Penang

Another busy day doing all sorts of things and being hot :)

Breakfast was at 8am and this morning it was a thick Asian noodle soup - kecap manis-ey so I had my usual watermelon juice plus two scrambled eggs on toast. Lovely yellow eggs and a coffee (I think two spring rolls were in there too). I also spied some madeleines but ended up getting a bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce - only a few spoonfuls which was lovely.

Then as it was Ian's birthday we let him guide us as to what we were to do. So it was a walk to the Chowrasta market which is a local gig. Not very big but all the ususal stalls - fish, meat, poultry, veg, dried goods, spices, candied fruit. Along with the outdoors area - clothing, kitchen gadgets, plants, odds an sods etc. I managed to find things we needed ha! Plastic curry puff makers, metal funnel, plastic funnel, sarawak black peppercorns, and the blue Asian peelers for the girls.

Lots of noise, haggling, smells and chat, with people eating street food. Chinese, Malays and Muslims all intermingling. We felt very safe as we do in markets but we had masks on.

We doubled back to a batik place which was like an aladdin's cave but was owned by Indians, so lots of sparklies. The batik was crap and expensive so meh, but they did have some wonderful textiles. No dupattas to compare with what I've been able to buy online and bought in Nepal.

Then we headed to a wonderfully restored colonial building called the George Town Mansion. This place was derelict as little as 6 years ago and has been beautifully restored housing an interesting museum on Malay history and culture and artifacts and all the Victorian rooms that they liked.

Then the long trek to find the lunch place that's been around since 1906. Hmm yah the experience was part of it I suppose but it was fun. And hot.

Then the long trek to the Khoo Kangsi clanhouse which was beautiful
then the (potential) trek to the China Cafe (nope, we are going back to the hotel).

Then the long trek back to the Blue Mansion where Mick and I collapsed in the bar and skulled down a drink.

A quick swim then the Drinnans arrived and we had drinks out on our patio to the pool.

We decided to have dinner at one of the more renowned Nonya restaurants– near the one we went to the other night. It wasn’t very busy then and I know why it wasn’t busy tonight. Plus it was a bit on the expensive side compared to some of the places we’ve been eating in. I reckon it was gag worthy. Although fresh, the flavours either weren’t there or were horrible. The vegetables were a yuck raw mess of glass noodles and tough mushrooms, nil flavour. A beef rendang that tasted like nothing – no salt or that wonderful clingy, complex gravy; a sour coconut prawn and cashew curry (a teaspoon of the sauce was enough for me :/). A kapitan chicken which was OK and I must admit a pork belly and tofu number which was very nice. Oh and big fat spring rolls which tasted like a chicko roll.

I couldn’t wait to get out of there but we were caught out by this massive tropical rainstorm which was torrential and lasted for ages. I wasn’t keen on getting soaked so we held off until it was just rain. Back in our room it started to pour again – all the courtyard pools were filling up and we got some water in under our back door. The huge drum rolls of thunder were massive – very impressive. After all , Asia isn’t Asia without a torrential tropical downpour. I loved it.Read more