Elusive Travels

My parents visited me in Singapore for a total of two weeks and rather than spend all that time in Singapore, we decided to visit Penang on one weekend and Yogyakarta on the other.  It was a fantastic experience visiting these two places, each unique and offering a lof in terms of sightseeing, food and culture. 

I'll start with Penang as that's where we went first.  We departed Singapore on a Friday around 7pm and landed in Penang at about 9.15 pm.  After a quick checkout we caught a shuttle bus to the centre of George Town  where we then rode a taxi costing 12 RMB to  Hotel Royal Penang which would serve as our accommodation for the next 3 nights. 

We quickly unpacked, freshened up and then hit the road in search of a place to eat. Most of the hawker places were closed and after stopping a couple to ask where we could eat at such a late hour, we were given directions to a  steamboat restaurant that was open till 5am.  It was just 5 mins away and upon arrival  I requested a table for three and we were given a menu to choose what we would like in the steamboat.  About half an hour later our food was on the table. We were served  a delicious combination of Tom Yam  in one half and Black chicken soup broth in the other.  Accompanied by with an assortment of various vegetables, fishcakes, fish slices, prawns, lobsters, chicken and pork, which we dipped into  the broth to cook. Minus the pork, everything else was scrumptious and filling.  Unfortunately, I didn't make a mental note of the restaurant's name.  But, it is well known and  almost anyone you ask on the street near the hotel would be able to tell you where it is.

The following morning, after a good night's sleep around 11am, we ventured out to Gurney Plaza by van, provided by the hotel. Gurney plaza is popular shopping mall located about 15-20mins from George Town bus station and about 25 mins from Hotel Royal Penang or is it less, I can't quite remember, in any case it's not that far.  As far as shopping malls go, well it's the same as any other place, frankly with the abundance of shopping malls in Singpore that are literally dotted everywhere, I wasn't too keen.  However, Mum thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the mall and I think Dad did so too.  After some time at Gurney we headed to the main streets of George Town, where we pretty much spent the whole day wondering through markets, bazaars, shops etc absorbing as much as we could about local life, watching people go about their business, bartering for clothes, merchandise etc. I think we must have walked for a good 2-3 hours and I must have taken close to several hundred photos.  With the evening approaching and feeling  very much hungry we decided to head back to Gurney as I wanted to visit the famous Gurney drive hawker centre. 

Located about 10 mins walk from Gurney Plaza,  Gurney drive hawker centre is a sprawling metropolis of food stalls, serving the finest assortment of south east asian cuisine you can hope to find anywhere. Myself being a foodie, decided to try as many of the dishes as I possibly could. First on the list was Assam Laksa, a fish based tamarind flavoured laksa, probably the best I've ever had, next on the list was Popiah a rice flour type spring roll filled with vegetable which I thought was ok, we then tried some Satay which was fantastic, a large plate of spicy Char Kway Teow and finally some spicy Rojak, which is a salad of fruits and vegetables garnished in a spicy, sweet shrimp based paste. Our stomachs now full and not able to ingest any more we decided to call it a day and make our way back to the hotel.  

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up at about 9am and after having breakfast at a hawker stall located behind the hotel, we caught a bus to the centre of George Town and then took another bus to Air Itam, our destination for the day was Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia.  Whilst the temple is a beautiful marriage of Chinese, Thai and Burmese architecture, I didn't feel transported back in time and I believe this is largely due to the temple being heavily commercialised with shops at every level. Would I go there again, probably not but do visit if you want to get a photo or two of its exterior that clearly shows the cultural assimilations I mentioned earlier.

After the Kok Lok Si tour, we headed towards Air Itam train station where we visited another temple, much to our dismay the temple was abandonded and it looked like it had not been visited for quite sometime. Feeling rather dissapointed we headed back towards the station and caught a bus back to George town. We spent some time here wondering the streets untill it was time to eat and what better place than Guerney drive hawker centre. This was our second vist and armed with a food guide and map I was determined to try as much I could. I'd already tried a few dishes on the previous visit, but there was more to try, this was our last night here we had to catch a late night flight to Indonesia.


Our place of stay in Yogyakarta was in the small towen of Pakualaman, where the streets are crowded with batik shops, markets, cyclists, horses and carts, cars and no smart phones in sight.

Renowned for its Javanese fine arts, music and batiks, our main purpose for visiting Yogyakarta was to go back in time to marvel at the architecture and engineering feats behind the world's largest buddhist monument at Borobudur. We booked a tour pacakge from the hotel and left rather early in the morning as we wanted to see the temple emerge from the mountains during sunrise, sadly it was monsoon season and the tour guides failed to inform us that it would be a waste of time and money. Feeling rather dissapointed and annoyed, we got back in to the van and continued the drive, we had already been on the road for 2 hours.

After purchasing ( or should be it enlisting ) a  tour guide, we enterd the grounds of Borobudur and what a marvel it was to gaze back in time at the largest Buddhist monument that had ever been built.   Though of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, it appeals to schools of Zen and Theravada buddhism, the whole complex is akin to a giant mural that tells the life story of the Buddha, most impressing though is i'ts complex architectural structure that uses an interlocking system to connect the pieces together, like a giant puzzle, the subject of which many books have been written about and is unfortunately beyond the scope of this post.   In total it took around 3 hours to explore the entire monument.

After Borobudur, we ventured a few kilometres away to visit the ancient pyramidesque temples of prambanan dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva each reprensenting Trimurti ( Creation, Preservation and Destruction).  Once again, the ruins serve as a testatament to the engineering marvels of ancient peoples. 

After 3 nights the holiday had to come to and end,  both Penang and Yogyakarta had offered us a  cultural, historic and  gastronomic holiday experience that has once again made me all the more appreciative of the world we live in.