Day 26 & 27 –
Danny Says Relax
We had to get up rather early for our flight to Penang
because of Kuala Lumpur’s terrible traffic. Of course, the traffic wasn’t that
bad, and we got to the LCCT rather early, the last place I would go early to.
The flight was uneventfully short, lasting just 45 minutes. Soon enough, we
landed in Penang airport, descending out of the sea into the lake-side runway.
The airport, like any I’ll go to on this trip, is better than the LCCT. Penang
itself is a slightly dirtier, but more traditional, version of Phuket, and the
45 minute drive to Batu Ferringhi beach was a nice introduction to the
coastline of Penang island. We reached our hotel on the beach, centrally
located on Jalan Batu Ferringhi, checked in, and decided that with nothing much
do to in Batu Ferringhi but relax on the beach and eat that we would do nothing
but relax on the beach an eat.
After not using TripAdvisor or Yelp much in Kuala Lumpur,
which was probably a mistake, I decided to almost exclusively use it. The
problem, though, was that the locations of the restaurants in Batu Ferringhi
aren’t really exact. All of them are off of Jalan Batu Ferringhi (after two
days, I’m not totally sure there aren’t any other roads in the town), but that
road is about 4 km, long, so it is necessary to know whether it is walking
distance or not. We decided to go to Helena Café, a Nyonya Malaysian
restaurant, which was located about half a km away. When we went, it was
closed, which was a surprise given that they claimed on TripAdvisor that their
hours were 10AM-11PM. The café, however, was located next to two other open
establishments, and we chose ‘The Living Room’, a Malaysian restaurant right
next door. The restaurant was decorated a little too commercially, which made
us a little nervous about the quality of the food. To no one’s surprise, we
ordered Beef Rendang and Shrimp Asam, two Malaysian staples. Both were good,
which was a nice surprise given our reservations. The Rendang was different
than any other but still quite good. Overall, given that I had no idea what
this restaurant was about, it ended up being quite good.
We had a late lunch (started around 2:00), and while Penang
was noticeable cooler than Kuala Lumpur, it was still burning hot outside. We
were both quite tired after getting up at 6:15, so we decided to head back and
take a nap. I would usually feel bad napping in the middle of the day in an
exciting new city, but Penang is a place that is mostly asleep till the night
anyway, as people are either at the beach, touring the island, or asleep. We
chose the final option for a few hours, and because I foresaw a rather late
night, it was welcome.
We got up around 5:00, and though the sun was still out, it
was starting to get slightly breezy which made the weather quite perfect. The
hotel was located right on the beach, with a pool/garden area in the backyard
and the sand immediately behind. We chose to lay in the hotel grounds, but with
a view of the sand, the water, the trees, the hills in the distance, and the
setting sun. It was quite a beautiful sight that got increasingly so as we
approached sunset at 7:30. The beach itself was quite empty, but many people
were on speedboats or parasailing in the water behind. Honestly, the Batu
Ferringhi beach is exactly how I envision the perfect beach. Not too crowded,
not too large, not too much distance between road (or in this case, grass) and
water, and with a nice backdrop. It still didn’t match Goa with its beach-front
shacks, but it was quite close.
After some time on the beach observing the gorgeous orange
sun say goodbye, we were ready to head back inside and get ready for our night
out in Batu Ferringhi. Batu Ferringhi isn’t known as a truly hip night spot,
but it definitely has a late night scene. The only difference between Batu
Ferringhi at night and other beach-side areas is much of the excitement and
environment of Batu Ferringhi’s late night scene is shopping. The Batu
Ferringhi night market is famous, and for good reason as the town really
resides along that one km stretch of road that at night turns into the market,
with stalls aligning either side of the streets, creating covered passageways
of capitalism.
The night market also contains two hawker centers, but
compared to hawker centers in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, these are more
enticing. The main center, Long Beach Café, is a large square with stalls on
the four sides, and a covered seating area in the middle. Long Beach Café has
all the usual hawker fare, but many stalls serving restaurant-type food, stalls
of fresh seafood on ice, cooked the way you want. The Long Beach Café is a
staple of the Batu Ferringhi experience, and its standing shows with just how
efficient it is. Each table in the middle has a number, a number you tell the
workers at the stalls so they bring your food to you. There are waiters
prancing around, waiting for you to order drinks. They have wait staff to clean
and wipe tables in a quick pace. The whole system is highly streamlined,
professionally done; a surprise in a setting that is usually selling in
unprofessional, authentic environment.
 |
| Night Market Food, nothing was better. |
We ordered three dishes, a sizzling prawn dish, a black
pepper squid dish, and a grilled seabass. The best dish was black pepper squid,
which didn’t taste like any other black pepper dish that I’ve tried, but was
excellently cooked. The grilled seabass didn’t have much flavor on its own, but
it came with two tasty dipping sauces. The prawns were large, plentiful, well
cooked and quite delicious. The sauce was a little sweet for my taste, but my
Mom loved it. The other advantage of eating at Long Beach Café (or any of the
other hawkers) is the relatively cheap alcohol. Alcohol is taxed heavily in
Malaysia making it be sold in bars at prices that wouldn’t be out of place in
the US. Somehow, the Hawker Center gets away with giving beer at more normal
prices. The whole experience at Long Beach was great, a welcome hit after some
less-than-stellar experiences at Hawker Centers in Malaysia.
My Mom returned to the hotel to
listen to some live music in the lobby. I was still hungry, and I found a place
that would allow me to do what I dreamed of doing when I added Malaysia to my
trip: have a beer and a Roti Canai at night. I can live off of Roti Canai, and
despite it being primarily a breakfast food in Malaysia, all the hawker stands
have at least one stall selling Roti Canai. Long Beach Café closes at 10:30
(odd, given how the night market area closes at 12 at the earliest), but right
next to it is the I Love U Café, which is essentially the same concept as Long
Beach, though not as reputed. I headed back to I Love U and sat down next to
many different tables enjoying a hukkah or two. I ordered my Roti Canai,
ordered an Asahi beer (my first taste of that Japanese staple – I’m looking
forward to Japan even more). Both were excellent, but just the fact that I was
sitting thousands of miles away from home, in an open air hawker center with
the sea breeze coming in, and a Roti Canai on one side of me and a beer in the
other.
Today was more of the same. In many ways, it was a sequel,
and not a sequel that improves on the first, but that outright copies it, much
like Hangover 2. Today, we went to the same restaurants, ate somewhat the same
food, went outside to sit on the beach and read around the same time. We even
gave our dirty clothes to be laundered around the same time. It was a carbon
copy day, and damn was it sweet.
The one difference may have been that today we were able to
have breakfast at the hotel, instead of no food on Air Asia. The breakfast
wasn’t great, but it was welcome, as I had my first omelet since leaving home.
After breakfast, we went for a walk on the beach. The weather was dark, but the
rain was held at bay (literally), and because of the cloud cover it was a bit
cooler than previous days. The beach was idyllic, but the sand was so soft that
it was quite a struggle to walk that much. In that way, Batu Ferringhi beach is
more for show than blow.
Around 1:00, we headed out for lunch, back to The Living
Room. In fairness, we were originally planning to hit Helena’s Café, which was
open today after its token day off yesterday (all restaurants in Batu Ferringhi
have one day off a week, I guess to spread the wealth). Sadly, despite its high
ratings, the menu seemed a little boring, and we went next door. It is quite a
compliment for one of my parents to go to the same restaurant twice in any
city, and it is more stunning given our initial ambivalence with The Living
Room before we tasted the food the previous day. Continuing the theme of a
sequel, we ordered the Beef Rendang, but we went in a new direction with the
second dish, ordering XXXXX. The rendang was as good as it was the previous
day, and the XXXX was excellent. I really can’t recommend The Living Room
enough.
There was one new event that occurred when we were eating:
it rained. This by itself isn’t strange, as it is cloudy at some point during
the day almost every day in this part of the world. No, what was surprising was
that this was going to be the end of one of the great streaks of all time. No,
not the Heat’s 24 (and counting) game win streak*, but the fact that I had not
had to experience rain at any point during my trip. It rained a total of four
times during my trip, and I was asleep, in a plane on the ground, and in a bus
for all of those times. Every other day was clear. It has been an amazing
stroke of good fortune to have such accommodating weather, and it had to end
sooner or later. Well, it finally did. Of course, that particular rain passed
before we finished our meal, but the rain was off and on throughout the
afternoon and when I went to pick the clothes from the laundry it was raining
lightly.
· **quick note on the Heat streak: I guess it is
exciting for hardcore NBA fans, but this is the worst-case scenario we all
thought of when LeBron and Bosh went to Miami, that they would roll over the
entire league. In a way, I guess this is better than the alternative: months of
the Heat being a very good team and everyone discounting any bad stretch
because they would turn it on in the playoffs. Basically, this is exactly why
this should not have happened. Somehow, no one seems to care that these guys
hijacked the league and ruined its competitive balance.**
We were laying by the ocean in the evening when the skies
got increasingly overcast, and the rumble of thunder got increasingly audible.
The second I saw my first streak of lightning illuminate the clouds above, I
convinced my Mom to retreat to the confines of the open-air (ceiling covered)
veranda inside the lobby that looks out over the beach. From there, we
witnessed a storm without the rain, as there were heavy winds accompanied by a
symphony of thunder and lightning.
After the storm passed, we headed out for dinner to Long
Beach Café (of course), where we ordered one repeat dish (the black pepper
squid). We doubled down on the black pepper, ordering Black Pepper King Prawns,
and then finally ordered a stingray, prepared in a similar fashion to the
seabass from yesterday. All three dishes were good which was no surprise. What
was was the fact that the two black pepper dishes didn’t really taste similar
at all. Both were good, but quite different. It was another good meal at the
Long Beach Café, which is about as perfect as a Hawker center could be.
 |
| This was at close to closing, so it was rather empty, but needless to say it is loudly filled during normal eating hours. |
To finish the day, I returned to the I Love U Café. Once again, I ordered a beer and a roti canai. I’m not one to change from a good thing. The only difference today is I was able to get the Wi-Fi to work. One of the hidden wonders of Southeast Asia is how many public places have Wi-Fi. Just like the US, the coffee shops have, but in Southeast Asia (and this includes Vietnam and Cambodia, poorer countries than Thailand and Malaysia), at least 75% of the restaurants I went to had free Wi-Fi. Many malls had it as well. It is truly impressive to see how pervasive Wi-Fi has become. None of these places charged extra for it. None of these places even flaunted it. The US has a long way to catch up in that respect.
I returned back to the hotel around 12:45, ready to call it
a night after another satisfying day in Batu Ferringhi. I will probably combine
Batu Ferringhi with Georgetown (the capital and actual major city on Penang
Island), and if I do Penang will most likely get a place in my Top-20 cities. I
failed to mention this, but Phnom Penh probably will as well. I don’t think
there are many better compliments I can give a city than saying that I did
close to the exact same thing two straight days and I would not have to be
convinced too hard to sign up for a third.
