#47 Eating....a lot in Penang, Malaysia

Needless to say I was extremely excited to go to Penang, an island in the north west of Malaysia and linked to mainland by a bridge. It is considered one of the worlds food capitals! It also has the famous Georgetown heritage walk, complete with alternative street art designed by Ernest Zacharavic. It also has a big national park, famous Penang hill which is popular with hikers or non hikers who choose to take the cable car up as well as beautiful temples and big malls. It has everything really. Faye and I took a bus straight from Cameron Highlands, through Butterworth and over the Penang bridge, taking about four hours. We were Couchsurfing again in Penang thanks to Faye who organised it.

When we got into Penang we met Jim, our host. He is a Penang local and told us he was a financial advisor, thirty years old and had hosted over three hundred times on Couchsurfing! Wow! He was so friendly and knowledgable about the area, he also had great enthusiasm for the local street food (this made me very happy)! In our first day alone I ticked off four new foods I wanted to try; Penang laksa, roti canai, putu mayam and Chendul. Chendul was the first Penang delicacy I tried and I must admit, it was a good first. Jim brought us to a little stall down a side street which was so busy and was producing colourful bowls of creamy iced looking soups. Jim ordered us one and showed us how to mix it all up, turning it from a white milky pudding to a light brown. It tasted like mushy weetabix in coconut milk. A mixture of coconut and condensed milk, ice, red beans and grass jelly (yep)! It was strange and somewhat refreshing but I am not rushing to try it again. Penang laksa is a type of noodle soup and a tasty mix of flavours from mackerel, sour tamarind and chilli. It came in a big bowl with noodles, shallots, coriander, cucumber and sometimes also pineapple. It definitely had a kick to it..luckily I like my food hot and spicy! Roti canai Faye and I tried later that evening in Little India, a popular snack of flatbread served plain as a snack with some curry to dip into or stuffed with egg, fish and meat. It was so cheap and tasty, we were hooked on roti for the rest of our time in Malaysia.

Penang Laksa

Jim told us the street art has come in the last three years. Later that evening we spent a few hours discovering some of the street art on the heritage trail and little India at night. Little India, the Indian quarter just off the heritage trail was great to visit at night with local music blaring from the various sari and music shops, lights lining the streets and plenty of great local food places. We also stumbled across a food court just next to the heritage trail. Most of tables were taken up by older Malaysian men enjoying their Saturday night drinking carlsberg and eating big bowls of noodles. I had a beer and we were kept entertained by three Malaysian singers on stage in the middle of the chairs and tables....they even sang the Corrs in Malay.

The next morning we took the bus to Penang national park. Not before Jim brought us for breakfast (I had already had porridge so declined breakfast) but that didn't stop Jim ordering three portions of hokkien mee (a big bowl of thick egg noodles and white rice vermicelli in a pork and prawn broth topped with a boiled egg, crispy shallots, spicy sambal (chilli sauce) and small prawns). Apparently a very common breakfast dish usually eaten with black coffee! They were very tasty so I managed what I could on top of the porridge wth Jim ordering anther portion of curry noodles on top of his hokkien. After being completely stuffed with noodles we left Jim, Faye and I took a public bus straight to Penang national park which was free entry! They provide you with a map and the trails were clearly signposted. There were two beaches to visit, a lookout, lake and  swing bridge. We decided to go to....beach where there was a turtle sanctuary. We hiked into the jungle for an hour and a half until we made it to the beach. We crossed the bridge over a meromictic lake (a rare lake where there is fresh water on top of salt water)! Further down the beach we found the turtle sanctuary which consisted of five different tubs containing various rescued turtles and one with about twelve baby turtles inside. We couldn't swim at the beach unfortunately due to lots of jelly fish in the water but we did stop to watch a very serious game of volleyball being played by a group of school students who had been camping in the national park on a school trip. On our way back out of the park, the heavens opened and I mean they were widddeeee open! Within about two minutes we were soaked. Even my very attractive plastic poncho didn't help that much, after an hour we had made it back out and the sun returned. We had a celebratory roti and curry (soooo good) before heading back on the bus... oh so very soggy.

The next day we explored Georgetown. Famous for its heritage trail and inventive street art. We spent the morning wandering around finding the pieces of art tucked away on side streets being typical tourists and taking pictures of it all list trying to dodge the boards of Chinese tourists. For lunch we headed back into Little India and had a really tasty lunch. I had a 'set vegetarian lunch' which consisted of small portions of a cucumber salad, picked onion in spices, a Dahl and curried vegetables with white rice all served on a banana leaf with ginger tea. Very tasty.

Georgetown street art 

Banana leaf vegetarian Indian lunch

During our stay I was keen to traipse up Bukit bendera, also known as Penang hill. Despite Faye's reservations she agreed to join me, Jim rather conveniently was too busy with work to come but he did say he had hiked it numerous time before. The hill is 833m tall and has a very steep 'jeep track' sloping the 5.1km up which can be walked up. Most people however choose to at 30RN return for a cable car to the top which is found on the other side of the hill. The hill is free to enter otherwise, and is surrounded by lovely botanical gardens with lots of monkeys roaming around. After fifteen minutes Faye bowed out so I carried on alone, thankfully with some pumping tunes I made it to the top in about an hour and half. As we had set off so early (7am to be exact), I made it to the top before the cable car had started running so there was virtually no body else at the top! I was able to wander around the two temples at the top, the love lock railings and enjoy the (very hazy) view of Penang all alone. On the way down I decided to take the quicker and easier option of.....running down. Despite getting very weird looks from the various people going up and down in jeeps and on scooters. Safe to say I made it back down in a sweaty 35minutes, meeting Faye at the bottom...her looking a lot fresher than I.

On our last day in Penang we ticked another site off my list of things to do in Penang. We visited the famous 'Kok Lek Si' Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam. It is said to be the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. It comprises of a few different temples but the main attraction is the towering 36 metre tall 'Pagoda of ten thousand buddhas'. We went quite early in the morning meaning the temples were quieter however they were quite touristy with plenty of souvenir shops on all levels. The details and good cladding of the buildings were beautiful. I took the small cable car up the towering statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy which overlooks the city of Penang. We also took the chance to make a small donation to choose a coloured ribbon, each representing a different wish to hang on the 'wishing tree' in one of the prayer rooms. After walking around the temples for a couple of hours we descended back down into the bustling market street of Air Itam. On a small side street we found a famous street food stall called Sisters curry mee which specialises in..surprise surprise; big bowls of curry mee. A spicy coconut curry soup with thick egg noodles, tofu, shrimp, cockles and pigs blood! Topped with mint and sambal. The two sisters have had their stall since the 1940's so you could say they have perfected the dish! They were also both there when we visited. I had a big bowl of curry mee for 5RN even braving the porks blood which actually didn't taste of much thankfully. Later that evening we said goodbye to Jim who dropped us off at the bus stop where we embarked on our next journey and reminisced about the amazing food we had eaten and culture we had absorbed in beautiful Penang.

Jim, Faye and I 

Kok Lek Si temple

Next Stop: Pehentian Kecil island, Malaysia
Stayed: Couchsurfing with Jim
Food and drink: Penang Laksa (5RN) at Air Itam market, Penang. Roti Canai (1.80RN) in little India, Chendul (4RN) in Georgetown, Curry mee in Air Itam (5RN), Hokkien mee, Air Itam market (5RN).