Arriving at the Chagi airport at S'pore, I discovered that there was a humongous queue for taxis. At first I thought there was a taxi strike, then I realized that is an impossiblity since strike is almost unheard of in S'pore. Then it dawned on me that this is the Chinese New Year where most of the taxi drivers were on holidays. We managed to take advantage of a free shuttle service to the major hotels and hop on the MRT trains afterwards. I guess it's nice to be a semi-local and a frequent traveler. Otherwise, we would probably still be queuing for the taxi right now 8-)
CNY (Chinese New Year) is not a good time to visit most of the Asian countries. A friend of mine was looking forward to enjoy his CNY in Taipei and found out after he arrived that everything was closed for the week. Must have been a big disappointment 8-( After spending last year's CNY in S'pore, I decided to tag along with a M'sian friend to venture up north to visit Penang, M'sia. Instead of taking the easy way up, we decided to take a bus trip up so I, as a foreign observer, can see the rural area of M'sia from the "luxury" of a bus. But things didn't go exactly as planned. By the time we woke up, we were already in Butterworth. But the bus trip wasn't a total loss. One thing I did notice was that the toilet facility got progressively worse as you travel away from S'pore. I also discovered it's very easy to accumulate those heavy one M'sian Ringgit coins 8-)
My first impression of Penang was "why is that tall building sticks out like a sore thumb?" Well, maybe it's not that bad. But the Komtar seems to be very out of place to be in the middle of Georgetown. And why didn't they build the Penang bridge in a more convenient place? Like the shortest distance between the island and the mainland? Maybe they were just trying to up the construction cost so some people can benefit or trying to break the record for the world's longest... Ooopss.. I should be a JAFO instead making accusations 8-)
Order amidst chaos. Penang reminded me a lot of Taiwan. Only it's much worse 8-) Taxi drivers wouldn't use the meters. They usually hide the meter and have manual switch to decide when to pick up passengers. And there are plenty of those pirate taxis. For every taxi trip, you have to bargain for the price. Oh man, talk about bargaining whenever you go. Also, similar to Taipei, motorbike is king here. I speculate that it's the car drivers that let them get away with murder. I think if the car drivers were more aggressive, the bikers wouldn't be so nasty. Or maybe I just watched too many of those Mad Max films 8-) Another thing, IMHO, people shouldn't just pay for the international driver's license. They should first be tested in Penang and Taipei, one for each side of the road. Then be given a license to allow them to drive all over the world 8-) After Taipei and Penang, I finally have to admit that Boston is not the worst place to drive, not by a long shot 8-)
I did get a chance to drive in Penang. As a matter of fact, it was my first real driving experience on the different side of the road. Any major difficulties you asked? For one thing, it's hard to get adjusted to the extra half a car on your left side, especially during parallel parking (and you thought it was tough already) and lane switching to the left. I found little trouble staying to the left all the time, though. Maybe it was because the owner of the car was constantly on my back 8-) Someone did comment that my driving style was more suitable in KL or the States, but too aggressive in Penang. I, for one, are not going to let those obnoxious bikers dominate the roads 8-) I also heard something about if you hit someone on the street of Penang, you better run like hell because people will be chasing after you. I am not sure how true that is. But it reminded me of the LA riots and I wasn't going to stick around and find out.
The best combination for a tour is to have a tourist and a local guide. The tourist to make the local see things that he or she doesn't normal see. And the local to help out with any special needs that the tourist might have, such as language and food 8-) Things could get confusing if you don't have a local guide. For example, who would ever figure out that "Air" actually meant "Water" in Malay. And how would a tourist find a good food stall without getting sick and disgusted. There are supposedly a lot of good food stalls to eat in Penang but it all depends on how adventurous you are. Most good stalls don't look sanitarily pleasing. Some people even told me it's the "special" ingredient that make the food taste so good.
You can probably find tourist information on Penang in a good guide book. But there are a few things that they do not mention. Things like don't go visit during the dry season or you will miss some of the spectacular waterfalls (Well, according to the locals anyway.) Also the snake temple in the middle of the industrial area. We drove past massive factory complexes such as AMD, Siemens, National Semiconductors and found this little road leading to the temple. It's hard to imagine a popular tourist place in the middle of one of the biggest industrial parks in the world. No wonder there are only a few snakes left in the temple.
It's interesting to see the contrast between the two sides of Penang. On the east coast, it's heavily populated and industrialized. While on the west coast it's still pristine and tranquil. While I was in Penang, I rediscovered the fun and excitement of fire crackers and fire works. According to Chinese legend, "year" is a animal which people have to scare away with fire crackers. Once it hit midnight on CNY, the entire city of Georgetown lighted up with fire crackers. You can hear noise and see the action everywhere. In places like S'pore and Taipei, fireworkers have long been forbidden. I had a lot of fun with fire crackers when I was a kid. I think kids nowadays are missing some of the more interesting aspects of the Chinese culture. I especially miss collecting those red packets 8-) There are two schools of thought nowadays. One is that you stop collecting and have to start giving when you start to work. The other is you can collect the red packets as long as you are not married. Of course I prefer the latter one 8-)
My distant cousin who has stayed in Penang for over 2 months now complains that Penang is fairly boring place. The only real night life is around the northern tourist hotel district. He couldn't imagine why some people find S'pore boring. I think people will appreciate S'pore more if they have visited more undeveloped place such as Penang. I certainly did. Most S'poreans have taken the clean food stalls and the efficient public transportation system in S'pore for granted. I guess everything is relative. But now I am in S'pore, I do miss waking up to rooster's crow in the morning in Penang...
03/02/95
