Buddhas at Kek Lok Si Temple
Today's Thoughts...
Alright, so as promised, I will return to the saga of October Break, picking up with the deliciousness that is the food capital of Malaysia: Penang. Let me say that the cuisine certainly unbelievably lives up to the hype. I’m talking, some of the best dishes I’ve ever had in Asia (and I ADORE Thai food!) and right on the street corner at a plastic table and chairs. Incredible! I was in nothing but food coma for about a week and thoroughly fulfilled my plans to eat my way through Penang, so I’ll just sprinkle a little of that tasty garnish in this post…
Nasi Lemak- a Penang Favorite
Plopping down with PiA fellows Alex and Agnes in their cool apartment complete with huge gorgeous swimming pool downstairs, I set up camp for an unexpectedly extended stay in Penang. I stepped off the plane into the absurdity that is the Penang transport system. That is, crazy bus lines that wrap and wind around the city, a dearth of taxis, and as per non KL-Bangkokian SE Asia style, no subway, womp, womp. :) No bigs. I lugged my oversized bags onto the nearest bus and proceeded on a nearly three hour journey utterly lost (of course I’d be lost) around the city. No cell phone in sight, I had no way of reaching Alex and Aggie so I just went with the flow and managed to make friends with an elderly Chinese woman who convinced me I would be going on a Buddhist temple retreat with her later in the week (complete with cell phone numbers, addresses, and emails) and an Iranian photo-journalist and graphic design student who asked me to be a model for some of his latest work. Sweating, dragging at least my weight in luggage; that was the last thing I was expecting at the end of my incredibly long journey. The last thing, but perhaps the best as he had once lived precisely where Alex and Aggie do and unlike the scores of university students and bus drivers who had no idea what I was talking about when I asked over and again for directions (you know, panting, dripping, heaving bags) and dropped me and my entourage off right at their doorstep for free! Sometimes it does help to play up the damsel in distress card occasionally ;) (More on that thought in Indo…)
Their Pool!!
If you haven’t noticed already, Penang and Malaysia in general is a HUGE melting pot of peoples. That’s what explains the overabundance and variety of great SE Asian eats there. The major population divides of Malaysia are among the Chinese and Indian populations and the ethnic Malay. In Penang, that’s amplified with mixtures of Acehnese, Thai, Burmese, and pretty much a healthy dose of all the culture SE Asia has to offer. Which means barrios of all sorts, shops of every kind, and listening to a conversation that starts to you in English, turns to a friend in their native tongue, and asks a question of a fellow Penangite (sp?) in Bahasa Malaysia. But I digress, back to the food.
Me with Hokkien Mee
During my stay, I managed to make it through about nine of the twelve top dishes of Penang including Char Koay Teow (Chinese fried noodles with seafood, eggs, etc. and my favorite of all the dishes), Hokkien Mee (Hokkien Chinese soup with spices, meats, and boiled eggs), Laksa (the deliciously creamy fish-ball curry-esque soup and my second favorite), Mee Goreng (Indian fried noodle), Mee Rebus (Indian sweet noodle soup with boiled egg), Nasi Kandar (Indian Muslim rice and curry and meat), Nasi Lemak (a Penang favorite of rice, boiled egg, and meat), Maggie Mee (Ramen-type noodles fried and perfect after a night of drinks), and of course some Mango Lassi to top it off. And I can’t remember the rest. And I barely tipped the iceberg. It was like hopping through Asia on my plate. I’m salivating as we speak. Ok. I’m going to stop. But the noodles, I’m telling you! Orgasmic, really. My first full day there, I did all the highlights of Georgetown, Penang’s downtown district and hub. I went to Little India, Chinatown, the Esplanade along the sea (Penang is an island btw, how did I not realize that before?), famous Hindu temples, famous mosques, the Khoo Kong Si Chinese clan house, St. George’s Church, home and museum of the man they call the Rockefeller of the East Cheong Fat Tze, and the Penang State Museum to name a few.
Exhibits of Nonya Culture at Penang State Museum
The State museum was my favorite spot because of the plethora of exhibits of Penang’s ridiculously rich cultural legacy. I’m somewhat addicted to anything that screams heritage, racial/ethnic legacy, pretty much all that anthro-type stuff we learned in the fine halls of Princeton ;) So the museum was a huge hit with full on displays of Penang’s many groups, when they came, their courtship practices, food background, opium dens, arranged marriages, etc. Loved it, loved it.
Hands off the Balls
Next day, I plopped on several buses and made my way to the most beautiful temple I have ever seen, purportedly the largest in SE Asia. The Kek Lok Si Temple, or the “Temple of Supreme Bliss,” is known as the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas for the thousand plus statues of the Buddha that dot its terraces, walkways, and peaks.
Kek Lok Si Temple Complex
It is also home of the enormous statue of Kuan Yin, of whom I purchased a large fold out wall hanging for her uncanny resemblance to the Virgin Mary standing on the serpent Satan while Yuan stands on the back of a dragon, halo adorning her porcelain frame. The temple complex is also known for the composition of its highest temple peak which has Chinese, Thai, and Hindu architecture from base to crest. Breath-takingly beautiful and inspiring. I could spend hours just hanging out up there and did, looking over the city as the sun sank low in the sky. ::sighs:: Oh, Asia.
Offering Tiles at Kek Lok Si
When I wasn’t engorging myself on noodles, rice, and curries or hiking my way up to sacred ground, I was bopping around on buses, indulging in the icy refreshing flavor of Jazz beer, having cheery dark-skinned Indian men laugh and point at their skin, shouting “Same! Same!” to me, and conscripting a fellow partner in SE Asian crime to follow me. My fourth day in Penang, Dylan flew in to spend a couple more days with me soaking up food and fun.
Our first stop was SoHo bar and pub where we danced till we were breathless to the tunes of…Footloose? In Asia? WHAT! Reliving some high school glory days of golden pumps and jean skirt cut-offs, I rocked like I was had been back on stage belting “I Need a Hero” yesterday. Oh we brought it all right. Perhaps to our chagrin, had we cared enough to notice, the entirety of the bar saw just how well (or hideously)we brought it complete with air guitars, squeals, and choreographed dancing. Move over Kek Lok Si. That was a sight to behold.
Cheesy Nan Deliciousness
As if the sunset over the thousand buddhas wasn’t enough, indulging in Dylan’s love of all things that go boom and vroom, we decided his second day there to catch an ancient furnicular to Penang Hill, the highest look-out point and retreat in the city. Swept northward by its cool breezes, we climbed into the rickety cars and managed to make it to the top just in time for the sun to unfold its rays of fiery reds and fierce oranges over a perfectly blue blue sky. Cameras could never fully capture the magic in that, the skyline of Penang beneath us.
Penang Skyline from Penang Hill
The Hindu temple, mosque, and night time fire-show made the long trip up and back more than well worth the journey. Much more worth the price of admission than the horrifying gated two building compound down near the Esplanade that they call Fort Cornwallis. Ooh, not worth the money, energy, anything. Had the feeling not quite of fading glory, but glory that never was with carny costumed “soldiers,” a megaphone that boomed the time to the backdrop of anthem music and something like a twenty-one gun salute. Kind of like a mini theme park gone awfully wrong.
Dylan in Prison at Fort Cornwallis
But most of the trip to Penang was just right. Exactly what was needed after the stresses (and beauty!) of Vietnam and the commercialism (and comfort!) of Singapore. Perfect slice of SE Asia topped with a little bit of sunset for flavor—delectable.
