icouldiwill on the road: I love Penang

Penang is an island just a little off the Western coast of North Malaysia. It was virtually uninhabited until the British East India Company thought it could make a good port to compete with the Dutch port of Melaka (today also in Malaysia) during late 18th century. They needed to clear the jungle and create a town and to do it fast, the story goes, they loaded the cannons with silver coins and shot towards the jungle. The workers now had a good incentive to cut all the vegetation to get the silver and create land for development.

Koh Kongsi, an early Chinese trade union. Until early 20th century, Penang was under
unofficial control of this sort of Chinese trade unions and secret societies (mafia).

Muslim village in Batu Ferringhi, as oppose to the Chinese and Indian villages just next to it,
this one, like other Muslim villages, doesn’t have any dogs because they are considered non-halal.

Very fortunately they didn’t cut it all but created more land by filling the sea. And soon Penang became a bustling port full of merchants from everywhere but mainly Chinese. As far as I know, today Penang is still the only majority Chinese state in Malaysian Union. The other founding state which was also majority Chinese was Singapore and was forced to leave not wanting to give away the economic power of its Chinese population only two years later. Today Penang still has all sorts of people but none seem to be majority and there seems to be a general feeling of “sharing” this land.

Georgetown as seen from the terrace of Kek Lok Si Temple.

Main pagoda of Kek Lok Si Temple

Georgetown, the capital, has the old and the new city right next to each other. It has great colonial architecture and an alive little India, while next to them is one of Asia’s longest towers, Komtar, and once longest bridge on earth, the 13.5 km long Penang bridge connects the island to the mainland. There are great many temples for all religions, Chinese and Indian temples, mosques, many churches, Thai and Burmese Buddhist temples, and others. The Thai temple has a huge reclining Buddha which used to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. Today Penang is known as Malaysia’s Silicon Valley and the microchips for my next passport are being made here. But a traveler never notices this.

Penang Bridge, which connects Penang with the mainland.

Gurney Drive, where the old city turns into the Cyber City Penang.

When you leave town along the coast first you see big posh shopping malls and tall condos with swimming pools. Later on you come to a long beach called Batu Ferringhi, the Foreigners’ Rock. I don’t know where the rock was and where all the nudists who discovered this beach have gone but today this most promoted touristic beach of the island is full of resort hotels and Saudi tourists. Unfortunately, especially for those who decide to spend their holidays here after seeing the brochures of the place, the seas around Penang are not good for swimming. Because of the Melacca Straits, which runs between Mainland Malaysia and Sumatra, and is one of the busiest sea highways thanks to all the Chinese exports, the sea here is usually murky and quite full of jellyfish.

Local people of Penang having a sunset dip on
Teluk Bahang beach, with their clothes on as usual.

Air Hitam dam lake

But the center of the island still has some amazingly old (like millions of years) untouched jungle and in or around this jungle it’s possible to take a dip in a waterfall or a pond on a river. Many people who stay here enjoy the long treks to these hills or the peninsula at the Northwestern corner which is the Penang National Park. This park is home to the cheekiest little macaque monkeys I’ve ever seen anywhere. They treat your belongings like theirs, completely ignore you and even fight with you to take them. This applies especially to plastic bags and drinks. I’ve got lots of food stolen by monkeys in India but I had never in the past experienced a monkey coming to claim the drink in my hand and even playing tug-o-war with me for it.

Cheeky monkeys of Penang National Park.

One of the roads on the edge between a fast developing city and an ancient jungle.

Before I arrived here I didn’t know what a “food enthusiast” meant and now I think I turned into one in Penang. The ethnic mixture in Penang gives one great many choices of food and especially the street food is very special. There are so many books on hawker food of Penang, one can help acknowledge that the foods from these kitchens on wheel are sometimes better than the food from well established restaurants. If you were obsessed with food in the past and came over it after much effort, don’t come to Penang. It’s to a food lover, what Jamaica is to a pothead.

Evening food court on Gurney Drive where you get the best variety of food.

The main temple of Penang is Goddess of Mercy Temple
which is recognizable by the smoke rising from it.
Although it has big fans to clear the air inside, still the walls have all turned
black and in front you can always see these 2 meter incense burning.

There are also other things about Penang which you’ll have to discover yourself. These were just a few things why I love this place and see it as my base. Ah, and there is Ms. Loh’s place…