I feel like if I don't start writing something soon, Anita will start getting on my tail because during my holiday back in Malaysia, I confidently said something along the line of "who knows, maybe there will even be multiple blog posts about my trip". Yet, here I am over two weeks later right?
It started with a conversation with my family, asking me if I would go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year since my parents are going back this year. I have not been back to Malaysia for CNY for 10 years at this point thanks to school, so since this year I was no longer bounded by school, I thought why the heck not. Next thing you know, I booked my holiday, my flight tickets, and POOF!
As always Malaysia was great to me! It was a Wednesday evening, I went to work that day and then caught a bus to Heathrow airport after work. Three flights later and a darn long layover at KLIA, I found myself in Penang, Malaysia's island state known for its food and cultural heritage (the UNESCO World Heritage Site kind).
Sadly, no matter how good the food can be in Penang, it is a predominantly Chinese state, so a lot of places were closed, especially during the first few days of CNY. Luckily for me, the family kitchen was still open and I got to eat SO much awesome home cooked food!
CNY eve dinner with fried fish by me!
CNY traditional charcoal steamboat / hotpot dinner
Mee suah (a type of rice noodles) for CNY brunch for "longevity"
Random CNY stuff including Cantonese Lou Sang
Food aside I saw some cool parts of Penang I am ashamed to say I have never really explored before:
Kampung Pisang (translates to Banana Village)
Kampung Pisang is pretty much a residential area, but what is cool about this area is that all the street names are named after different types of bananas! Street names include Pisang Emas, Pisang Raja, Pisang Tanduk, Pisang Nangka, Pisang Embun, and Pisang Rastali! Honestly I only knew of two of these bananas before and now I know Pisang Nangka is apparently suitable to make banana fritters.
Penang National Park
Located on the north west tip of the island, this is allegedly the smallest National Park in the world! There are two routes in this park, the first one leads to Monkey Beach and Muka Head Lighthouse, while the other leads to Kerachut Beach! My family and I decided to take the second route because it was shorter (granted we set out to the national park relatively late) and the guys at the entrance said to try to get out before sunset. It took us forever (1 hour 40 minutes) of what felt like climbing up and down a million flight of stairs (some man made and some naturally weaved by tree roots), before we finally arrived at the beach.
En route to Kerachut BeachMan made pathway in the 1800s
You see, some couple told us just before we got to the beach that there are boats to take you back to the entrance of the park and there was thunder so we thought it is probably a smarter idea to take the boat back than to walk back through the mountain. So we took our sweet time, went to the turtle conservatory by the beach and enjoyed the beach for a bit while we waited for the next boat. Turns out you got to book in advance to get on a boat. Simple fix if we had any signal or Wi-Fi, but let's just say this part of the island is very rural, jokes rural would imply there are people living on this part of the island, there isn't, so we did not have signal! Thanks to the lovely ranger on site, he managed to get signal by putting an old Nokia phone on a stick (smart phones dont work in the area) and called us a boat!
Some funky tree - has a bunch of fern on itBaby turtlesAnd green turtles at the conservatory for researchWarm beach with pearl shaped sand!It ended up feeling like a private boat tour, and the guy operating the boat even stopped in front of some large rocks around the island that looked like a crocodile, turtle, and rabbit! He eventually dropped us off along some stilt houses where we saw mak cik's (Malay aunties) fishing with a single fish line and walked back to the entrance of the park from the pathway they had build to connect their houses to the mainland! TOO COOL! Definitely one of the funnest experiences of my life, couldn't plan it even if I tried! Of course, not that fun if we ended up being stranded on the beach, we weren't camping ready.
Clan Jetties of Penang
When the Chinese first settled in Penang, they essentially created rows of houses/buildings that extended as far out to the water as possible and did so by building stilt houses over muddy areas. Typical to Chinese culture, people of the same surname lived together, as the belief goes everyone with the same surname is family. Established in the 19th century, these jetties are the oldest surviving cluster settlement on the island!
Located along Weld Quay, the 6 remaining Clan Jetties are Lim (姓林桥), Chew (姓周桥), Tan (姓陈桥), Lee (姓李桥), Yeoh (姓楊桥), and Mixed Clan (什姓桥)! The coolest things about all these jetties is that people still live in the houses there, so the jetty is closed past a certain time in the evening!
CNY lanterns at Chew Jetty
A week later, my family and I find ourselves en route to Kuala Lumpur, stopping by a quiet town called Taiping on the way. It was meant as a lunch stop to meet family friends, but we stayed there from 12pm to 6pm! Despite being back in KL, we had a flight to catch the next morning to Kuala Terengganu, time for dad's hometown!
But let's take a breather, I will save KT and KL for next time!
Listening to "Running (Lose It All)" by Naughty Boy ft. Beyonce & Arrow Benjamin
Images by Me
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