Penang

I had hoped to be in the city early afternoon but once I found the hostel, checked in etc it was early evening. By the time I was settled it was too late to try book anything so I extended my stay to two nights. Thus would allow me to book my train the next day and give me a day exploring before moving on to Thailand. I was in a 5 person dorm but one of the beds was a double so as we had all checked in separately it turned in to a 4 person dorm and as the lucky last to check in I got the double bed! One of my dorm mates was in the room when I arrived and she was very friendly. A student from the Netherlands she was taking advantage of her summer break to explore Malaysia for three and a half weeks. She had some great tips about places to visit so I wrote them all down as I already knew I hoped to return to Malaysia before returning home if at all possible. As well as tips about places to visit she invited me to go get some food with her and one of our other roommates. He turned out to be French Canadian and was not as gregarious as his friend but was friendly enough. We headed straight to Little India where the choice of street food was everything I had come to expect and more. We were searching for Laksa as it is a local speciality. I was curious as we served a westernised version of it in the mountains in Thredbo where I had worked many years before. As expected it was something quite different but my newest acquaintance seemed to like it. I tried the fried oysters and was not disappointed. They came in some fried scrambled eggs and were full of flavour.

The next day I spoke with the owners of the hostel about booking the train I had heard so much about. They kindly offered to look in to it for me and so I was free to spend the day exploring the city.  I started my exploring by getting the bus out to Lok Kek Si temple. It is said to be the largest Buddist temple in South East Asia and it was easy to see why it was a popular tourist attraction. As always the statues were beautifully colourful and despite being a tourist attraction there was the feeling of peace I have come to expect from holy places. Even a non-believer can appreciate tranquillity y’know. As well as the beautiful places of worship it has the advantage of being on a hill so the views from outside were equally spectacular. As usual my camera got a good workout and I found the walk around the temple both interesting and soothing. I was there for about two hours before I decided it was time to move on.

 

Since it was a short bus ride away from the temple I decided to also visit Penang Hill. This proved to be a little bit more difficult than anticipated as they had the common Malaysian rule of transactions less than 50 Ringgit had to be cash. As it was my last day I had been hesitant about taking out too much cash and I am so used to using my card I misjudged what I would need. This resulted in a walk from the bottom of the hill to the neatest bank to withdraw some cash so I could get the train up the hill. I had asked if it was possible to walk and was told yes but couldn’t see the path hence the walk into town. It was a walk I am glad I made at the train took me to over 700m above sea level. I had read the front carriage was the place to be and soon saw why. The track was steep and soon Penang was visible through the trees as we climbed higher and higher up the tracks. Once at the top we could see the clouds were moving in I am sure on a clear day the views are amazing but on a cloudy day there isn’t much to do there so it’s not the most interesting place. The map they had given me at the bottom of the hill suggested there might be some interesting walk about the place but the guide at the top of the hill suggested they were for bikes and as the weather wasn’t great I decided not to try exploring them. Instead I had a rather expensive cup of tea in the hope the cloud would clear allowing me to see beyond Penang. I wouldn’t have minded so much but their choice of music was terrible and they played it very loudly. The view did clear a little so I took some more photos then headed back down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill it was back on the bus and back to the hostel. Once there I found out that since it was the end of Ramadan the train was booked out for the next week! I was happy to fly but the hostel owners were horrified at the prices, which seemed fairly reasonable to me. Instead they organised for me to get a van to Hat Yai and then fly from there to Bangkok. Apparently Hat Yai is an up and coming Malaysian tourist destination and there are vans that go daily. The bad news was it left at 5am! I made sure my bags were more of less good to go then headed out to Penang to explore for the last time. This time I had some chicken biryani. Yes I know it sounds like something you would eat at any UK Indian restaurant but trust me it wasn’t. It was however very tasty. I had been told Penang was famous for its food and it certainly didn’t disappoint me. Since I had an early start it was back to the hostel for an early night. I did have a last conversation with the nice girl from the Netherlands. She was so enthusiastic about everything it was just lovely talking with her. It was a nice end to a quick but interesting visit. I can safely say that Malaysia is a country that is worth further exploration at a later time.