The (In)Complete Guide to Traveling in Penang.

according to me, that is.

1. Do your research.
like any other holiday, you should do your research before actually reaching the destination. unless you want to be extra adventurous or you are just in a mode of crazy, i will always advise against not doing your research before a vacation. Penang is an island full of culture and great food, and it's quite easy to figure out a few touristy places along with the half-hidden good hideouts or food places through the internet.

Local tip #1: Hipster coffee shops that you should probably drop by and the foods that you should try: i tried the Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel at Mugshot, along with their homemade yoghurt--all was heaven in this place. my personal favorite cafe and place to chill. Piknik has a small but really quirky menu full of savory waffles. i had the Combo Waffle, which was bacon, salmon and cheese on waffle if i'm not wrong. that was great too! Junk is recommended by our new friends at SooHongry, as the latter cafe recommended the first's very precisely and well-made coffee. SooHongry is a wonderful place to drop by--i never had the chance to try their homemade ice-cream, please try it for me!

Local tip #2: local foods that you should not miss-Penang Road Chendul, Char Koay Teow, Air Itam Assam Laksa. and others that i have forgotten because i ate too much. ask the locals!

2. Choose your hipster backpacker hostel.
because they are CHEAP. and very much clean, has free wi-fi, complete with functional and decent toilets (don't expect too much now) and has nice, comfy beds. basically a list of very decent places for you to crash in if you just do your research. Muntri Street and Chulia Street are usually the ones where foreigners stay at, and those are pretty darn affordable, so look out for those.

Local tip: avoid staying at Love Lane and Lorong Garu (which literally means Scratch/Itch Alley) due to the possibility of dodgy activities happening at night.

Possible problems: since most of these hostels are restored old shophouses, you need to know that the walls are pretty thin and if you speak loud enough, people can hear you from the next room. this is possibly the only problem my friend and i have encountered.

3. There are 538720983 maps.
well okay not THAT many, but there is really more than one map, and you should certainly get your hands on as many maps as possible, compare their accuracy and info, then dump the ones that you don't really like or need. the good one that was given to us by a new friend is the one printed by the government, but that one only covers the touristy area that ranges from Komtar to Esplanade and the jetties (you will know what i mean when you're actually there). take that but also get one with a wider range, and possibly even one of the whole island.

Possible problems: most of the street names are in Malay, so it may be rather difficult for you to remember which street is what name. just keep referring to the map and keep track of certain iconic buildings or signs then you should be fine. if you get lost, ask one of the locals and i'm pretty sure they will be more than glad to direct you around (and even give you extra directions to other awesome places).

4. Travel (very) light.
personal experience. lugging around my rather heavy camera backpack was an awful thing to do. even though it didn't bother me that much at first, walking around on foot made it seem like a chore for me. extra sun and heat did not make it feel any better. carrying a heavy and huge backpack may also serve to be a problem if you're planning to explore via cycling.

Local tip: if you're carrying a sling bag or handbag, just be more aware of your surroundings. Penang may not be as terrorized as Kuala Lumpur with robbery cases or snatch thefts, but it is, after all (sad to say), Malaysia, so just be extra careful with your belongings and don't carry it around carelessly.

5. Take on Penang traffic fearlessly.
traffic in Penang can be quite crazy if you've never experienced Asian traffic before. Penang is well-known for its food, but to Malaysians, Penangites are the most infamous insane drivers and everything traffic-related. from crossing the roads to illegal u-turns to intense parking skills--you name it, they've got it. so go with a brave heart and sharp eyes. always watch out for cars, motorcycles and bicycles!

Local tip #1: crossing the road takes mad skills. the most effective way to cross the road in Penang, is apparently to wave at the incoming car (that is driving at a hesitant speed, not the fast and furious one), smile very cheerily and half-jog past the road as quick as you can. it works. i've seen numerous aunties do it. trust meeeeeee.

Local tip #2: do NOT rent a car in Penang. even locals have trouble keeping up with the traffic here sometimes. the best mode of vehicle is to rent a bicycle, but if you can't cycle (like me. HIGH FIVE), you can try taking the trishaw ride for RM30 an hour. pricey, but worth the cultural points i guess.

Possible problems: buses here do not provide change. so if you don't have a good amount of coins with you, be prepared to pay extra for your bus ticket if you're going to go around to further tourist spots.

6. Bring a friend or two. (or MOAR)
sharing expenses is always great, but in Penang, especially if you're only staying a few days for a short holiday trip, you will need at least one travel buddy. unless you have a bottomless pit for a stomach, sharing foods will become part of your traveling experience. if you think it's gross to share the same plate of food or the same drink/straw/cutlery/WHATEVER, you will need to, unfortunately, get over it. it's either that or not fully experience the Penang food hunt.

Possible problems: be clear of your friends' eating habits or preferences beforehand. if you're an adventurous foodie, make sure your friends are at least on par at your game level! not checking before the trip may result in you ending up with someone like me--a non-enthusiast in food and worse yet, someone who doesn't take spicy food. (which is a big no-no for most Asians, i guess. SORRY NOT SORRY)

7. Talk to the locals.
don't worry, most Penangites who are below 50 or so should be able to speak rather decent English. so even if you can't converse in Hokkien (which is technically, Penang's first language) or Mandarin or Malay, English is still good! just pray that you get lucky and you are able to speak to most locals in English! psst, this is how you get to the locals' favorite spots if you don't have a local friend to bring you around.

Local tip: go explore! don't be afraid to go to obscure and quaint little cafes that seem closed, you never know what will happen, because our experience (me and my travel buddy Kim) is that we just tried to look at a cafe a little closer, wanting to see if they were really closed, the owners told us they forgot to pay the water bill so they had a very limited menu that day, we continued talking to them and spent about 3 hours there just sharing thoughts and them giving us loads of good recommendations and insights!



sooooo, that's that i think. just enjoy yourself as much as possible, and you'll have yourself a great holiday!

Sawadee.

so i'm back from that 9-day trip i talked about earlier before, and i wanted to do several 'parts' of blog posts to talk about stuff in detail but i realized i was just too lazy to compile photos and make them into collages. so here, have the highlights instead! 

note : all photos are in chronological order. :D

(from the beginning till the end of the trip!)

just picture the surprise on my face when i saw this in the first hotel we stayed in at Chiang Mai. this was at the Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel. seeing this in our room really just lit me up. because i instantaneously thought about that one episode of Supernatural where Dean's motel room had a panel that looked like this, except his bed was fully equipped with massaging functions! to no avail and a slight disappointment, there wasn't any massaging controls on this panel. haha. 

this.

this was one of the things i really wanted to bring back from Thailand but didn't. the same hotel gave us complimentary bottled water but here's what's different : their bottles were made of glass! this hotel specifically gave instructions not to take away these glass bottles and i assumed that they would just reuse the bottles and replace the caps for hotel guests. it's pretty eye-opening to how green Thailand is compared to Malaysia. 

elephants are the very symbol of Thailand. they used to capture elephants and train them to go into wars, but since the war had ended, the trained elephants had not much use left for the Thais. as technology continued to replace elephants to carry logs and other heavy things, soon, the Thais began to use the elephants in the tourism industry. i'm not sure how to feel about this. perhaps most, if not all, of the elephants in Thailand, are in captive and made to work in the tourism industry. from elephant shows to elephant rides, they're now a form of entertainment. business. i don't know how they're treated behind the blinds, although i'm pretty sure training an elephant is no easy task--not for the trainer or the elephant itself. 

on a less serious note, this baby elephant followed its mom around as we rode the elephants in Chiang Mai, and it was just having so much fun when we crossed the river! LOOK AT ITS HAPPY FACE.

this boy was perhaps the only person i found very hard to forget.

truth be told, i find him cute.

i mean, you grab snakes with both hands AND your mouth, then you kiss the snake too?

okay. marry me.

this was from when we crossed over Mekong River to Myanmar. the monks here gets their money/offerings from stalls or just people off the streets like this. children dressed in monk robes do the same, and even some aunties who're in a different attire as well. not sure how this whole system works and not sure if it's entirely right for all these monks to do so, and furthermore, i'm even unsure about how some people may abuse such a form of work and turn it into business. 

not sure how 'special' these pebbles are but, 10 baht for pebbles? no. just no. 

all throughout the trip i kept thinking whether if ninjas will start jumping out of nowhere, because the wires made it look like i was in Konohagakure. :D

here you have my dad praying to the four-faced Buddha. the four-faced Buddha, according to our tour guide, is like the Guan Yin statue here in Malaysia. it is very common and can be found almost anywhere, but this particular one that's located in the heart of Bangkok city (right next to roads and malls) is said to be the more... awesome one? i don't know what's the English term. the one that people believes to work more miraculously. yeah. 

Pattaya. unfortunately i didn't get on one of these. 

this one's a surprise accidental photo. my lens fogged up for the first time ever in my hands and i couldn't understand why my photos were so blur until i looked at my lens and wiped it clean. the effect of the photo however, is rather promising. (:

photo of the trip?

(important note : the lioness did NOT want to engage in sex and was running away time after time even before the lion managed to pin her down for a bit. she sprang away seconds after this photo was taken.)

this was heart-wrenching. seeing a real polar bear is in my bucket list, but after seeing a polar bear like this, i swore to myself that i will never set foot in a zoo/safari park/aquarium/etc ever again unless i know for sure that the animals are getting what they need. also made a promise to myself that if i were to see a polar bear again, it would have to be a wild one. this polar bear was alone. her exhibit was not made for her. it was made for the people to come to see her. it looked like a pathetic, ginormous, stupid igloo. it was made with slabs of concrete and even the floors did not have any gradient or texture to it at all. the pool she had looked so poorly maintained i wondered why she hasn't tried to break out of the exhibit yet. she was pacing back and forth anxiously. 

i'm never seeing a polar bear like this ever again. never. 

this was one of the more bitter parts of the trip. sorry.

view of Bangkok city from the Baiyoke Sky Hotel. this made me fall in love with skyscrapers and city lights. heh. till we meet again, Thailand. (yeah i purposely took the photo where the roads look like a cross. :D)

the rest of the photos will be posted up on my Facebook account soon! (: 

breathing underwater.

land sickness is an unofficial (mental, perhaps) sickness wherein a person feels like they're 'walking on a mattress or trampoline' when back on land after a cruise ship ride or a long voyage in the ocean. this condition is said to last from hours to even days. 

i am feeling land-sick right now.

whenever i sit still or lie very still on my bed, i can still feel my head being rocked back and forth when i am on/in the water, and my legs would feel the waves of the ocean splashing at them, endlessly. 

the getaway trip with two of my coursemates to Pulau Kapas all the way on East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia has been an enormous blessing. when we first reached the island, i thought i would die for Internet or just leave the island as soon as possible. little did we know, the lifestyle of the islanders crept into our bodies so quietly that we ourselves became laid-back and mindlessly lazy. the only noises you would hear are the sounds of the ocean and perhaps a few birds. cafes and resorts set up around the beaches of the island itself are all designed to be utterly relaxing and wonderfully inviting, especially when you try to leave. 

life as an islander on Pulau Kapas means food, sun, ocean, sand, and breathing underwater. 

  and because i have no underwater camera to capture any photos, 

have some food photos instead. :D

i will probably forget the very moments i first go snorkeling or diving, but i will never forget how quiet it becomes when you're underwater. the silence is the sound of water in your ears. your breathing becomes the loudest thing in your dimension, and you focus all your energy on three things : sight, breathing, and moving your legs. welcome to the new world.

although my friends and diving instructor probably hated me or thought i was annoyingly helpless and panicky during the snorkeling and diving times, but i had fun. i'm sorry, friends and diving instructor (Fai, Fazi, Ru Jun, Sue Fyenn, Christophe), for being so nervous underwater. i am far from being a water person. i can be one, but it will take time. a good, ample amount of time. 

snorkeling and diving is something i definitely want to try again and certainly get better at, though. i am willing to try and overcome my fear of water by learning how to swim and even wear contacts or learn about ways wherein i can see clearer underwater without my glasses. (masks with prescription lenses are already in consideration, even though they probably cost a bomb)

Pulau Kapas, i will be back. soon.

for now, back to business. (insert disgusted and tiresome groans/sighs here)