Category Archives: travel

It’s not over yet…

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Kek Lok Si wooden fan

You didn’t really believe I was done writing about Malaysia, did you?

You did? What, and not even one long, raving, ecstatic post about all the fabulous Penang street food—the primary purpose of my visit—that I tried? Are you kidding?

I’ve only been so quiet about it because I’ve been sorting through my notes—doing  a bit of backstory research, tracking down the origins of some of the dishes, the recipes for others—but I am almost ready to publish a monster post or two about my gustatory pilgrimage to Pulau Pinang. In the meantime, these are a couple more postcards I stitched during the trip…

Kuala Lumpur

Teh Tarik

Now that I’m home again, my wild foodie excesses have been reined in; I am back on my Low GI diet of soaked rolled oats, cracked wheat, simple salads, and temperate-climate fruit (tropical fruits being rich in high GI sugars). Sigh. It’s better for me, and I have to confess that I’m glad I don’t live where the food is exciting…or I’d have a hard time keeping the diabetes that’s been programmed into my genes, away.

Darwin‘s everyday food scene is no temptation: the blandness, the priggishness, the uninspired phantom of WASP cooking still haunts its flavours and methods (around these parts, ‘deep-fried’ is a flavour, and covering things in breadcrumbs is a favorite method.) I wander around the malls, oppressed by slab-like, drowned things  called uninspired names like “Veggie Bake” or “Meat Pie”. Most ‘ethnic’ cuisines are represented, of course…more often than not, though, by Chinese cooks. And these places seem to have altered the flavours to suit the Aussie palate (i.e. no heat, no subtle perfumes of herbs or spices, lots of salt and LOTS of sugar.)

Don’t get me wrong, I like living here, and there’s much more to life than food. It just isn’t (nor will it ever be) a destination for food lovers. Because cuisine is such an important part of cultural identity, not having the one can easily make the place feel like it hasn’t got the other, either. Some days it can seem more tragic than on others. :)

Darwin’s a great place for crocodiles, for camping and wilderness adventures, for going pig hunting in a pickup truck, with a cooler full of beer, some ugly murderous dogs in the back, and some ugly murderous friend in the passenger’s seat. I met a Canadian who said she came to Darwin because she wanted to “visit the tropics, without having to visit the Third World.” Well, there you go, a catchy line for our tourism campaign, if we run out of crocs and want to attract the sort of people who travel around the world in search of the same things they left back home: friendly white faces, McDonald’s, and the English language.

Is it any wonder that I escape into my memories of Malaysian food, and threaten to write long, wistful posts about them? I miss Asia…the buzzing, swelling, engulfing, “if-you-are-here-then-you-are-part-of-it” liveliness of its streets. The urgency and passion with which people celebrate and pursue their cultural signposts. The way people are pushed up against one another, both physically and emotionally…brushing barriers aside, and thinning the psychological walls between individuals.

Surprisingly, it makes for higher public levels of courtesy, tolerance and equanimity than you’d find in the neat and less crowded streets of Darwin. Strangers don’t abuse each other over brief encroachments upon personal space, or snap at each other over small mistakes. An outburst of self-righteous rage or an adult tantrum in public is a rare sight, and the one who loses his cool loses his status in everyone’s eyes (even if he does get what he wants in the end.)

Being impassive and watchful is probably what earned Asians (the Chinese in particular) the label ‘inscrutable’. All it means is that they’ve managed to move past the emotional intelligence of five-year-olds, and they won’t waste time or demean themselves by slobbering insincere friendliness over a perfect stranger…which, until they get to know you, is what you are.

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the Penang shophouse

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restored Penang shophouses

I snapped these pigeons  on the pavement directly beneath the open windows of the cinnamon colored shophouse in the photo above them…somebody’s pets, no doubt, (and it looks as though PC and I only just managed to avoid being pelted by stale roti falling from the sky, ourselves.)

I would love to be able to buy, do up, and live in an old Georgetown shophouse…there’s something so quaint about their narrow but deep rooms, the inner courtyards open to the sky, wooden stairs climbing steeply up to the second or third levels. But even if I could find one for sale (owners are not parting with them easily, now that Georgetown is one the World Heritage list) it would probably cost more than I’d manage to save in a lifetime.

A shophouse is a vernacular architectural buildingtype that is commonly seen in areas such as urbanSoutheast Asia. This hybrid building form characterises the historical centres of most towns and cities in the region. —Wikipedia.org

George Town Shophouses by Daniel Berthold

photo by Daniel Berthold

derelict row of shophouses in the heart of town

Georgetown

I subscribe to one enviable blogging couple, Robyn Eckhardt and David Hagerman, that has taken the leap into restoring an old shophouse…for their love of Georgetown and all things Pinang. How jealous I am that they get to call this year-round carnival town of flavours, colors and cultures Home! And that they eat, write, travel, stroll around Penang, and take photographs for a living! Sounds damn near perfect, don’t you think?

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*you can collapse, now*

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Langkawi43

I’ve just been on one ferry trip, a bus and three planes in the last 48 hours…passing what felt like an interminable 15-hour hiatus through the graveyard hours of the night by sitting on the floor in Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport—too broke to get a hotel room or taxi into town for a meal—with only a Malaysian comic book (APO? great artwork, full-color, I love it) and a Malay-English dictionary to read. My bahasa Melayu improved considerably, overnight…the most interesting result being that I started to get an inkling of how root words are made into nouns, adjectives, or different verb tenses…which helps if you want to speak more than a rudimentary “Me Tarzan, you Jane” bahasa. Also, got a feel for Melayu slang words…how they’re shortened and stylized for speaking on the street.

A cold/cough virus that I picked up in Penang, early in my trip, was kept in check for two weeks by random doses of assorted vitamins, painkillers, cough syrups, camphor oils, masses of chillies and limes, and probably my sheer determination to stay well whilst wandering foreign countries. I snapped this backpacker next to me at nearly 4 a.m. She was sleeping so deeply that even at 8 a.m. when the lobby filled up with hundreds of tourists milling around and watching her, she didn’t stir. Must’ve overdone some heady Bali delight…

sleeping backpacker, Ngura Rai

Now that I am back in Darwin, the thing seems determined to run its course at double the “Feeling crappy” level.

Looking forward to a slow day at home, uploading my photographs and listening to my music (With one memorable exception on a corner in Little India, where 8-foot speakers on the street set the wh0le block throbbing to Bollywood dance/raga/rap music, I heard no good music these past two weeks: there was nothing playing but the usual Adele/Avril/Gaga pop songs in public places everywhere…I really, really missed it)

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Goodbye, Georgetown! Langkawi, here I come!

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Love in the time of bananas...

Another embroidered postcard: “Love in The Time of Bananas…” of a fruit hawker’s cart and bullion-stitched bananas…and a colored pencil sketch of mangosteens. And a bowl of mee noodles; both from my journal of this trip.

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Hindu temple, Tanjong Bungah

One of many, many fabulous, theme-park gaudy Hindu shrines around Pulau Pinang. This one’s right outside my window at Tanjung Bungah.

Just some pictures, no time to write a post…taking the ferry to Pulau Langkawi tomorrow morning, to spend my remaining 5 or 6 days with a close friend who now lives over there.

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around Georgetown with PC

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Kopitiam crows

From an earlier kopitiam (coffee shop) visit comes this photograph of the large crows that sit under the eaves of the cafeterias, watching for scraps of food that they can swoop down and grab. It’s quite remarkable to be having coffee under the watchful eyes of half a dozen big black crows. I took this while having two black coffees along Jln. Sri Bahari.

Yesterday was a foodie day, spent at kopitiams and food carts around Penang Road.

PC Lim is the creative doyenne of the blog Meijo’s Joy, featuring crafty DIY projects as well as the chuckle-worthy antics that her two little girls are always getting up to.  When PC told me she lived in Penang, I asked if she’d like to meet up while I was there. My first face-to-face with a blog friend! I think we were both really excited.

We finally caught up yesterday, and as soon as I spotted her coming toward me, I felt as though I had known her forever. Many first meetings between slight acquaintances can be strained, or at least subdued. Not so this one; within thirty minutes of being together, PC and I were teasing each other like old friends. We walked around Georgetown arm in arm, PC pointing out all the authentic Penang shops and places to eat, and loading me with an insider’s knowledge of “the real Penang” that I could not have had from any guidebook. A friend who knows the city is worth her weight in gold.

I had nasi biryani with a squid curry, and another dish called “squid eggs” which were not unlike the sacs of fish roe from large fish. Then, at last, the long-desired bowl of ais kacang—not from any of those “famous” ais kacang places along Penang Road (PC says that ever since they’ve been featured in guidebooks, on blogs, and youtube videos, a lot of those “best source of” places have become arrogant, and careless)—but from a tiny wheeled cart down a narrow side street, where you eat standing up, from a little plastic bowl with a stainless steel chinese spoon. And it was sedap! Yummy! She also showed me where that Kek Seng Cafe is, though we were both too full by that time to go and eat again. Tomorrow, I’ll try and find my way back there! My hankering for durian ice-cream has not been addressed yet.

I feel like an idiot, photographing food I’m about to eat…it just seems so wrong to turn even your meals into some kind of National Lampoon’s Vacation documentary, as though life were nothing but material for your photo album…besides, I come from a culture that reverences food, and for reasons I can’t explain, photographing what you are about to eat seems disrespectful.

So you probably won’t see any pics of the food we had today…but I did grab PC’s arm at some point and ask her to stop so I could photograph the entrance of this fabulous building. No idea, once again, what it is…and if I hadn’t accidentally included the street sign, I wouldn’t even remember where I saw this (Jln. Sungai Ujong, and Sungai means ‘river’). As I said before, the streets are completely packed with old buildings, the whole city has been declared a historical reserve, and no buildings, not even the abandoned ones, can be pulled down. It is the most marvelous thing I’ve ever seen…and it’s not just one specimen road for the tourists! The locals still live, work, or run their businesses from these buildings. You could wander Georgetown for days, soaking up and photographing the architectural details.

picnikfile_SYQj9V

While a lot of major buildings have been restored, I find I am partial to the old, crumbling ones…I love the patina on stonework, the peeling paint, the verdigris on the brass, the mossy walls and dilapidated woodwork. I love the evidence of time’s hands having been all over the surfaces…the ancient signs and rotting tiles. All so utterly grand…I find myself feeling nostalgic for the days when Penang was this powerful hub of trade and culture, and here it isn’t even my own culture!

Lion door handles

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A Streetcar Named Desir*

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treehouse

Took this the day before I had a decent map of Georgetown, so I don’t even know where this building is—it was a Chinese school. I was just walking along (totally lost, I admit it) when this house loomed up, standing in a wide open lot. Banyan trees have grown up through the house, and there are even a few smaller trees starting up on the roof. It looked amazing. Penang is absolutely chock-full of grand 18th and 19th century buildings like this, one after the other, up and down the streets…many of them restored to their original dignity. No wonder the whole town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A Streetcar Named Desir*

I picked up a few romantic black and white postcards of old Penang at a lovely bookshop along Lebuh Chulia. Each evening I sit and stitch one of them. It’s been a nice way to make the mass-produced postcards my own. Thank you, Shaun Kardinal, for the inspiration!

This one’s for Kris, of an old fashioned trishaw in a narrow lorong (lane). I’ve written “A Streetcar Named Desir” on the back, and that’s not a typo. Desir is Bahasa Melayu for “the sound of leaves being blown by the wind.”

journal pages

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Darwin to KL

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somewhere over Bali

My airport scenario sort of went as screenwritten—well, minus the songs and dancing. I was fifth off the plane and had my visa in 5 minutes (a security guard asked me where the hell I thought I was going, trying to jump a barricade, and when I told him my next flight was in the process of boarding, he took my passport and visa fee, went to the head of the long, long queue, and got my visa for me. Dirty looks from people in line. But the Helpless Female archetype has its uses.)

There is no transit lounge at Denpasar airport, I found out. One must first “enter the country” by walking out one side of the building (Welcome to Bali!) and then go round to the departures side of the building (Thank you for coming!) I got to the check-in desk as they were making a last call for me…for a minute my spirit soared: the ground crew sprang into action, a lot of urgent radio conversations ensued…but I was far too late: security gates had shut down long before, and I had yet to go through Customs…not enough time. There would not have been enough time even if Denpasar did have a transit lounge.

As predicted, I ended up having to buy another ticket. Another 150 dollars didn’t kill me, but it left me with 300 bucks for my entire stay here. Inconvenient, but it’s possible to get by on that. When I finally e-mailed Kris and tell him what happened, he replied simply “I knew my cat would land on all fours, no matter which window she fell out of.” This is as close to a pat on the head as I’ll get from him, so I lap it up. It’s sort of like being told “That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.”

DSCF1906

Made KL by 12:30 a.m.—the bus station had closed but there was a small group of taxi pimps on the street in front of the station, trying to attract passengers. All I had to do was ask “Pulau Pinang?”

A big guy nodded “You come with me.”

He led me down a side street, and put me on the very last seat of an air-conditioned bus bound for Penang, (it took off 5 minutes later)

“Here your change, here your ticket, enjoy Penang!” he said, then opened his arms and asked “Want hug? Ah, only joking, lah!” I like it here, already.

I slept most of the way, and arrived at the Sungai Nibong bus terminal on Pinang Island at 5:30 a.m.

*oink*

Setting forth on a pilgrimage…

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Penang Sunset

I’m going to Malaysia today!

I have a couple of friends I’m going to visit, but otherwise I’m not planning on visiting a lot of tourist landmarks or geographical attractions. Don’t intend to do any shopping either. I haven’t got any money! I have been making the joke that I will be taking a holiday in homelessness…just to see what that’s like. I bought the tickets very cheaply last July, when I had more dough, but since the kitchen I work at has closed for renovations these past two months, I’ve run out of nearly everything!

But it doesn’t bother me. A little can go a very long way if you aren’t fussy. It’s just for two weeks, anyway. It’s a great way to travel, because you have nothing to lose, you can be in the moment and not constantly watch your wallet, your bags, your gear, your keys, blah, blah, blah…so very little can happen that might spoil your trip.

{ Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator. }

{ Travel light and you can sing in the robber’s face. }
—Juvenal, from Satires no. 10

I’m putting on a pilgrim’s rags, so to speak—taking nothing but a small backpack with few items of clothing and my battered camera, a couple hundred dollars to last me two weeks, no shoes but the cross-trainers I’ll be wearing to board the plane—and I’m off to pay my humble respects to the fabulous Street Food of Penang and Langkawi.

I’m so terrifically excited, I feel ready to burst…I’ll probably wet myself from ecstasy the minute I set foot in Georgetown. :)

the love of food

Murtabak, mee goreng, nasi lemak, asam laksa, char kway teow, fish head curry, teh tarik…my heart starts to race when I think of getting these dishes, in a hundred fabulous variations, piping hot and fresh from the vendors in the streets. Everything cooked with chillies, galangal, lime juice, spices, spices, spices…my idea of heaven on earth.

Also on the hunt for a particular ais kacang made at the Kek Seng Café, served with homemade durian ice-cream.

Wanna see my itinerary?

 

Leaving my laptop at home, along with my dietary restrictions, so you may or may not hear from me…depending on whether I can find an internet cafe that also serves food so that I don’t have to stop eating to write a blog post (heh heh heh)

Back to crafts and regular programming on the 26th of February (see, won’t be too long, but I will be so far behind in TAST that I will probably never catch up…)

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