Sunday, March 24, 2013

RTW Trip: Day 26 & 27 (3/21-22) - Batu Ferringhi, Penang



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.

About Me

I am a man who will go by the moniker dmstorm22, or StormyD, but not really StormyD. I'll talk about sports, mainly football, sometimes TV, sometimes other random things, sometimes even bring out some lists (a lot, lot, lot of lists). Enjoy.