return home”. It’s been very different here in Penang. Everyone has been wonderful and genuinely warm and friendly.

My prayer is that my Christian brothers and sisters here in Malaysia model Christ’s example of forgiveness. What a witness that would be, and the above photo is touching evidence that such forgiveness is being extended.

Batu Ferringhi

When I first heard I was going to Penang I thought it was a city in Malaysia. However, it is an island made up of numerous little towns and one major city (Georgetown). Until now I’ve been keeping close to “home” in Queensbay on the southeast side of the island. But when tourists come to Malaysia they come to Penang, and the resort town of Penang, Batu Ferringhi, is where they go for scenery and shopping.

Batu Ferringhi is on the opposite side of the island from where I’m staying and is a 40-60 minute cab ride. Normally that would be prohibitively expensive but here it can be had for 55 ringgits, which is under $16. I met with Intel in the mid afternoon (which went well, by the way). Afterwards I took a cab to Batu Ferringhi which went through Georgetown allowing me to at least see some of its tourist attractions in passing. On the recommendation of my cabbie he dropped me off at the Sunset Bistro.

The picture with all the cars shows the row of resort businesses including the bistro, a spa, and watersports rentals. Frankly it looked more like a slum area than a tourist trap to my eye. Nevertheless, with a couple of hours to kill before sunset I began exploring on foot. A car with tinted windows pulled up, a window rolled down revealing three men inside, and a passenger asked in a friendly voice, “Where are you from?” (I am so identifiable as a tourist here it’s not funny.) “California,” I replied. He extended his hand, welcomed me warmly, and the other passenger shook my hand while the driver waved his greetings before driving off. What I thought might be a prelude to robbery turned out to be just three nice guys welcoming a complete stranger. People here in Penang have been consistenly very genuinely nice.

I didn’t walk long. I’ve put more miles than I know on my sneakers in the last three days, and the sun was baking me good. I took cover in the Sunset Bistro where I hung out for several hours watching the sun set over the mountains while I was shaded under a canopy of trees. Paragliders took off and landed right in front of the bistro, making for good entertainment, especially when they landed too near said canopy of trees. It happened several times and always resulted in much shouting and hand waving. One couple actually put their parachute into the trees, but fortunately they landed themselves on the sand.

While I chilled out I sipped on fresh coconut water. I didn’t know what coconut water was, but it’s different from coconut milk. They take a chilled, immature coconut that hasn’t yet developed its husk, slice off the top, stick in a straw and hand it to you. It was rather refreshing. On my cabbie’s recommendation I tried satay. I know I said I would back off on the exotic food, but this wasn’t exotic. This is what I should have started with, grilled meat on a stick. It came with a spicy peanut dipping sauce, but I even liked that.

After dark I walked through one of Penang’s famous attractions, the Batu Ferringhi night market. Every evening many vendors set up booths on the sidewalk along the main drag. Think of all the vendor booths at a standard county fair and just put a mile of them (no exaggeration) along the sidewalk. I tried to get a picture, but it came out blurry. Just imagine booths along the road stretching as far as you can see, selling cheap knock-off watches, cheap knock-off handbags, cheap knock-off everything. All in all a very enjoyable evening, but man, I am going to try and do less walking tomorrow.

Hiya, Honey!

Jeff,
Thanks for the pix with descriptions. The food; Wow. If you're getting tired of exotic foods than I have found another reason to be grateful I didn't join you on this one. I mean, Wow. And to have people watching you while you eat a distasteful dish... like no pressure, Dude.

I am looking forward to your next batch to this blog. Everyone is asking about you, misses you, loves you and is praying for you and your safety. Oooh, don't eat anything too weird that will make you sick. Got Pepto?

Love,
-Me

Scroll down!

I know usually there is just one blog post at a time, but I've just posted a bunch of stuff at once since I finally got the time. So don't just look at the most recent post, keep scrolling down or you'll miss some!

Penang, first day

I didn’t do any real sightseeing today. I wasn’t jet lagged, I was just tired of constant travel. Plus, I’ll have to figure out how to get to the places I plan on visiting. I took the opportunity walk around near the hotel, which is very near Queensbay Mall, an enormous place full of restaurants. That’s where I started looking for food. I almost stopped at a corner café on the way that was populated by lots of locals, but I wanted to see what my options were before stopping at the first place.

The first restaurant I found in the mall was TGI Friday’s. Darned if my first meal out in Malaysia would be at TGI Friday’s. But after much walking around I had a hard time finding local food that looked appetizing, so I punked out and went to a Japanese restaurant. It wasn’t local but it was delicious. I tried a drink called sarsi, which is much like root beer. There are a lot of restaurants specializing in Chinese, Thai, Indian and other ethnic varieties. I determined I’d eat Malaysian food for dinner.

Walking around in the afternoon was different. That old cliche about the heat and the humidity is very correct. It wasn't that hot, but when the humidity is 80-90% you just can't get cool unless you find air conditioning. No shade or breeze will do. It didn't take long before my shirt was wet all the way through, and not just in the usual areas.

For dinner I found a local food guide that mentioned that laksa assam is a favorite Malaysian dish. I found a place called Laksa Shack and ordered away. It turns out that laksa means soup, and assam means fish. Oh joy. Imagine a soup with mackerel, tamarind, pineapple, shredded cucumber, ginger, mint leaves, and for that little extra, sour shrimp paste. I couldn’t eat it. They were looking right at me, and I was trying to be polite, but I knew after a few bites that it wasn’t for me. I managed to finish less than half the bowl. The drink it came with was a sweet, purple combination of coconut milk and black glutenous rice. It looked scary, like something a Klingon would drink, but tasted great.

I would up getting a second meal, going to another restaurant in the mall that specializes in local fare, Chicken Rice House. That sounded tame enough to me, and it was. Just roasted chicken over noodles, like the Malaysian equivalent of meat and potatoes.

On my way back from dinner I passed that corner café again and saw the silhouette of a cat scurry under a car. At least I'm trying to imagine that it was a cat, but it was pretty small for a cat, ran very low to the ground, and had a long tail. I’ll have to try some of the restaurants in Georgetown when I go sightseeing this weekend, but I’m afraid Malaysian food may not be for me. It’s too close to Thai food, and I can’t stand Thai food. I may wind up at that TGI Friday’s yet. I’m getting a little tired of exotic food.

Penang arrival

I made it safely into Penang. It’s very warm and very very humid. I thought some of you (especially Renee) might get a kick out of the banner hanging over the doorway in Penang customs. Remember, Malaysia is a Muslim country, with a lot of Buddhists, Hindu and Confucianists living here also.

It looks like food will be very cheap here. I was so tired from the trip I knew I would order room service and was afraid it might be expensive. How about a steak sandwich, fries, ginger ale, fresh squeezed apple juice and a half liter of Evian for the equivalent of $12 U.S.? From room service! Of course some things have to be a little different; the steak sandwich came with tartar sauce and cucumbers on it.