Sepal Takraw

Now if you've heard of the game, I would be quite impressed. It's quite popular in South East Asia and apparently, it has become a competitive game in the South Asian Games. We saw a few men playing it in the park in Penang and we were so fascinated, we watched them for a good 1/2 hour.

Hawker Food in Penang

Mini-shop with mostly baked goods right on the back of his motorbike
Hawker stalls at Batu Ferringhi

We bought some fresh fruit at this stall

This is the interesting soup/drink stall I describe in the post. Fruit marinated in water and sugar. Many bees are seen flying around these bins.

I was looking forward to eating the kind of food we used to eat at Banana Leaf in Milipitas. There is definitely no dearth of street food otherwise known as hawker food in Malaysia. Even at 11pm at night, the stalls are packed with people. The problem is that vegetarian food is difficult to find at these stalls, meat and seafood dishes in Chinese, Malaysian, Indian or Western style are readily available. I'm not very familiar with the Chinese and Malay hawker food but nasi kandak, nasi goreng, nasi lemak are the rice based Indian style dishes along with roti prata and roti canai that are found at many of the stalls. One night, we did venture out and order a roti canai but it was not the same as the roti prata at Banana Leaf. We were able to sample rojak, the cut fruit that is found at many of the corner stalls. If you look at the picture, there is an interesting drink or soup that was highly popular among the Chinese and local Indians, they mixed a number of items in it, juice, noodles, some sauces, pearls and lots and lots of crushed ice, served in a plastic bag with a spoon. In general, most of the drinks in Malaysia seem to be sold with ice including coffee and tea and the drinks are served in plastic bags with straws and rubber bands. Many of the locals walk around sipping some drink or another out of these bags. Food was more enjoyable than Bali but we were happy to be back in India to relish what is familiar to us.

Deepavalli in Penang

Late breakfast followed by a mad rush to catch a cab so we could get in some sight seeing before the day ended. Blogging well into the night is not a good thing :-) The original plan was to go to Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple, the Botanical Gardens, then freshen up and head to Little India for a Deepavalli dinner. We made it Penang Hill and the temple but we ran out of steam for the gardens and it was also getting late. We rode on a bus from one sight to another and realized what an exorbitant amount we were paying for taxis and wished we had figured out the bus system a few days before. Earlier that morning, we received an invite to attend a Deepavalli dinner at Prasad's colleague's place, someone Prasad had just met at the conference he attended. This family moved from India a year back. It was a lovely way to spend Diwali. His wife, Muthu prepared a feast and served the meal on banana leaves. We also saw what a local apartment complex looked like and got a different perspective from someone who has lived here for a year. Originally, Karnan was not planning to light any firecrackers but his son was very disappointed so he rushed out and was able to get find some Chinese made crackers at a local store. The kids had a great time lighting firecrackers, it was a perfect way to end the night. Happy Deepavalli everyone!

Penang Sights

Highlights of the last 2 days:

• Visit to Toys R Us - Sindhu was ecstatic when she discovered there is a Toys R Us in Gurney Plaza next to our hotel. Not that she really wanted to buy anything, she was just so euphoric to be in an American store which triggered so many happy memories. Rushil rushed to the Ben 10 section and picked out something for $40. I relayed the budget to him and that guns were not in the list of toys he could buy. I guess my budget was very low and not being allowed to buy guns severely limited his choices as he settled for a small Ben 10 toy from the vending machine. They spent like 1.5 hours in the store, I didn't see what the big deal was, we could buy pretty much any of those toys in India.
• Sindhu spotted an Auntie Anne's Pretzel joint in the mall and we quickly rushed over there. Prasad and I wanted to get Jalapeno pretzels with spicy cheese sauce or mustard. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of those so we settled on plain pretzel sticks with chilli sauce, delicious nevertheless.
• The kids and I saw "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" in 3D. They really liked the movie and wanted to see it again today. Movie theatre tickets are inexpensive in Penang.
• Visit to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion with the kids - They were bored out of their skulls which translated to Rushil spending the whole visit bugging his sister but I really enjoyed it. The Chinese woman who gave the tour was a 60+ year old with a lively personality, excellent English and a good sense of humour. Cheong Fatt Tze is considered to be a one of China's last Mandarins and 1st Capitalists. He was a colourful man with 9 wives and he built this mansion for his 8th and favourite wife. The mansion became dilapidated over the years and in 1990 was restored and is now tourist spot and a homestay oozing with the perfect Feng Shui.
• Short visit to Wat Buppharam Temple otherwise known as The Temple of the Lifting Buddha. It's a Thai Budhist temple and interestingly also has statues of Hindu gods such as Ganesha and Siva. So what attracts the tourists to this temple? You ask a question then you ask the Buddha statue to become either heavy or light. If you asked for it to be heavy, and you're not able to lift the Buddha, the answer is yes to your question. You then ask for the Buddha to be light and if you're able to lift it, then you have a resounding yes to your question. Rushil tried it and the Buddha was too heavy and he was not able to lift it. His question was whether he would be strong so he was quite disappointed when he couldn't lift it.
• There is a Toy Museum in Penang which hosts thousands of small toys collected over the past few decades. It has a huge collection of Star Wars and has a recent statue of Kung Fu Panda. The kids had an enjoyable time walking through the isles and snapping pictures with my camera.
• Dinner at Anand Bhavan in Little India - The Bombay halva they served was mouthwatering and I couldn't remember the last time I had savoured every bite of a halva. Other than that the thali was a disappointment. A few days before, we had sampled the thali at Woodlands and it was excellent, the service was much better, the restaurant was cleaner and the thali far tastier. Little India was so lively and cheerful with beautiful lights in preparation for Deepavalli. The stores were bursting with sweets, Deepavalli items, clothing and loud Tamil music was blasting throughout the area. Throughout the city, they have posters with Deepavalli wishes, Kollam (rangoli) designs in the hotels and stores and everyone Malay, Chinese and Indian is aware of the festival.
• Batu Ferringhi - This is the beach resort area of Penang. We walked along the beach, the kids took horse rides while Prasad and I enjoyed chilled tender coconut drinks. Around 7pm, the stalls were setup and ready for night shopping on the beach. Sunglasses, designer purse knockoffs, jewelry, paintings, batiks, beachwear are some of the items being sold. It's a whole lot of fun and definitely a must-do in Penang especially if you like to haggle. We had dinner at a hawker joint, more on hawker food in my next post. Of all coincidences, we ran into Zubin a high school friend of mine that I reconnected with on Facebook and met in Bangalore a year back. We had not seen each other in 20+ years and now suddenly we see other twice in a year!

Shopping in Penang

Prangin Mall is the mall to go to for the bargains especially for electronic goods. Movie DVDs, Wii and Nintendo DS games are also a bargain. I bought a couple of pairs of shoes for excellent prices. You can get clothes for fairly decent prices but either you need to be forever 21 or as thin as a 21 year old. Still can't bargain the prices down by more than 10% but the positive aspect is that the prices are fixed in most places so you don't feel cheated. Tonight we head for night shopping at Batu Ferringhi on the beach, that should be an interesting experience.

First Impressions of Penang

I don't think you would miss India much if you lived in Penang. Walking along Jln Penang our first afternoon, Lonely Planet mentions that Mydin's Wholesale Emporium is the place to buy cheap DVDs and other items. The place is owned by Indians and it has the latest Bollywood music blasting throughout the store. The DVDs they are referring to are Hindi movies. The prices are considered to be cheap if you live in the US but if you live in India, not really. Prasad noted that someone needs to write a series of travel books meant for the Indian travellor. We're staying at the G hotel in Georgetown next to the Gurney Mall and opposite to a promenade facing the sea. The hotel is inexpensive yet has all the modern conveniences including internet access from our hotel room. Hotels seem to be cheaper in Penang compared to India and Indonesia, my two most recent reference points.

Some observations and things we learned:

• 90% of the population is Malay, Chinese and Indian and there is a rich history surrounding how each group has migrated here and how they have integrated here. They all seem to live in harmony with three different religions coming into play. Penang Museum is the best place to get educated on this. The British occupied Penang for a few years and you can go to Fort Cornwallis to understand how that ties together. This may explain why everyone speaks English here.
• People are more reserved and not as friendly as the Balinese, maybe because Penang is so much more than a tourist attraction. Many companies have setup offices either here or in KL and if internet access is an indication of how technologically advanced they are, every eating area, store, restaurant has free wi-fi, it's easier to get access to free internet here than the US.
• We were in Chinatown and Little India this afternoon and went templing much to the disappointment of the kids. To their defense, it was hot and humid and after visiting a couple of Budhist temples, a mosque and a Hindu temple, they forced us to go back to the hotel to relax. Later when Prasad's colleague asked us what we did the last couple of days, it didn't seem like we covered much but with kids, you just have to go slow and soak in the culture at your own pace.
• We visited one of Penang's more famous Chinese clan houses, Khoo Khongsi. The Khoo family used to gather at this home and they have plaques of each family member that graduated from a university that was funded by this clan house. They had a small museum which described the history of the clan house. It was an interesting concept, it certainly got Prasad thinking that he should create a Modali clan house.
• We ate a Woodlands restaurant in Little India and it was excellent. Little India was what I expected but it was definitely cleaner than the streets in India, even the restaurant bathroom was surprisingly clean.
• I was told we can get cheap electronics in Penang but so far we haven't found the prices to be that cheap, maybe we need to keep looking.
• It's hard to bargain in Penang, they typically don't discount the prices more than 10% and will easily let you walk out without bargaining further. It's taking us some getting used to after living in India for a year and our Bali visit.
• We bought some peanuts as a snack and after eating a couple, we were done. In India, you can find a million people who would take the peanuts willingly but here in Penang, noone would take them. Even a beggar refused the peanuts and said he preferred money. A bit surprising especially after living in India for a year.

Prasad has his conference for the next couple of days so I'm on my own with the kids. Sindhu is begging for a more kid friendly itinerary so we'll see if she's happy with what we come up with.