My trip to Penang, Malaysia, Nov 2004

After visiting Singapore's CHANGi airport for a second time (I got really familiar with the terminal), I was off to Penang, Malaysia.

A few folks have asked me "where the heck is Penang anyway? Here is a map showing Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. If you don't know where Thailand or Indonesia are, then the best description of where Penang is is south of China and close to the equator. :)

Yup. Penang was warm and tropical. My first time being to a tropical place. I loved it. Even when it rained it was still warm. And the food! The food kicks butt there. But you can't necessarily go to a restaraunt... you gotta try the Hawker stalls!

So again, I may have confused the reader. :) A lot of the food places in Penang are "hawker markets". Usually it's laid out in such a way where there's a giant concrete/asphalt pad. Most of the time it's covered with a tin roof, but no walls. In the center of the pad are tables and chairs, usually plastic patio furniture. Surrounding the tables and chairs, usually on the edges of the pads, there's a bunch of small carts and stalls that serve a specific type or kind of food. When you enter the hawker market, you order the various bits of food you want. You then pick a table and sit down, they'll bring it to you. At some point someone will also come up to you and ask what you want to drink.

Needless to say, hawker markets aren't a shining beacon of light in the world of health standards. But as I think David Tan put it to me, "The best food comes from the dirtiest places". I took the attitude of they cook the food hot enough to kill any germs, and the plates/forks/cups are clean. It was a good attitude to take, because Penang hawker food is some of the best tasting food I've ever had.

Not only does Penang have good food, it also has, shall we say, unique food. Some interesting stuff I tried while I was there:

• Century Eggs
• Torpedo Soup
• Durian fruit

Probably the best part of the trip was meeting and talking to all the Penang guys/gals. Some of them I had seen in the past, like Choon Lin, Wei-li, and Meng Chong (just to name a few). A few I had communicated with via email in the past. Regardless, they're all a fun bunch of folks. And super hospitable too... the trip was soo much more fun because they made sure I did all the "cool" things, and took me around to their favorite hangouts. :)

• Choon Lin - Thanks for picking me up from the airport, taking me to see Fort Cornwalis, showing me around the temples in town, arranging the hotels, arranging the karaoke, picking the rambutan, treating me to breakfast, treating me to coconut milk and meat, helping out with the class arrangements, having the "durian party"... I probably forgot a bit to boot. Everything was much appreciated. :)
• David Ban Kee - Young Linux Jedi, with time you too will master the power of The Linux Force. :P Thanks for everything man, the various trips to the Hawker markets, the movie, the mall, playing pool, chilling out in the lab. All fun stuff. :)
• Meng Chong - thanks for taking me to the big bronze budda on the hill as well as the dam, the various hawker market trips, the dim sum, the cool philosophy discussions about religion and feng-shui, and of course, kicking my ass completely at karaoke. :)
• Wei-Li - "Makes you strong!" :P Without your encouragement I might not have tried the Torpedo Soup. You also carted me around in your car on various occasions, taking me to various hawker markets and whatnot. I'll have to work on my bowling skills before I come back to Penang... ;)
• Allan - "We're going to PuTTY all night long!" :P Deep within Allan I know there exists an agressive crazy driver just waiting to get out. But for now I'll have to thank him for safely carting me around various places, 'specially taking me back to the hotel.
• Lay Sim and Mei Ching - thanks for letting your boyfriends give up some of their time with you so they could be with me. :P Lay Sim - we'll have to play pool again, you're pretty good! Mei Ching (AKA Penang Mapquest) - hopefully you, Meng Chong, and I can go hiking again in the future, it was fun.
• David S. (my boss) - for letting me take this trip in the first place. :)

OK, I think I've done enough yacking. On with the pictures!

Choon Lin took me to Fort Cornwallis after a good Malaysian breakfast of chicken, rice, and noodles. This fort is a relic of the British imperialism that shaped the face of Penang in the 17 and 1800's. What you're seeing here is the biggest cannon the fort has. Neato, big guns! :) Picture taken on : Thu Nov 10 19:01:26 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a shot of some more cannons at Fort Cornwallis. The building at the left was the gunpowder storage bunker. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:01:26 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me with the same cannon above. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:03:54 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me on a rickshaw-like thing. The Malaysians installed an ampitheatere inside the fort, this was at the bottom of the seats in front of the stage. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:07:20 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Choon Lin tells me this clock was built as a gift to one of the british queens (who's name was lost on both of us, we're engineers, not history buffs). It was built to resemble Big Ben. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:12:34 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me inside fort cornwallis. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:29:08 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Here's a shot of me and a soldier guy. He let me hold his gun... cool. :) Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:38:06 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. At some point the leader of Taiwan hid here to avoid the communists in China. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:47:58 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me next to the mansion above. It also shows the gated entrance. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 11:50:12 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a shot of the interior of one of the city temples Choon Lin took me to. Very ornate stuff. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:09:30 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Another statue in a buddist temple. One thing is for certain, the buddist followers sure do believe in having big statues. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:13:50 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a hall in the same temple. I believe these statues are supposed to representations of various characters in the past that portray certain values and whatnot. Or I could be confusing this with other statues I saw on my trip. Like I said, not a history expert, just an engineer. :) Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:15:14 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Me in front of the "Sleeping Budda" temple. The dragons out front were pretty cool. The pile of items by the front door are shoes, they require you to remove them before entering. This temple was right across the street from the last temple. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:20:08 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
[yawn] Sleeeeeeepy Budda. :) It was too big to get the entire thing into the picture! Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:22:26 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a shot of the offering area in front of the sleeping budda. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:23:04 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Behind the sleeping budda there's a lot of slots in the walls, where ashes of the dead are stored. I guess if you donate enough money to the temple you can put your relative's ashes there. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:25:24 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me holding some Rambutan fruit. They look really cool, with a spikey but soft outside, and jello-like inside. They taste delicious! Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 12:57:54 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of the coconut I ate/drank. You drink the coconut milk with a straw, and then spoon out the meat from the inside. Pretty yummy, although my stomach was a little touchy afterwards. As a matter of fact, that was the "worst" that my stomach ever felt on the entire trip! Surprising given what I ate towards the end... Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 13:12:46 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of me in the place we did Karaoke. Unlike here in the US, where you normally do karaoke in front of a bunch of people at a bar, it's much different in Asia. Typically these places are part of arcades. You rent a room at an hourly rate, and you get food for all your guests. You also get a monitor/karaoke computer in the room. It's a pretty slick setup, we had a lot of fun. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 16:02:58 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
From left to right - Choon Lin, Me, Allan, David, and Meng Chong. Lay Sim was nice enough to take the picture (thanks Lay Sim!). Karaoke with this group was a lot of fun. I'd have to say that Meng Chong was probably the most talented, followed up by Choon Lin (but only with Chinese songs, she doesn't sing english songs). 'Course, next time Choon Lin sees me she's probably gonna kill me for putting up a picture of her on the web. Ummm... sorry Choon Lin! :) Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 16:06:06 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
My first day at the second hotel (Parkroyal Hotel) I walked down the Batu Ferringhi beach and took a few photos of the sun setting. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 18:48:12 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Another sunset shot. Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 18:49:18 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
The final sunset picture (I promise!). Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 18:50:40 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
David and Lay Sim were waiting for me to finish showering before we went to dinner. I guess Lay Sim got bored and decide it would be fun to surprise me with a picture after exiting the bathroom. :) Picture taken on : Thu Nov 11 19:31:46 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
While Meng Chong, Mei, and I hiked up to the Air Itam Dam, we spotted a few monkeys on the way up. We didn't stop for too long, Meng Chong warned me that sometimes the monkeys are a little agressive if they think you're going to give them food. They're just as plentiful as squirrels over here it seems. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 08:52:02 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of the Air Itam Dam reservior. It was pretty full, as you can see the water is approaching the overflow drain. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:09:06 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a shot of the city from high up on the Air Itam Dam. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 17:11:22 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A picture of Me, Mei, and Meng Chong on the other side of the dam. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:16:58 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
The Kek Lok Si Temple, close to the Air Itam dam, is one of tehe better known temples of the region. The reason is for it's huge bronze budda statue. It really is amazing how big this thing really is. You can see it for miles around. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:31:48 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Another shot of the budda statue. I'm in front of it. It's Huuuuuuuuge! Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:33:24 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of the city from the temple. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:34:56 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of Mei and Meng Chong in front of one of the towers at the Kek Lok Si temple. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 09:50:52 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a little movie (requires quicktime, ugh) of me eating beef torpedo soup. In the beginning it was a little confusing, nobody seemed to be too sure wether the soup was made out of cow intestine, or a cow's, ahem, manhood. I should have taken the tip from the soupmaster, who looked at me with wild eyes, saying "Makes you STRONG!". Yup, strong like bull. In any case, the soup didn't taste like much. It was actually very salty. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:21:00 MYT 2004
More Beef Torpedo Soup consumption. Allan, Wei Li, and Meng Chong were there to cheer me on. :) Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:22:12 MYT 2004
More soup consumption. Wei Li's soup tasted better than mine. Ah well. :) Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:22:56 MYT 2004
More soup goodness. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:24:06 MYT 2004
Even more soup eating. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:24:32 MYT 2004
More soup eating. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:25:28 MYT 2004
A shot of the torpedo soup up close. You can't tell what it really is by looking at the contents of the soup. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:25:54 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
What the soupmaster is holding up on the left is what I ate... a cow schlong. Yup. It wasn't bad tasting. Granted, I didn't see this until after I ate the soup, and I still thought it was intestine at this point. How the heck can a cow walk with that long of a schlong? My guess is part of it is inside the cow. It is after all a big muscle, right? Next time on a farm I'm gonna have to do some inspecting. Discreete of course, I wouldn't want the farmer getting any strange ideas about me. :) Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:28:14 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
This is a shot of the menu at the soup stall. Note the long cow schlong hanging at the bottom. Yum. Picture taken on : Fri Nov 12 20:51:32 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
A shot of Penang Hill, the tallest hill on the island. I got there at 2:30 in the afternoon, and the next train with available seats up was at 5:45. Needless to say my trip to Penang hill was without a climax. :) Picture taken on : Sun Nov 14 14:48:08 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Wei Li is cracking open another Durian fruit here. Note the sweat on his brow, it didn't look like easy work. :) Durian is one smelly fruit. Not for the weak of heart. You eat the meaty inside. It tastes good, although I'd prefer an apple any day over durian. Choon Lin tells me there's 2 kinds of people, those who will eat durian, and those who don't even try it due to the smell. Of those people who try it, they aquire a taste for it. Well, I won't be aquiring a taste for this puppy until I either go back to Malaysia, or buy a frozen Durian in the asian market. Since I don't want to subject my roommate to that, I'm gonna have to wait a bit. :) Picture taken on : Sun Nov 14 22:30:26 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Me, trying my first bite of durian. Picture taken on : Sun Nov 14 22:33:00 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
More durian munching. Picture taken on : Sun Nov 14 22:33:10 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image
Durian smells so much, the hotels put up signs telling you not to bring it into your room. That explains the sign I saw by the elevator entrance at my hotel (I wondered about that for 3 days). Picture taken on : Mon Nov 15 01:20:14 MYT 2004 640x480 image full image