Penang

I finally emerged from that hostel after a long parade of characters. My snot still looks like an alien life form but I feeeeeel GREAT! I took a few pictures in KL of the Petronas Towers (Petronas is like the Malaysian Exxon), and many many more of the monorail. If I hadn't been so ready to get somewhere (anywhere!) new, I would have ridden around on it for a day. But as it was I hopped on a bus to Penang.

I know I've mentioned buses once or twice, and I think I said something about Indonesia having the best buses in Southeast Asia, but that was back when I thought that Greyhound was more or less the standard. Not true. In fact, there are buses that have seats the size of armchairs. They're run by Konsortium in Malaysia. It's like the transportation gods are trying to make up for that hellish ride to Kanyakumari (still not there yet).

Anyway, I landed on the little island of Pulau Penang yesterday evening. Before I left home one of my world-traveling friends said "Penang is awesome." I remember reading about it in the Times Magazine (maybe?) and it sounded like a gem. What a place! I'm glad I didn't decide to skip it. Penang is (I think) the whole pulau, and George Town what everyone means when they say "Penang." My bus stopped outside of George Town and it was a bit of a hassle getting here, and I only got on the bus at all thanks to some kind students at USM. (I don't know what it stands for, University...Malaysia...) On the bus ride, I saw a Hindu temple, which was unexpected in this Muslim nation, and what I thought was Tamil writing! THEN, something momentous happened: the Lonely Planet was wrong. I kid you not. We call it "The Book" out here, and if you can't trust the Book, then what can you? For your reference, 100 Cintra Street is not a hostel. It's a souvenir shop, and it closes before 6. I found alternative accomodation at 75 Lodge. They're sponsoring this evening's update, so I can't complain.

Ok, back to the Tamil script. It turns out it was Tamil and that there's a really big population of South Indians from Tamil Nadu here. There's also a lot of Indonesians, though it seems most of them are from Sumatra and not Java, but I've seen a lot of batik fabric. The other populations are Malay and Chinese, mostly, though there are many others, and plenty of mixed. Like I saw a Chinese-looking man who did the Indian head-tock and spoke English with an Indian accent. The Babas and Nonyas, who are Malay-Chinese men and women, wear batik. I found out all this stuff in the Penang Museum, which gets five stars.

There are lots of other cool things about Penang. You can walk around it easily. It's a little like Pondicherry that way, and there are lots of old colonial buildings, too. Of course, since Pondicherry is in India, it's louder and scarier than Penang, which is kind of strangely silent. For all the stuff that's here to see, not to mention eat, there aren't tons of tourists. I guess it hasn't been "discovered" yet even though it's a World Heritage Town.

The food is just totally crazy. It makes me curious to see the Phillippines, which is the only other place I can think of that's such a mix. I ate rojak--fruits and vegetables covered in hot sweet sauce and peanuts. I also stopped in Little India for some nassi kandar, in a shop that said they had the best nassi kandar. I'm not sure which part was the kandar (nassi is rice), but I'm pretty sure they were right. After my first bite, I thought, WOW. The food in Indonesia AND Malaysia sucks compared to India. I had forgotten. India was delicious, if trying.

Oh, and then there's religion! I actually decided to venture into a mosque today. The men at the door waved me in. I was reading the rules on the signboard and I told them I thought I was impure. They told me it was ok, so who was I to argue? The younger guy actually gave me a really good tour, it was like being shown around the meetinghouse by a gung-ho Quaker. I liked it but I think I was a little obnoxious. I've been finding that I have real antipathy towards Muslim nations in some kind of moral way that I didn't have in the also-very-conservative India. It's interesting--I'm more than happy to cover my legs in Bangalore but out here I want to flaunt them. I think America maybe has brainwashed us a little. But then again...well, this could go on for ages, couldn't it?

There's so much more to say--the guy who founded this place is a fascinating character, and there's a lot of Chinese temples, and even a Burmese one an hour or so out of town--but this has gone on long enough and it's time for rojak, round two. Tomorrow I fly to Borneo.