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| Making fast friends in the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion |
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| What new hell have we stumbled into? |
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| The inexplicable dessert "ABC" - Kidney beans, palm sugar, florescent grass jelly, rice jelly, creamed corn, sticky rice, and corn ice cream spilled over shaved ice |
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| The gators never had a chance |
Sweating and surly, we arrived in Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia. Suddenly I was past burnt out. I had grown indifferent to the ocean, the cities, the scenery, the food, the culture. I felt unavailable to the joys around me. And the unremitting heat, the mosquitoes, the vague threat of disease - if the elements in Southeast Asia did not exactly want me dead, they at least wanted me panicked and sweating over a squat toilet for hours at a time.
But I couldn't go home. If I felt despondent, I did not believe ending this adventure would make me any happier. I knew I had to rediscover myself and rediscover what makes me excited to be here, because I would regret forcing a journey I didn't enjoy as much as I would regret giving it up prematurely.
So with a bottle of liquor and approximately two kilos of Kinder Bueno (the entire island is duty free), we caught the ferry from Langkawi to Penang, not knowing what we'd find there. Like Peninsular Malaysia, Penang is a mix of Malay, ethnic Chinese, and ethnic Indian, though on Penang the Chinese population is the majority. This population includes the fabled Peranakan Chinese or Baba-Nyonyas: the ethnic Chinese of the British Straits Settlements. Generally loyal to Britain, the Peranakans distinguished themselves from later Chinese immigrants with their partial adoption of Malay customs and their unique handicrafts, cuisine, architecture, and attire. We were mainly concerned with Peranakan cuisine, which the Penang Office of Tourism regards as a sort of "foodie holy grail."
Penang was the perfect place to rest. Densely packed with mosques, old Chinese clan houses, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and colonial-era mansions, Penang's historic Georgetown is a lovely area to explore. We stayed in a comfortable guesthouse between Little India and Chinatown, and it didn't take a ten minute walk to push aside all tourist things and enjoy an authentic, inexpensive, and delicious local meal. Little India is a giant bazaar of blouse and fabric stores, Bollywood film shops, and fried treat street stalls, 24 jam curry houses, and filled-to-capacity vegetarian restaurants. The food stalls nearer Chinatown were even better: the unbelievably tasty char kway ka (giant, inch thick rice noodles fried with sprouts, green onions, chili, and garlic served with a spoon in a banana leaf cone) guided us when all else appeared lost, and the curry mee, wantan mee, Penang laksa, Hokkien mee, rojak pasembur (bean curd, potato, egg, and vegetable fritters mixed with cucumber shreds and turnips in a thick sweet peanut sauce), otak otak, and green dragon pearls made every meal (of which there were many more than three a day) a source of great excitement.
Sick and overheated as we were, we spent many of our nights hiding out in Penang's luxurious cinemas. There we watched film after film, including some Malaysian hits (The Wedding Diaries was our favorite) and a few Hollywood duds. Slowly we began talking about the future again, even if we sensed we'd never feel quite ready to move on from Penang. Finally, after a little more than a week in the city, we left Penang for the Perhentian Islands on the opposite coast of the peninsula, and emotionally, we were moving in the right direction.
But I couldn't go home. If I felt despondent, I did not believe ending this adventure would make me any happier. I knew I had to rediscover myself and rediscover what makes me excited to be here, because I would regret forcing a journey I didn't enjoy as much as I would regret giving it up prematurely.
So with a bottle of liquor and approximately two kilos of Kinder Bueno (the entire island is duty free), we caught the ferry from Langkawi to Penang, not knowing what we'd find there. Like Peninsular Malaysia, Penang is a mix of Malay, ethnic Chinese, and ethnic Indian, though on Penang the Chinese population is the majority. This population includes the fabled Peranakan Chinese or Baba-Nyonyas: the ethnic Chinese of the British Straits Settlements. Generally loyal to Britain, the Peranakans distinguished themselves from later Chinese immigrants with their partial adoption of Malay customs and their unique handicrafts, cuisine, architecture, and attire. We were mainly concerned with Peranakan cuisine, which the Penang Office of Tourism regards as a sort of "foodie holy grail."
Penang was the perfect place to rest. Densely packed with mosques, old Chinese clan houses, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and colonial-era mansions, Penang's historic Georgetown is a lovely area to explore. We stayed in a comfortable guesthouse between Little India and Chinatown, and it didn't take a ten minute walk to push aside all tourist things and enjoy an authentic, inexpensive, and delicious local meal. Little India is a giant bazaar of blouse and fabric stores, Bollywood film shops, and fried treat street stalls, 24 jam curry houses, and filled-to-capacity vegetarian restaurants. The food stalls nearer Chinatown were even better: the unbelievably tasty char kway ka (giant, inch thick rice noodles fried with sprouts, green onions, chili, and garlic served with a spoon in a banana leaf cone) guided us when all else appeared lost, and the curry mee, wantan mee, Penang laksa, Hokkien mee, rojak pasembur (bean curd, potato, egg, and vegetable fritters mixed with cucumber shreds and turnips in a thick sweet peanut sauce), otak otak, and green dragon pearls made every meal (of which there were many more than three a day) a source of great excitement.
Sick and overheated as we were, we spent many of our nights hiding out in Penang's luxurious cinemas. There we watched film after film, including some Malaysian hits (The Wedding Diaries was our favorite) and a few Hollywood duds. Slowly we began talking about the future again, even if we sensed we'd never feel quite ready to move on from Penang. Finally, after a little more than a week in the city, we left Penang for the Perhentian Islands on the opposite coast of the peninsula, and emotionally, we were moving in the right direction.
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