Saturday, April 21, 2012
Penang once again
We arrived outside Tanjung City marina to make the decision whether to tie up in the marina or should we go south and anchor in the Jerejak anchorage we had been at last year.
The location of the city marina is amazing but we had heard horror stories of currents and ferry wash creating hazards to boats. It seemed pretty benign and when we saw several boats we knew already tied up we made the decision to come in.
With many hands waiting to help us tie up it was easy and once you are secured in the berth the ferry wash was negligible.
The marina is silting and many of the berths are now too shallow to use. Apparently new owners are going to put a breakwater around the marina which will lend it to being one of the prime marinas in Malaysia.
One of our first chores was to find someone to heat seal a seam on our bimini and we were happy to find a great company who did it in a day. Other boats were having anchor chain re galvanised also in a day and it appeared that in this city where most of the businesses are run by Chinese the Malay phrase of “no can do” is unheard of.
We had explored most of the heritage sites when we were here last so took the time to get the feel of life in Penang.
We loved the city and the mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian provides a great atmosphere. English is spoken widely and everyone was incredibly helpful. Once again we were struck by the amazing tolerance of religions.
Everything happens right in the city and it is alive with people drying fish and other odd things on the so called “sidewalk”—these are really places to dry things, store motor bikes, chairs and enlarge store space forcing you to walk on the road—the case in most places we travel anyway.
The smell of curry’s and flowers in Little India contrasting with the drying fish in the Chinese areas was exotic.
We spent a lot of time rummaging around the little stores which are very narrow but deep and are piled with an amazing assortment of goods. You can have anything fixed and anything ordered and here in a day. Ken found someone to rewind his eyelets on his fishing rod for $4 each but when he needed to have a new clasp on his gold chain the only gold available here is 22 carat and was $60!! The Indians are the gold merchants and all of their wealth is kept in this way—ours is kept in a boat—hmm perhaps we should have picked gold.
Penang is renowned for food and we ate out most days—local Malay dishes are tasty and are around $1-$2 each. Street food is everywhere and it appears most people do not cook.
We joined Janet and Geoffrey off Pegasus who we have known for many years for several dinners. The night market allowed us to have sate, duck, sushi and waffles and ice cream for dessert and another evening was spent at a great Indian restaurant.
The surrounding areas have modern shopping malls and supermarkets stocking everything one may want—once again we were buying ham and bacon in the “non halal” area at one end of the store where you pay for your purchases and have them wrapped and sealed there to ensure no contamination of the halal products elsewhere.
Sadly once again it was time to move on and we paid our 5 day bill of $55 at the marina which included power and water and headed off south in the Straits of Malacca for the two days it will take us to get to Pangkor where we will join the East Malaysia Rally.
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