A Year in Exile: Penang

We settled really well into the apartment and began to find our way around quite well. One day we caught the bus to Penang Times Square to top up the internet card and do a bit of shopping, on the bus back we rang for our stop and as Brian got up the driver braked sending him flying across the bus, he didn’t see the front door right next to us had opened and went to the middle doors, then as he went to get off the handle on the toilet rolls broke so he had to go scrabbling across the floor to pick them up, we were giggling like school kids when a voice from the bus called after us and we had left one of our purchases on the bus- if they didn’t remember us for being the only non-Asians on the bus they would for Brian’s comedy routine, we just couldn’t stop laughing.

We were also introduced to Malaysian Karaoke by Robert (who is a professional singer) and Juliet, they took us to their club, The Old Frees, a school OBs association. The school, in Georgetown is called Penang Free School, the free relates to the fact that all religions are welcome and it is famous throughout Malaysia having educated many kings and statesmen. The building was a bit like the Freemasons in St Georges Ave with rooms for every occasion, they have ballroom dancing, line dancing, sing-along and karaoke. Never having been ones for karaoke at home we were very apprehensive especially as Robert kept telling us we had to sing for our supper! It couldn’t have been any more different from anything we had experienced. Everyone took turns to sing and people either joined in or carried on with their own conversations, it was really enjoyable and literally everyone was so friendly and welcoming. When we were dropped off at the apartment at 2.30 am we were buzzing we had had such a good time. We were then invited out again the next day this time to the sing-along which turned out to be – karaoke! We then went for lunch (at about 5.30) and back to Robert and Juliet’s apartment on the 24^th floor of a block overlooking the sea. They have the most beautiful apartment, originally 5 bedrooms they changed it around for themselves, very stylish, very modern and definitely worth a bob or two! They also had a 3D TV and we watched some of the closing ceremony in 3D – amazing – I want one! It was then on to the Old Frees second club house, much newer and much plusher with slot machines downstairs, some even had private rooms with an ensuite for those that didn’t want to be disturbed while playing! Upstairs was a gym, a couple of games rooms, a sauna, a TV room with a bar and a pool table where they were watching the first Premiership game (West Brom v Liverpool) and – a Karaoke room. Weird – this time it was like a private session with four of their friends from the night before and a couple of guys who dropped in to sing their favourite songs! We left at about one and went for a ‘bite to eat’ that turned out to be an Indian meal at a 24 hour restaurant. 1.30 am and it was packed, families groups, couples, all ages and it was still packed when we left an hour later. There are lots of 24 hour eateries here and most other places stay open until 1 or 2 in the morning, a whole new way of life.

Our 41^st wedding anniversary! We decided to push the boat out and eat in a smart restaurant, Salsas, very, very good AND we had a bottle of wine, a very decent red, so a very good night was had by us both. We’ll be eating at the Vegetarian restaurant for the next few weeks – two meals and drinks for under £2!!!

While we are on eating, I should describe where and what we eat, we have become so used to it that we take all the sights, smells and tastes for granted but they are certainly different to what we are used to. Firstly I never cook at the apartment for two reasons: the apartment has a great kitchen but absolutely no cooking utensils, probably because of the second reason, eating out is so cheap you couldn’t cook it for less or even the same.

We use two main places, one is a vegetarian restaurant, they have an array of help yourself foods, usually about 18 – 20 dishes, curries, sweet and sour, vegetables cooked in a variety of ways and some things that we have no idea about. You help yourself to rice from a huge pot, as much or as little as you like, then pile your plate from the dishes, you present your plate to the cashier who tots it up and you pay her – our two dinners average 8 – 10 ringgits, £1.50 -£2. The drinks are ordered from a separate waitress, an additional 3ringgits, 60p for 2 fresh lime juices with no sugar. (You have to really stress the no sugar bit as Asians have an incredibly sweet tooth and look aghast when you request it, usually with protests like ‘less sugar?’ repeated a few times. Although they are beginning to realise we mean it now! The food is delicious; especially the curry and we still can’t get over the prices.

The other place is a food hall of which there are literally hundreds if not thousands in Georgetown. The one we favour is a two minute walk from the apartment, 80 tables and 35 hawkers (food stalls) round the edge. The food is Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai and Western, go to a stall order your dinner and it is brought to your table, drinks from the drinks monitor as in the veggie restaurant. Our favourite here is a dish called Foo Kang Tau – you collect a bowl and put in whatever you fancy from a three-tiered selection of tofu, meat, fish, quails eggs and fresh vegetables, hand your bowl over and your selection is cooked in a broth and served with rice, again very tasty. Slightly more expensive, the meals and drinks generally work out to about 15 ringgits or £3! We have also tried the fish and chips among other things! Very civilised, four large TVs, one at least on a sport channel, fans and an open roof – about which Brian and I had speculated. I have said that when it rains in Asia, it really rains and we wondered if it was retractable, like Wimbledon or the Millennium at Cardiff but this building is a concrete base with no walls and a zinc roof, not exactly high spec. However, as we were eating one night, right under the open roof it started to rain and within seconds the roof glided shut, not a moment too soon as the rain increased and the din as it hit the roof was phenomenal – so loud you couldn’t hear your own conversation – amazing.

I have to say it took us a while to even try the food hall let alone some of the food but if you go to Asia it is really the only way to eat.

We decide it was time to explore more than the shopping malls so we set off at 2pm on a Monday afternoon to find the Penang Botanical Gardens, I had seen a bus several times at the bus station that said Botanical Gardens, a number 10 so we were fairly confident. A bus into Komtar (the station) was followed by an hours wait – we were about to give up when the bus arrived so on we got along with several other ‘tourists’. The bus took the strangest route, looping round in circles, doubling back etc. so that a journey that should have taken 15 -20 minutes ended up taking 45 minutes, never mind, a good way to see parts of Georgetown we haven’t seen! The Botanical Gardens were really good, peaceful, green, free to enter and full of interesting plants and trees with lots of paths. A very popular place for joggers, in fact the first time we had really seen any. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll around and agreed it was well worth returning, with books and a picnic to spend more time. We also decided to buy some fruit from a hawker and opted for two that we had never experienced – jackfruit and dragon fruit. The jackfruit was a strange mixture of mango and banana taste with the texture of a nectarine, the dragon fruit was amazing, bright magenta in colour with black seeds, very juicy with a hint of blackberry, yummy. We had been told the bus back was at 6.15 and at 6.15 on the dot it arrived, excellent. 15 seconds down the road it stopped, the driver got off, we sat on the bus and waited, and waited… 15 minutes later he returned and off we went. The drive back was even more bizarre; we went past the same places at least twice, stopped for petrol, got stuck in traffic and arrived back at Komtar a full 95 minutes later! Luckily our bus back to the apartment was more direct and we arrived back at 8pm, 6 hours later, having spent most of that time either waiting for or on a bus! Next time we’ll be prepared, I spotted some familiar sights and we will get off much earlier and walk back!

Just like buses, not one outing but two in two days – when we got in from dinner after our day out Juliet rang to ask if we would like to go to Penang Hill with them the next day as they were meeting some friends there – of course, the answer was yes.

Juliet and Robert picked us up at 9.30am, the earliest we had been up for months, and off we went. Penang Hill is a huge tourist attraction, a funicular railway takes you to the top of the highest hill in Penang where the air is cooler and there are lots of flora and fauna and pleasant walks. It’s not that far from our apartment and there is actually a bus that goes from the apartment straight there. We met Ying, a long-time friend of Juliet’s, her husband Willie (an Austrian by birth but 50 years in America), and Ying’s step-mother, Joanna at the railway and after introductions proceeded to the train. Joanna and Robert paid 4 ringgits as senior citizens, Ying and Juliet 8 ringgits as Malaysians and Willie, Brian and I were charged 30 ringgits as foreigners!!!! We couldn’t believe it – can you imagine the London Eye – English £2, foreigners £15 please? Still can’t quite believe it and an email to the tourist office in Georgetown could be on its way! However, the ride up was good, if a little scary, especially when it stopped to let out locals at stations on the way up and slid back a little! It was lovely at the top, fabulous views, we could even see Robert and Juliet’s building on the coast and we had a walk around, looking at the trees and flowers, Ling is a gardener and knowledgeable about the local flowers and we all chatted as we went – very pleasant. The air is definitely cooler with less humidity which helps. Back down and I tried to video the steep descent, some good bits but blurred when we went fast, I’ll have to try and edit it. Lunch in a food hall and an invitation to dinner at Robert and Juliet’s made it a really good day.

On the notorious number 10 bus I spotted Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater outside Number One Academy so we decided to take a walk and take some pictures for JB. Only 45 minutes there but it was really warm. On the way back I suggested a short cut across a park, we hadn’t gone very far when the ground turned to bog beneath us, my flip flops sent up spray so that by the time we managed to get off it my shorts were soaked and the muddy water all up my legs – gross! Wasn’t expecting that in a country where the temperature rarely falls below 30! On the way back we bought some flowers to take to Juliet and then helped a girl whose car had conked out in the fast lane. Everyone else just drove round the poor girl who was only a teenager so I stopped the traffic and we pushed her to the side.

Ying, Willie and Joanne picked us up and gave us a lift to Juliet and Robert’s apartment. Dinner was excellent, Juliet had gone to loads of trouble and made several dishes, some of them veggie for me and a first attempt at a beef stew that Brian said was really good, Robert then demonstrated their ‘air fryer’ by making me fish and chips. A machine that fries without fat and even drains off fat that is already present on the food - it tasted very good so one for the shopping list. Dinner was followed by fresh fruit and frozen Bounty bars – yummy. After dinner we all went to the Old Frees for karaoke. Brian and I were introduced to Pete and Jade whose daughter and son-in-law live in Morley, Perth. Apparently there is an Old Frees association in Perth with over 30 members! We agreed to keep in touch and see each other in Perth – who knows! Another 1am finish – dirty stop-outs!

One of our walks took us to the Racecourse and the Golf Club – strangely the same place, about 30 – 40 minutes’ walk away from the apartment. The golf course has the front nine onside and the back nine inside the race track, a similar set up to Warwick race course but on a larger scale. There are 3 race courses in Malaysia, Ipoh, KL and Penang so we have now been to 2 out of 3, they take it in turns for live racing and the next meeting here is the first weekend in October. However, when there is no live racing the course is still open and the locals flood in to bet on racing on the tele! The club house was quite nice so we had a beer before setting back – too good an opportunity to miss!

Dan and Jayden went to the house on Saturday (September 1) and we now have a roof, excellent, hope they keep going at this pace!

Juliet and Robert came to collect the rent – yes we have been here a month already - and took us out showing us a lovely park, the Youth Park and another fabulous shopping centre, Gurney Plaza as well as introducing us to another Penang speciality, pasembur, an Indian dish. You choose the ingredients (hard-boiled eggs, crab sticks, peanut fritters, shrimp fritters, all sorts of tofu and fish balls) , and hand them over, they are cut up, cucumber and a celeriac-type veg are shredded over the top and it is covered with a spicy sweet potato sauce, actually very nice. There was also another similar dish, no topping, a spicier sauce with bean sprouts, cuttlefish and cows lungs! The sauce was really nice; needless to say I didn’t sample the lungs! We also called in at the Old Frees as Robert had a few jobs to do and while we were waiting we met Alice, whose daughter migrates to Perth next month – small world.

Hard to believe we have been here a month and away from the UK for nine and a half months, time definitely flies!