the adventures of pinkaholic girl

penang, malaysia

I'm sitting in a two room suite in the Gurney Hotel, Penang. I've been here less than 24 hours and I've already gone shopping, bought a suit, eaten vast amounts of delicious hawker food, and marvelled at the driving (which I've never really noticed before). I'm also contemplating getting a massage and foot spa at the hotel (a steal at RM65, or $23 Australian).

Everything is so cheap compared to Australia. People are horrified if you pay more than RM2 for parking, and you can eat a delicious, satisfying meal for less than 1 australian dollar. This morning we bypassed the hotel buffet breakfast and dad went to the markets instead. He bought a whole bunch of local favourites for breakfast, like apong (rolled up wafer thin pancakes), char hor fun (fried rice noodles), many varieties of kue (cake) and wrapped rice parcels for about 5 australian dollars for the four of us. It wasn't even the cheapest or the tastiest breakfast we could have had - tomorrow morning we'll head to Ayer Itam where my great-aunt lives to eat some of the fresh food at the Ayer Itam markets.

I mentioned the driving too - the rule seems to be anything used for enforcing order on the roads, such as lane lines, traffic lights and stop signs, are only suggestions. People here just go wherever they see a gap (or even when they don't), relying on your excellent braking skills to keep both parties accident-free. They also don't see a problem creating a lane when there isn't one, or "sharing" a lane with a motorbike or another car. Driving back from the airport was the funniest hour I've spent in a car, just observing all of these traffic infringements - committed by my cousins as much as anyone else.

Shopping in Penang is so FUN! Our haunt from childhood is a place called Komtar, a cheap shopping mecca full of chinatown-esque stores. I remember buying our super nintento and a whole slew of games here when we were kids. A few years ago they added a new section to it called Prangin mall, which is 5 or 6 storeys of shoes, jewellery, clothes and novelty shops selling stuff AT MALAYSIAN PRICES, which is pure heaven. Unfortunately my walking legs couldn't quite keep up with my eyes, and I piked mid-afternoon to come back to the hotel. I'll be back, however...

I never used to like visiting malaysia - the heat, mosquitoes, lack of hygiene, my weak immune system and lack of local language skills always made the visits uncomfortable. All I would eat in those days was satay, char hor fun and McDonald's nuggets (or KFC's "smashed potato" as sen-sen used to call it). Now it feels different and fun, like an adventure with lots and lots of shopping.

I have a lot of memories of the food from childhood, like the colourful melamine plates at hawker stalls; people frying things non-stop in front of massive woks with vast clouds of steam or smoke rising from the hotplates; walking through aisles of different food vendors with huge stacks of clay pots, trays of sweets, and piles of fresh vegetables on display. Satay vendors were the most impressive because they were constantly turning the fifty sticks cooking at a time and used a huge hand-held wooden fan as a bellow for the flames.

I remember buying drinks from stalls in plastic bags tied with string and a straw sticking through the top, which was so cool to my nine year old self. My brother and I used to looove sarsi (more commonly known as root beer) and drank it to cool down from the heat. I remember ordering milo (or "meelo") at local openair restaurants and have it served with condensed milk instead of the natural stuff. I remember being introduced to Koko Krunch by my cousins' house in Singapore and them being surprised at eating more than a handful of cereal at any one sitting. Every time we visit Malaysia, my cousins will take us out to supper as soon as we arrive, or for breakfast they'll go to the markets and buy a whole bunch of things to bring back. A lot of things you take away from a hawker stall come wrapped in wax paper and tied with string, which just adds to the charm.

My mum said that an old man used to have a wonton noodle soup stall on the corner of her street. If you wanted noodles, you just yelled down the street at the man would cook the food and bring it to your door. She also used to get cake sellers who carried a huge basket full of sweets and cakes on their backs, and walked door-to-door. You bought whatever you wanted from the basket - it was delivered straight to your front door!

The hawker centre is a bit of an institution here. It's like a huge openair restaurant with an awning (in case of rain).There are a bunch of metal tables and plastic chairs in the middle, and the hawkers are stationed around the edge of the dining area. Each has their own metal stall and associated woks, pots, steamers or hotplates to cook their food. The manager/owner of the space will come up and take your drink order - and there's all sorts of exotic stuff here like kopi-o (strong, thick malaysian coffee), barley water, coconut juice, iced milo, spiced milk, and the
regular juices and soft drinks. Meantime, you go up to the hawker stalls and place your food orders. They'll somehow remember who you are, find you in the melee, and deliver the food fresh to your table minutes later, at which time you pay them the tiny sum of money it cost you for this banquet. Every stall owner has a different coloured set of melamine plates, chopsticks and spoons so they know who it belongs to when it all gets washed later.

Food seems so much more casual, plentiful and varied here than in Australia. In Australia, it's always so formal with set mealtimes and set places to eat (though i suppose that no way a roadside food vendor would be licenced with australia's health regulations.) If i'm hungry in Malaysia, there's always someone selling something on a street corner or in a hawker centre. Food places stay open a lot later here as well.

I can't believe I've wasted so many trips disliking this place. It's such an entirely different yet familiar experience and has so many quirks (and cheap shopping :) that I love coming back now.

posted by d @ 1:37 pm