I've been slack and haven't finished writing up Pulau Penang, which was ages ago (World Nomads allows setting post date). As I really need to start writing up other things, please enjoy some disjointed paragraphs, without introduction or ending, instead of a nicely tailored story with logical structure/narrative thread.
I wandered around the northeast waterfront area, with some lovely colonial-era buildings to admire. Fort Cornwallis was unfortunately rather touristy, with one tour group taking turns to posing for photos with a petite chinese lass in a blue dress of traditional english design and modern synthetic colour, and another group posing with replica gun and tricorn hat. Much of the fort's central open space was taken up by an amphitheatre, seating, and shops, but the rooms in the southern wall had some interesting historical info about the founding of Penang by Captain Francis Light.
One thing I've found generally surprising about SE Asia is the lack of flies; for instance, what swarmed over Chowrasta market's pickled and dried fruits were not flies, but wasps.
KOMTAR is Penang's shopping centre/bus interchange/office tower. Unusually, it has the feel of an underground railway arcade - its ceilings are low, its passages are curving and some only have shops on one side, its tiles appear grimy, and its lighting is dim. It links up with the more-modern Parkson Grand mall, home to more shops, cinemas, and a large number of popular electronic games of chance.
Penang's hawker food is good. I ate far too much Char Kuay Teow, flat rice noodles fried with prawns, egg, soy sauce, etc.
I hired a bike and rode down to to Batu Maung, on the southeastern cape of the island. There's an aquarium there, which didn't take too long to see (although its wall-size tank with fish 1 to 5 feet in length was very pleasant to rest in front for a while).
It was late afternoon, I'd ridden more than 25 km, and peddling up Bukit Batu Maung to the Penang War Museum was rather hard going. The museum is not a single building, but is instead a collection of about thirty sites scattered around the hilltop: tunnels, fortifications, and outbuildings built by the British for WW2, and later seized and (ab)used by the Japanese. There's a lot of history to walk and crawl through, climb on, and read, there, and I hadn't sufficient time to see all of it.
Apparently it was "lost" after the war when local superstition said that the hill was haunted and vegetation covered everything for thirty years or more. ...In an effort to encourage tourism, there is apparently also a section set aside for paintball games, which enables participants to gain an appreciation for the true horrors of paintball.
On the way back, I stopped by the (Chinese) Snake Temple, where they have pit vipers - safe not only due to the stupefying effects of the incense, but also due to having been milked of their venom. The only vipers I saw were a few stationary ones draped on a potted tree in a small vestibule; it was almost closing time, and the vipers in the courtyard's walled pit (trees, hollowed stones, bushes, grass) had been (mostly) put away. One appeared to be missing - a plastic tub stood with its lid off, and a staffer was running around the paths and bridge. Another 15km or so of riding and I was home.
I've done a (for me) ridiculous amount of exercise at times. A couple of days before my bike ride, I:
- walked from Chinatown to (and around) the Botanic Gardens at the southeastern base of Penang Hill
- walked from there to the top of Penang Hill
- quietly died
- wandered around and admired the view, the temple, and the mosque
- had some dinner at a restaurant where the terrace had a sign warning about Pit Vipers in the vines above. I ate indoors
- took the funicular train ("funicular" meaning it's pulled by a rope/cable) to the southwestern base of Penang Hill at Air Hitam
- walked back to Chinatown.
Excluding Penang Hill, the walk was about 20km and not too strenuous. Penang Hill, 5km from base to peak was named with British understatement: it can be strolled up in a mere three to four hours. It's amazing how much sweat one can wring out of a singlet and shirt.
The afternoon before I left Penang, I met Nik (and father) for lunch at his hotel. Only briefly, though, as he'd been busy working and had to return to KL mid-afternoon so couldn't spend any time wandering round Penang with him. Afterwards I failed to get to the fruit farm as the Penang bus system does not connect north coast to west coast and it was too late to get back to Georgetown, and then catch another bus or two for the south and west coasts. While waiting for the bus back to Georgetown, I bought rambutans, which had just come off the truck from Thailand.
