Long weekend in Penang

As last weekend was the hindu ‘Thaipusam’ festival, the students had Monday and Tuesday off school which gave us a long weekend. We had been unsure where to go, but decided on Penang as there is a direct bus from BP. Unfortunately we turned up at the bus station on the Friday night to find the bus was full… which was actually really disappointing because it meant we had lost one of our days there (had to travel through Saturday instead). It was one of those ‘live and learn’ moments, although I was really annoyed at myself. I thought the travel out here would be much more spontaneous but you pretty much have to book if you’re going somewhere popular. So we packed up on Friday evening, and then found ourselves back again an hour later…

I got up early the next morning to go running, as the prospect of sitting on a bus for an entire day wasn’t a great one. We were picked up by a teacher who then took us for breakfast at one of the roadside ‘Mama’s’. I had the traditional Nasi Lemat, which is coconut rice with various choices of curry and vegetables... it’s really nice but I found out yesterday that its one of Malaysia’s most calorific dishes! We got on the bus at 9.30am and arrived in Penang about 7pm.

Penang is the island off the north-west coast of Malaysia. To get there you can either drive across the bridge, or there is also a ferry. The view isn’t the most beautiful… there were lots of industrial boats and office blocks on the skyline. I asked my Dad what Penang was like 30 years ago when he was there, and he said there wasn’t a single office block – I would have loved to have seen Penang then! It does worry me how all these beautiful places are being urbanized and losing their beauty.

After taking a ‘RapidBus’ (although not so rapid…..) to Georgetown, we met the other volunteers. They had found a nice hostel in China Town for Rm8/night. It was actually a really cool place with a good shower and air conditioned rooms. There was a communal area as well, with a big table amongst jars of tea and various Chinese pottery. All the shutters were open to it was really nice and breezy. I sat there a few times writing my diary, whilst some grey-haired Chinese men read their newspapers!

Day one started with an early walk and breakfast with my friend Kate. The others had been out the last night (to celebrate the start of Fiona’s 18^th) and wanted to sleep in so we made the most of the morning sunshine. We walked through China Town into ‘Little India’, which had various stalls to buy food from. We kept going and reached the seafront (after Kate nearly got run over by a bus!) After catching another not-so-rapid bus we made it to Teluk Bahang, a beach on the north coast of the island. My guidebook had described it as ‘deathly quiet’, but it really wasn’t! There were plenty of people around and we found a nice café to sit and have a drink in. I was a little disappointed at the water quality… there was some rubbish and it was a little oily. I suppose the dirt comes from all the ships going down the Straights of Melaka. Anyway…. I had a swim and did a drawing of a tree. On the way back to the hostel we stopped off at the next beach along (Batu Ferringhi), which is the main tourist beach, with all your watersports/hotels etc. There we had some dinner and then caught the bus back.

Penang is the sort of place that I would have normally gone with my family. Everything we did bought back memories of family holidays, which made me feel a bit lonely. Its different appreciating things on your own. Also organizing everything yourself (especially travel) was a faf, as normally we might have hired a car or something and gone to the smaller remote places, which are off the tourist track.

The next morning me and Fiona went to check out Penang museum, which was actually quite interesting! Going around museums is so much different when you yourself have chosen to go… I’ve been taken to many whilst growing up, and never really enjoyed them. Here we found some history of Penang (don’t test me…I didn’t read everything……) What I can remember is Captain Light founded the island in 1786! There were some cool displays of Malaysian clothes/kitchen tools/house structures which were interesting. After this we briefly visited the Kek Lok Si Temple (which is supposedly the biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia) It was definitely big, but slightly over touristy… to get there you had to walk through this corridor of stalls selling t-shirt after t-shirt. We also managed to get caught up in this Buddhist ceremony… we were walking up these stairs and suddenly floods of people came down carrying trays with candles and flowers, chanting. Oops!

As I mentioned earlier, last weekend was the Thaipusam festival. There are quite a lot of Indians who live in Penang so it was well celebrated.  We got up ridiculously early (5am) to go the botanical gardens, where they were all going to ‘fulfill their vows’. The women all looked beautiful in their finest saris and jewelry. They were all carrying milk in these gold pots on their heads, to put before their God – which apparently represents purity. Loads of the men had various sticks through their faces, and bells attached to their backs with earring hoops. What was gross was when they were pulling something along behind them which made their skin pull away from their back… nice.

After an early start we just fancied chilling on a beach, so we went to another called Tanjung Bungah, which is the beach where Fiona’s grandparents met! It was really nice actually and I walked/swam/sunbathed/read my book through the afternoon. We left a lot of time to get to the bus station because Penang traffic is horrendous and we really did not want to miss the bus!!

So back at school we are. I look forward to going back after a trip away because it’s really quiet and peaceful in the compound and I have all of my things at home. I am really trying to throw myself into everything (not literally) at school, to try and become more involved/busy. I am going to start a regular club to that I can get a weekly routine together. Our project is different to some of the other which Project Trust offer, as we are not technically ‘needed’ at the school, more wanted. Sometimes it’s hard to see how we can make a difference here, because it’s not going to be primarily from teaching. Still, I need to give it time as I am sure everyone is still getting used to us too.

Sorry that was quite a long post! I hope you’re all still awake… J Its 9.30 now and I think I will go and get some breakfast. Really craving some cereal if I’m honest!!