Feb. 15 - 16, 2014

What a wonderful country.  We flew into Penang, Malaysia (pop. 704 k, 45 mi. long) where Sarah and Yeang picked us up.  Of course we expected the heat, but the high mountains were a surprise and the amazing amount of high rise building is incredible.  They are worried that a housing and commercial/residential building bubble will occur.  They drove us to lunch first at a wonderful restaurant in the mall.

Then to Ch'ng's house (pix).

  

We've been eating at the hawker stalls that Lye Pheng and Seng, (Yeang's parents) know well throughout the area as well as wonderful bakeries and restaurants.  The food is some of the best, and Penang is listed as a food destination by Lonely Planet.  I cannot pronounce most of the names of the dishes but plan to get a cookbook to try and make some of the recipes.  Many are sweet which I love.  At the open market there is dragon fruit, dhurian, 2 kinds of mango, palmelo, purple taro, vegetables and fruit I cannot name, fish stalls with only the weight listed for the whole fish since everyone recognizes fish, huge sides of beef, whole plucked chickens to show how fresh and to allow customers to name their own cut.  We're surrounded with smells and busyness.  We watch the preparations for the food in large hot woks and curbside washing of the dishes.

  White Coffee is their signature coffee.  The waiter puts sugar in the bottom, adds strong thick coffee poured on top, and blends in milk.  You can control the sweetness by how much you stir the coffee.  I loved it.  No doubt we are gaining weight as much of the activity is around meals.

 Our next day we visited their Buddhist temple to pay respects to Seng's (Yeang's father) brother who died about 100 days ago.  His widow was there and children.  Each ancestor can purchase a scroll that is left in the temple on the wall.  Incense is burned as homage to the spirit.  Everywhere there are small temples or places to burn incense and candles for the spirits. Fruit is left on the tables.

  Sean, Lye Pheng's brother, then guided us around the World Heritage Site of the Chinese and Indian sides of Chullia road Area 1.  We walked to the jetties where there are homes on the piers and fishing or small motor boats used as ferries for the bigger boats in the harbor. 

  The old architecture is trying to be preserved but it is quite difficult with the deterioration that occurs in tropical climates.  He showed us many of the trades and skills that are still performed by generations of Chinese like the cutting of signs to hang with Chinese letters or forging anchors, or art in the galleries.  Restaurants are everywhere with inexpensive food.  With the heat and inexpensive food available few people eat at home.

Yeang and Sarah drove us up the west side of the island to Ferelinggi.  We visited the butterfly farm where they have a huge butterfly area but also raise butterflies, chrysalises, and cocoons as another profit center.  They sort and hang them before they change into butterflies.  We ate lunch at a Muslim town near a mosque that was having Friday service, and we listened to the minaret blaring out Arabic words over the whole town.  A variety of colorfully dressed muslims rode by on bicycles to the mosque.

We watched the hand made batik clothes process at a batik store.  Amazingly simple but requires great skill with special tools.

Traffic is thick in the city and out of the city on the mountain roads that are dramatically twisty-turny.

  The Ch'ng parties are going to be Saturday night and Sunday night.  The pink and white pointed tent went up on the side lawn.  Most members of the family are flying in or live here.  We are learning all the family names.  One night when 14 members came over for desert I had to go up to bed early and Drew stayed up.  I was sad I hadn't met everyone until I came down the next morning and heard about all the women surrounding (flirting) with Drew, charmer that he is. We are having such a good time.  Temperatures are about 90 every day, little breeze and instead of wind chill they have heat feel of 105 degrees.  It's hot.

Feb. 18

Sean, Lye Peng's brother took us around to the Botanical Gardens and two of the large temples, lying down Buddha and standing Buddha.  We ate at lunch at an Indian restaurant drinking iced sweet lime tea.  When we came home we found Vivien, Lye Pheng's sister, and others preparing an amazing dinner, abalone, spareribs, fish, duck pate, Chinese sausage, vegetables,  and more.  Definitely will be making a trip to China town in Boston when I get home now that I sort of know what to buy.  Dinner was for 14 people.

Feb 19:  Wednesday our last day here we tried to pack up including some of Sarah and Yeang's gifts to bring back since they are on their scuba diving honeymoon.  We went to lunch and had pink, blue, green, orange, yellow foods and drinks.  Can't even tell you the names of the delicious cakes, meat pies, and vegetables.  More later.