A Trip to Penang, Malaysia

Yesterday we (Myself, Nikolai and a friend, Lucien) got back from a week trip to the Island of Penang, Malaysia. We stayed in the city of Georgetown, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to what some say is the best street food in Southeast Asia.

Georgetown is a very diverse city, with many different cultural/religious groups living in close quarters to each other. Many days as we walked through the city and I was amazed at how on one street you could pass a Chinese buddhist temple, a Hindu Temple, a Baptist Church and a Mosque in about 4 city blocks. Now, this is not some splendid utopia where everyone lives in perfect harmony. But it was amazing to watch the level of religious tolerance/acceptance as people went about on their day to day lives.

As we wondered the streets of Georgetown and the jungles of the island we found ourself coming back many evenings to eat at the Red Garden. This is a hawkers place where various food stands sell their food along the outside of a sea of 100+ tables. The first night we went there, we perused through the stands to see all of our options. There was Thai food, western food, Japanese food, Vietnamese food, Malay food and much more. We all decided to skip on the Chinese food, since we get enough at home.

After much debate, I settled with some fabulous Japanese BBQ skewers of lamb, lobster and a jumbo prawn while Nikolai and Lucien continued to look. Finally, tucked away in the corner, they found what they had been looking for...Indian Curry. I would say that all in all, Nikolai and Lucien had a total of no fewer than 20 curries between the 2 of them. Butter chicken curry, chicken vindaloo, tikka masala & a Penang style curry were just a few that they sampled throughout our stay. You could say that the two of them were in food heaven!

I did thoroughly enjoy the food, as the morning street food was outstanding, with samosas, egg roti & cheese baked bread, but I found the nature on the island fascinating. We took several hikes through the jungle in both a national park and the highlands above the city. Along these hikes we saw much of the flora and fauna that made this island so important to the Malay natives and fascinating to the British that arrived here in the 1700s. From 7-foot water monitor lizards to dusky leaf monkeys to century old trees, I was in awe of the natural beauty of the island. It was quite a respite from the concrete jungle that we live in back in Foshan.

We have 8 days of work and then another almost 3 weeks of vacation where we are heading to Thailand (Chiang Mai & Koh Samui). We can hardly wait!