It was a pretty long drive from the airport to their home located just north west of downtown. They live in a beautiful compound (I assume mostly inhabited by ex-pats) in a gorgeous modern style home with tall windows, heavy doors and wood trimmings. There was a beautiful little entrance with a fish pond and garden, and a kitchen with a nice lookout into the tropical backyard. Elizabeth told me they looked at 10 different homes back in December before finally settling on this one.
After Kit showed me to my room we all sat around and had a drink. Elizabeth was preparing to go back to Canada and the States for a month with Kit and her two younger kids and Grant was getting ready for a business trip in Saudi so everyone was pretty exhausted but we had a nice chat. I was interested in how they were all adjusting to life in KL. They seemed happy about the food and the travelling opportunities, but the crazy driving, extra hot weather and grubby areas took a bit of getting used to.
In the morning I was scheduled to meet Claudia at the train station downtown at 11:30so Elizabeth drove me to the nearest station before we said goodbye. I didn’t realize the MRT system in KL was actually more like a train system and I ended up having to wait half an hour for my first train, making me almost an hour late to meet Claudia. I was pretty worried she’d be flipping out, but when she saw me coming out of the gates to meet her, the smile on her face told me otherwise.
Claudia had left a few days earlier than me to do a more thorough trip around KL but wasn’t too impressed with the city because she said it was quite dirty and the people weren’t half as nice as what we were used to in Taiwan. So, our plan on Thursday was to take the bus to a nice colonial town called Georgetown located on the Malaysian island of Panang. The bus ride was long – it took about 6 hours in total and it was cold and smelly and Claudia wasn’t feeling too well. It did give us nice view of the country though. I read my book most of the way – a thick one about a school shooting that I couldn’t stop reading.
When we arrived we found our way to our hostel. It was one of the best deals I’ve ever had travelling abroad. It was this cute little French looking house with a nice garden terrace and a very informative staff.
The view from the street. You can't really tell but we were surrounded by old buildings, restaurants and clubs. Our hostel was this nice little getaway in the middle of a lot of commotion.
Nice front view. Our room was a good size, although we were sharing it with a Gecko which sort of freaked me out. Claudia, who is usually the wuss held herself together.
That night we lucked out and found a great little food stand right around the corner with the tastiest tandoori chicken served with naan bread and an assortment of Indian sauces for very cheap.
So simple, yet so good. I’ve been missing nice hunks of chicken (minus the fat and bone that it is served with in Taiwan). After dinner we went back to the hotel and got a nice sleep for our walking tour the next day.
The next morning I woke up early, sent out some e-mails and had a bite on the terrace before starting the day.
That cute little girl behind me was Swiss. We saw her and her family everywhere - probably because we were reading the same book.
Walking out of our hostel, it was still early and the streets were quiet. This is what our surroundings looked liked as we walked towards the start of the tour:
The party street. At night this place was packed with people watching soccer on big screens and coming in and out of the dance clubs.
Typical restaurant owner getting set up.
Funky looking Indian restaurant - we wanted to go but it was a bit out of our budget.
There were a ton of buildings that were so beautiful, but they badly needed to be restored.
When I saw the big Eastern Oriental hotel I convinced Claudia to come in and have a look with me. I used to love checking out other resorts with my dad on vacation - you know, scoping out other situations for next time.
It wasn't too extravagant on the inside, but it had a very nice old mansion type feel.
This man was more than happy to pose for us.
The first stop on our tour took us by some pretty impressive parliament buildings that I was surprised to see in such great shape.
Very colonial looking.
The next stop was an old Malay mansion that had been turned into a museum. I was really excited to see it because my dad had been there and told me about it.
In front of the mansion. Everyone on the street was wondering what these two young girls were doing at this historical sight so early in the morning. The gates keepers had just barely woken up.
I'm glad Claudia snapped this shot because otherwise I never would have remembered the name.
The royal courtyard.
The entrance way.
A bedroom. Everything was so incredibly ornate and beautiful. if you had the patience to walk through at a snails pace you could catch so many small details in all the paintings and furniture designs. One interesting thing I noticed was that it had elements of Chinese, Malay and Indian in the design. I'll talk more about that in just a little bit.
It reminded me a bit of the castles I visited in Germany and Vienna a few years ago(much smaller though).
After the castle we continued our walk. We thought it was going to take hours to finish the tour, but when we realized we have walk 1/3 of it in on 15 minutes we decided to slow down and wander the streets on our own, using the guide as a reference.
While walking we managed to find our way too little India – so cool! This was my favourite place on the island because there was so much culture.
Some of the storefronts, still quiet in the early morning.
Indian sweets. At 10 in the morning all the energy started to build as vendors set up their stalls and the restaurants madly prepared for the crowds. Indian music blared and Bollywood movies played on screens while the scent on incense filled the air. We popped into a few shops, most of which sold lovely silk material to make Indian dresses, and gold gold gold!
A typical Indian costume jewellery shop - see all the bangles? As we walked a little further, we hit a large mosque.
We had the option to go in later in the day as long as we took off our shoes and wore one of the head scarves they provided at the door. The next thing we saw was this government building that has been turned into a museum.
The grounds keeper insisted on showing us around (even though he didn’t speak very good English).
He then made each of us pose for a picture with him before demanding that we send him the photos via snail mail as he did not have an email account. Claudia volunteered to take care of that task. After that we found a cute little café that could have been located anywhere in the world.
It sold yummy home cooked treats and delicious coffees, so we sat and had a quick drink.
The kitchen area. They were making brownies and it made the place smell so friggen good. While we were sitting two older Chinese couples came in and started to chat with us. They all live in Australia now, but were visiting Georgetown because one of them grew up there. They were a very well travelled group, having been to both Canada and Germany, and were very interested in what Claudia and I were doing at such a young age.
the nice couples took a photo for us before they left.
I think the stop (as well as the memory of the Indian scents) made us hungry so we decided to go back to little India to grab lunch. Taking a cue from the Lonely Planet, Claudia and I stopped at an Indian vegetarian place that was busy with people and energetic waiters hustling from table to table. Our waiter was very helpful – there was far too much to choose from and I was craving a nice sweet Indian curry. He suggested the Malay Kofta for me (which was amazing) and Claudia had a vegetarian chicken type thing with dipping sauces which she said was also very good.
Me not having a clue what to order.
Claudia's meal. With all the vegetarian options the Indian’s have, there wouldn’t be a need to eat meat anymore! (But who would want that?)
As we sat and ate, Claudia and I reflected a bit on what we had seen so far. We both agreed that Malaysia was something like we’d never seen before, mainly because of the mix of cultures (Chinese, Indian and Malay – the three main peoples). As I walked around Malaysia I realized it was one of the only places I have ever seen an Indian, Chinese and Malay sitting down to have a beer together. In Malaysia, all three groups seem to live together very harmoniously and even integrate with each other in more ways than one. For example, we found out from our waiter that “Lakksa,” – a sort of spicy noodle soup – is enjoyed by all three groups, so it can be found in almost every restaurant. It was very cool to see. After a great lunch we decided to stop in to a little Indian sweet shop.
This man must have been so annoyed with me. I had no idea what any of it was so I was asking so amny questions. But oh man, everything was so good! It is all laden with sugar, just the way I like it. I tried this little deep fried ball (sort of like a small Tim Horton’s old fashioned timbit) that is served floating in a very sugary syrup – amazing but you only need a bite to be satisfied. I also tried a milk treat that sort of tasted like vanilla fudge, but less dense. By this time is was scolding hot, and since we had finished everything on the walking tour, we decided to go back to the hotel to rest for a bit before heading outside of the city to the Big Buddha!
The Big Buddha was located up on a hill and sat above a maze of passageways that led up to a large temple with gardens, shops and lookouts.
There was a turtle pond on the way up.
We lucked out and got there an hour before it was closing, so we had a nice open setting for pictures. I sat down on a bench in the gardens that overlooked the town below while Claudia snapped away and enjoyed the moment. To be honest, the temple part of it wasn’t too exciting – we saw more impressive ones later in the trip. We weren’t allowed to go up to the big Buddha so I feel we may have missed out on an incredible view. Also, the passages walking up were littered with souvenir stalls that seemed to hold items from everywhere else in the world (Africa, Bahamas, Japan…) but Malaysia – I found that pretty funny. But, it was definitely a tourist attraction to see. I kept thinking how neat it was that my dad stood in the same spot years ago and I wondered what it may look like for my kids if they ever get to go there too. Here is a taste of the temple:
After that, it was dinner time and we had decided earlier in the day that we couldn’t leave without trying the Lakksa dish that I mentioned before, so we stopped in to a little hole in the wall restaurant to try it.
Noodles, tofu, veggies, fish water and spices. It was HOT, but good. After, we were just in time to catch a Bollywood movie that was playing at the theatre nearby our hostel. Unfortunately it wasn’t in English but we decided we could follow along with the pictures. It was quite an experience.
As we took our seats we got tons of stares from all of the locals (all of whom were Indian). They did double takes and laughed when they saw us focused on the Indian band that was playing as a preview. The variety of people coming into the theatre was pretty interesting – there were people from ages 2 to 80 there to see that movie (which was a bit of a horror flick I might add). It opened with a bunch of guys being burned alive and I was surprised that none of the kids or mothers flinched at this. As the main actors started to appear, a bunch of people in the audience started howling and shouting and this didn’t stop for at least 15 minutes. Then some of the boys in the row in front of us started to light up cigarettes. It was definitely different from going to see a movie in Canada. Needless to say, we didn’t manage to sit through the whole thing.
I finished the night having a drink in the lounge of our hostel watching the soccer game and chatting with some business travellers who were trying to give me tips about doing business in Malaysia. After they began insisting I stop brushing my teeth to give myself a more “rustic” look (one that would make the Malayians feel more comfortable around me) I decide to go to bed.
Saturday, we decided to take the 2 hour boat ride to another island north of Penang called Langkawi. It is known for its beautiful landscapes and rich luxury resorts.
Our boat over. It was a pretty uncomfortable ride.
When we arrived we found a taxi driver who took us to a beach that was famous only amongst the locals – it was gorgeous. White sands, blue water, small islands right off the coast…I had a nice afternoon sunbathing, swimming and finishing off my book while Claudia did a beach walk and snapped some pictures.
Posing in the beach.
Our lunch spot.
We took the 5pm ferry back to Penang and decided to go out for a nice dinner at a famous Malaysian place in town called Hameediyah.
The kitchen was open and we got to watch them prepare all the food. I just kept coming and coming and coming – three different types of curries (which have the consistency of a Thai curry, but the taste of an Indian curry), friend rice, crispy bread, pork pancake, and a number of little garnishes and dips. So good, but Claudia and I decided we liked our Indian dishes the best.
Mmmmmm.
The next morning we took the long bus back to K.L. city and we stayed in a little hostel right in the heart of town. Claudia wasn’t feeling too well (all that new food), and she had already seen the city, so she stayed in and caught up on her blogging while I took a tour around the place. K.L. wasn’t one of my favourite cities because it was really grubby and polluted. Also, as I walked around I noticed there were very few women walking around and instead there were mostly men looking at me like they wanted to eat me for dinner - not the most comfortable feeling that’s for sure. I think I figured out why Claudia had a “stomach ache.” Again though, I saw the three cultures (Malay, Indian and Chinese) living together harmoniously very intermingled, yet still managing to maintain their own cultures. With constant concerns about loss of culture in North America, I wondered why we couldn’t accomplish what the people here have.
The next morning when we awoke it was time to head to the airport for our afternoon flight to Singapore!
