Kuala Lumpur In Less Than 24 Hours

We checked into our rooms, which we were very pleased with.  I had booked us a Family Room, which turned out to be two identical rooms, each with a queen bed and private bathroom, conjoined by a door in the middle.  It was cute, clean, and comfortable.  We were only spending a night, and this was perfect.

We settled in and decided the most convenient place to find food would be the Berjaya Times Square mall.  I think it might have been close to 4 PM, and we hadn't had anything to eat since we'd snacked on the train.  We went inside to look at our options when we ran into an Asian family of five with luggage looking just as lost as we did about an hour ago.  See, this mall is truly confusing!  And all the confusion that we had gone through just to get to our hotel however, was not behind us.  Like I said, this shopping center is 10 stories high.  We walked around and saw a ton of shoe stores, but no food and no directory.  My mom asked a young woman working a cell phone kiosk where all the food was, and she recommended we go to the fifth level.  So we went up one escalator after another until we reached the fifth floor to find what?  More shoe stores, and not a single food establishment.  I'm pretty sure she heard us right, and that we heard her say the fifth level.  Or maybe we were just blind and way too tired to circle the floor for food.  Was this to be obstacle #3?  The choice was now do we continue to go up, or go down to the first floor where the information desk is?  We decided on the latter, found a directory, whose Lower Ground Floor appealed to us, and made our way there.

The Berjaya Times Square mall still remains a mystery to me.

It wasn't long before we plopped ourselves onto a cozy, red booth at a place called Sweet Chat Cafe.  They had an eclectic menu, a cozy vibe, and we wanted nothing more than to relax and enjoy our first meal in KL.  The young lady who served us wasn't the friendliest, and her Malay was very hard to understand.  Not only did she speak incredibly fast, but she had a slight Indian accent.  In fact, her speech reminded me of the way Trinidadians speak from when I worked in Trinidad in 2007 (that's another story for another day), a mix of Creole and Hindi fused together to produce Malay -- it's hard to explain; you just have to hear it.  Anyway, we ordered our food and a round of exotic iced drinks, which for the most part was very tasty.

Smoked curry beef noodles

Malaysian fried rice with chicken

Hands down, the best dish of the night: nasi kunyit, or Indonesian rice with coconut & turmeric served with the most delicious chicken cconut curry.

Sahara went with a non-traditional plate of scones, bread & jam, and rice ball soup. This was a dessert shop after all.

A rice ball filled with peanut -- this was fun to eat!

A mango slush with coconut & black grass jelly and 'Blue Ocean,' which tasted like sprite and peach

While we ate, we talked about the things we wanted to see afterwards.  On the itinerary I put together for Kuala Lumpur, I had listed the following attractions: See Little India and the Petronas Towers, go up the KL Tower for views of the city, eat at Jalan Alor, KL's famous street food, shop at Central Market for batik & handicrafts, see Masjid Jamek, KL's oldest mosque, visit Petaling St. in Chinatown and the brand new shopping center, Pavilion, that just opened.  Because time was limited, we only ended up visiting the Jamek Mosque and the government buildings near it, saw the Petronas Towers and stopped by the Suria KLCC mall at the base of the Twin Towers.

Somewhere along the course of today's confusion we somehow acquired a KL City Map, which is absolutely necessary whether you're a first-timer or a repeat visitor to KL.  It has a list of all the tourist attractions, shopping centers, and 3-star and above hotels, as well as 2-star and below hotels.  It tells you where all the bus terminals are and it's got a huge, colorful diagram of where everything is located in the city.  It even breaks down the transit rail system, which we all found a bit confusing.  This map would have been so useful when we were looking for our hotel. 

We love anything to do with architecture so we decided to start our exploration of KL with a visit to the Jamek Mosque and save the Petronas Towers for last when it's all lit up at night.  Because tickets to the Towers' Skybridge are given out every day at 830 AM on a first come first serve basis, there was no rush in getting to the Towers.  We were content with the idea of admiring the Towers from below.

The Jamek Mosque is conveniently labeled on the map as a station on the Kelana Jaya (formerly Putra LRT) Line by the same name, so we got back on the Monorail at Imbi, switched onto the Ampang Line at Hang Tuah and took it to Masjid Jamek where both the LRT and Ampang Lines meet.  It was only 3 stops, and cost very little to ride; though all the trains were very congested.  It was early evening, and many people were trying to get home from work.  The Masjid Jamek station is underground.  Once you exit the station, the mosque is right across the street.  However, we had to make our way through a busy food market before we reached the photo spot below.

Masjid Jamek, KL's oldest mosque

Great self-timer shot, courtesy of Sahara

We then walked our way back through the busy food market to get closer to the mosque, but were stopped short by a security officer who stood guarding the entrance to the mosque.  He literally ran over to us while waving his arms shouting, "No!  No!  No!  Tidak boleh masuk," which translates to "You cannot enter."  Because we weren't dressed appropriately, we understood and just told him, "Iya Pak, enggak apa-apa.  Kita hanya mau ambil foto," or "No problem, Sir, we just want to take some pictures."  He calmed down and allowed us to take this one shot (above).  Though the mosque has a pretty neat Moorish design, it is rather dirty and tired-looking.  I understand it's more than 100 years old, but still ... it could use a little cleaning. 

Near the mosque is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, a Moorish-designed government building that houses other government departments.

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

You may notice all the buildings in KL are sporting the country flag.  In fact, everywhere we looked in KL had the country flag up, and that's because Malaysia's Independence Day was just days away, on August 31, which celebrates Malaysia's 55th year of freedom from the Brits. 

We then walked across the street to a water fountain that caught our eye.

 

You can see the KL Tower & the Petronas Towers behind me.

We continued walking passing Merdeka Square and the Royal Selangor Club.  Merdeka Square is where the Malayan flag was hoisted for the first time at midnight on August 31, 1957, and has thus been the site of the annual National Day Parade ever since.

Merdeka Square & the Royal Selangor Club

From Masjid Jamek, we took the Kelana Jaya Line all the way to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center), whose station is also underground.  You walk up a long stairwell and the moment you emerge from underneath and look up, you can't help but be completely spellbound by the ginormous, brightly lit towers above you.  It is spectacular.  We sat outside and stared at it in silence.  This is Kuala Lumpur's beloved icon.  Everything you want to know about the Petronas Towers is right here.

The world's tallest twin towers

Imagine working at an office here every day.

The KL Tower

Above is the Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower, or as the locals call it, the KL Tower.  It's a telecommunication tower home to the highest viewpoint in KL with an antenna that's 1,381 feet tall .  It has over 2,050 steps, where races to the top are held annually, and a revolving restaurant with a birds-eye view of the bustling city below.  Click here for the views.  How many rooftop pools do you see?  We didn't get the chance to go up the KL Tower, but when I return to Kuala Lumpur, it will definitely be on my list of things to do, along with all the other things I didn't get to!  It's almost like going to Paris and not up the Eiffel Tower.  It's something that I think one should do at least once in their life. 

We ended the night with some boba (of course!) from the mall, Suria KLCC, nearby.  This mall is pretty high-end shopping with luxury designer labels like Chanel, Prada, Gucci, etc. ... we skipped the shopping and went directly to the food court, where we reflected on today's highs and lows. 

Suria KLCC Mall

Getting home was quite an adventure.  We thought we could take the Kelana Jaya Line from KLCC to the Dang Wangi station, where we'd switch lines and hop onto the KL Monorail, which would take us home to Imbi.  We had paid for tickets all the way back to Imbi from KLCC.  When we implemented the route we thought we could take as I had just explained above, we were denied an exit at Dang Wangi station.  In other words, the token security machine upon exiting the station beeped out loud when we tried to scan our tokens through.  Normally if you want to hop from one train line to another, you just scan your tokens, exit, get on your connecting train, then ultimately deposit the tokens at your last point of exit.  It didn't work this way at Dang Wangi.  It wanted us to deposit the tokens.  But had we done that, we would have had to pay for additional tickets to Imbi, which we already paid for.  We held on to our tokens, asked the ticket agent behind the booth what the problem was, and could not understand a word she said.  It just didn't make any sense, so we were temporarily stranded at Dang Wangi station.  Why couldn't we switch over to the KL Monorail?  Dang Wangi connects to the KL Monorail.  We stood there and thought for a minute.  Great, this was obstacle #4. 

The only other solution was to continue down the Kelana Jaya Line all the way back to Masjid Jamek where we were earlier, change trains there by hopping onto the Ampang Line, get off at Hang Tuah, then hop the KL Monorail back to Imbi.  Essentially, this route is just going backyards from the way we came today.  Although this route sounds more complex, at the end of the day both routes had a total of 6 stops.  The route we wanted to take was more of a zig-zag, while the route the trains allowed was more of an open triangle.  It all worked out.  Our tokens were scanned and welcomed at Masjid Jamek as well as at Hang Tuah.  We were reluctant at first to approach the security exits but when they didn't sound, we knew we were in the clear.  Just one more stop till we were home!  And needless to say we made it back to Imbi where we deposited our tokens, and walked back to our hotel where we slept soundly.  Tomorrow, at 2 PM we will be on the ground in Indonesia.  Check back for stories from the Spice Islands! 

 

A Little Trouble in Kuala Lumpur

All right.  We're off the train.  We've got our bags.  Now, where's the exit.  The station was awfully dark down there.  When in doubt, follow the people, who brought us upstairs.  Were there escalators going up?  Of course not.  I believe there were only escalators going down.  And when you need an escalator to go down, you'll find one that goes up.  In Indonesian we say, 'itu la hidup' or such is life.  So we hauled our luggage up the stairs one step at a time.  The first thing we needed to do was find the facilities, which is never a pleasant experience, unless you're at the Terminal 21 Mall in Bangkok, where the restrooms are something else.  Then we found a currency exchange counter on the Main Concourse where we traded US dollars for more Malaysian Ringgit.  Then to the Monorail Line, which I didn't see any signs for.  KL Sentral is a very big station, and to be honest with you we didn't spend much time looking around in it.  We just wanted to get to our hotel.  I asked a security officer how to get to the Monorail, and he said to go down two levels, continue straight and I would see signs for the Monorail.  So we did just that.  But man, was this a journey within itself!

It's all a blur to me now, but I remember we had to walk along a very long, narrow, dirt pathway in a dark tunnel that led us to a covered pathway outside.  There were a few but very small signs that said, 'KL Monorail ---->' which we followed.  But imagine walking this, luggage in tow with a bunch of people walking towards you while it's raining!  Here we were sweating and dragging our luggage through muddy puddles, struggling to reach this damned Monorail.  At the end of it all, we still hadn't reached it but found ourselves at an intersection.  It was raining very hard by then and somehow, some way we made it across the street still confused as ever.  Where was this train?  I stopped and asked three more people, and they all indicated it was just a few hundred feet more to my left.  Seriously?  We trudged forward and finally arrived at the Monorail station.  Interestingly there were NO signs.  So this was obstacle #1.  And yes, we had to trudge up more stairs to access the train.  >___<

It only cost us RM 1.60, or about 50-cents USD per person.  Waiting for the train to arrive however, reminded me of waiting in line for a popular ride in Disneyland -- there were so many people, and even more once we got inside the Monorail.  We were shoulder to shoulder against strangers and completely surrounded by high schoolers clad in their navy blue and white uniforms.  Good thing we didn't have to go far to get to our stop at Imbi.

The Monorail stop shot us out at a foot-bridge that was connected to a huge shopping center called Berjaya Times Square, which I didn't know at the time, but is Malaysia's largest building with 7.5 million square feet of space.

Berjaya Times Square Complex

I knew that our hotel was located next to the mall, behind it actually, and I knew what street it was on, but I failed to find out ahead of time just how exactly we were going to get there.  This is a big tour director no-no.  It sounds silly, I know.  But this was an enormous 10-story shopping center and we all seriously did not know where to go.  We might have been on the second or third level, and here we were with our luggage literally walking in circles trying to find an information desk, an exit, a knowledgeable person, anything.  We felt silly as hell wandering this labyrinth of a mall with our bags and I'm pretty sure we looked very funny.  Finally, an information desk whose clerk I must have visited three times because we were so confused!  We then exited the mall, turned left, passed a gorgeous, luxury hotel of the same name, and then came to a stop to think.  Wait.  Do we turn left or right?  What did the info guy say?  Where is Lorong 1/77A?  Where are all the street signs?  What good is a street name when there aren't any street signs?  Where are we?  Are we close?  Where is a map when I need one?  I couldn't believe how difficult this was.  I felt so stupid.  Clearly, this was obstacle #2.

I was pretty flustered by this point, but no one was more frustrated than my mom, who demanded we take a cab.  I told her it was way too close to take a cab, it would be so silly.  But I went up to the cab stand and asked anyway, and the guy looked at me as if I were ridiculous, "What?  You don't need a cab.  You can walk there.  Just go behind the mall this way." 

We went past the cab stand, turned left, then left again down a street that looked exactly like a photo of the hotel I remember seeing on www.tripadvisor.com.  I kept yelling, "This is it!  This is it!  I see it, it's over there!"  Boy was I so relieved.  We all were.  We were soaked, exhausted, and hungry.  FINALLY, we made it to our home for the night.  I look back now and think, geez, why didn't I just call the hotel and ask?  What a dummy.  What a whirlwind.  More to come from KL!

Classic Inn Entrance

Breakfast/Lounge area

I loved these artsy chairs.

Train #2: Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur

One of my readers sent me an e-mail that said, "You left your readers on Penang, and although that brings nice memories back to me, please keep on writing.  I don't want to end up on the island...but travel on."

So sorry to keep you guys stranded on Penang!  Have you had enough of roti canai?  I've been preoccupied with job-hunting this past week, so I do apologize for the slight travel delay.  But with everything in life, we all must move on.  With that said, let's get back on the road and continue by train to Kuala Lumpur!

We had to rise very early the next day.  And I'm talking about 4:30 AM.  We were four women sharing one bathroom, and this wasn't any ordinary bathroom, not by Western standards anyway.  This was a wet room shower, which is a very commonplace thing throughout Asia.  You can see why no two people would want to share bathroom space.  You know, one showers while one brushes her teeth?  That didn't work here.

We had an 8 o'clock train to catch, and I wanted to be sure we were all up early to get some breakfast and hop on the free CAT shuttle that would take us back to the ferry terminal.  The shuttle begins running at 6 AM.  Breakfast was included in the hotel rate, but unfortunately for us it wasn't available until 7 AM, and I wanted to leave well before 7 AM.  Fortunately there was a 24-hour diner right across from the hotel that serves all the Malaysian specialties, so that was where we ate.  At 530 AM there was only one other patron.  We ordered two roti canai (remember this could be eaten as breakfast or a snack), two plates of nasi lemak, a traditional Malaysian dish of coconut rice, anchovies, peanuts, egg, and sambal belacan, a red chili-based shrimp paste sauce, and a round of iced pulled Indian milk tea.  Make sure you say 'teh dingin,' or 'teh sama es' (iced tea); otherwise your tea will come hot.  Never fails.

Nasi lemak

Roti canai

The food was quick, good, and as expected, cheap at only RM 11.60, or $3.72 USD.  Seriously, where do you get food at these prices?!

At 6 AM when we returned to the hotel to grab our luggage, my family told me they did NOT want to take the ferry back to the train station.  The reason being?  We had this one heavy, bulky piece of rolling luggage filled with gifts for our Indonesian relatives that we've all been carrying around since Bangkok.  It was literally filled beyond its capacity, and such a drag to handle.  We were all annoyed with it, but I didn't realize just how annoyed my family was.  My sisters especially were dreading having to go through that convoluted mess of a walkway -- up the stairs, down the stairs, to the right, to the left, up more stairs, down the stairs -- from the ferry terminal back to the Butterworth train station.  It was physically demanding with all the luggage we had.  I tried to assure them that we could do it one more time.  That all we needed to do was get back on that shuttle, take the 15-minute ferry across the Strait to the mainland and walk the extra 15 minutes to the train station.  We've already paid for the ferry ticket to get to Penang, which includes the ride back to Butterworth.  But the decision was final.  My family said, "No.  We're going to take a cab to the station."

You should have seen the hotel clerk's face when we told him we'd like a cab to the Butterworth train station.  He looked at us as if we were crazy, and said in Malay that no one takes a cab back to the station.  It was unheard of.  Everyone takes the ferry.  We pressed on anyway and told him because of our luggage situation we thought it would be more convenient if we booked a cab.  His response, "There is no cab in Georgetown out this early."  OK, that may be, so our response?  "Sir, can you call a cab for us?" 

The middle-aged hotel clerk became annoyed at what seemed to him a ridiculous request.  But he called anyway, and tried to negotiate a deal for us.  Apparently not all cabs run on meters in Penang like they're supposed to.  You must negotiate the fare before you climb in, or settle for a fixed price to your destination.  In our case the hotel clerk ended up getting us a cab for RM 90.  That's about $30 USD, money I really didn't want to spend when we could have gotten to the station gratis.

Much to my chagrin, the cab showed up at 7 AM and off we went.  I wasn't sure how far the train station was from central Georgetown, but I knew that we had to cross the Penang Bridge to get there.  Traffic was steady, but after 20 minutes into the ride I was beginning to feel anxious.  The printed train tickets said to be at the station 30 minutes before departure.  It was now 720 AM and we weren't even half-way across the bridge, which by the way, is almost as long as the San Francisco Bay Bridge at 8.4 miles.  The beautiful sunrise, however, briefly took my mind off my worries.

The Penang Bridge

Gorgeous sunrise, something we don't catch too often

I couldn't take my eyes off the sun and the water.  There was a peacefulness to it.  The peace, however, was interrupted when I started to notice our driver taking up two lanes at a time.  The guy never changed lanes; he just drove in between them.  I was seated up front and kept looking back at my family to see if they had noticed.  Both my sisters had their eyes closed, and my mom didn't say anything.  I didn't either, but his driving made me nervous.  I mean, I was once a driving instructor.  I can't help if I notice mistakes on the road.  Interestingly no one honked their horns in rage like they do in Indonesia.  Maybe it was normal to ride two lanes here?  No.  I didn't see anyone else doing it.  Perhaps it was too early in the day to get all worked up about some silly man who couldn't decide which lane he wanted. 

I looked down at my watch.  It was now 730 AM.  So much for being at the station 30 minutes prior to departure.  At that point I figured what the hell.  This is Southeast Asia.  Hardly anyone or anything leaves on time.  I'm on an island.  Relax Dewi.  But still ... it's my nature to be early.  Our driver asked what time our train was scheduled to leave.  I told him 8 AM.  He then decided to take a short-cut that essentially resulted in a dead-end.  Not literally, but the route was closed off by motorcycle cops that were standing there waving off traffic for some unknown reason.  We had to turn around along with everyone else who decided to take the same road.  Why couldn't they put up signs 200 hundred feet away indicating such closure?  Oh yeah, this is Southeast Asia.  By this point I was silently freaking out and thought, what if we miss our train?  I didn't know when the next train to Kuala Lumpur would be.  I was counting on an 8 AM departure and the thought of taking another train, IF there was another train on this day, didn't even cross my mind in my research.  This is why you always have to have a Plan B. 

THANKFULLY, we made it to the train station with 20 minutes to spare.  Whew!  This was close.  We thanked the driver, paid him his RM 90 rate, added tip, and dashed into the station.  The train was there and people were already boarding.  I confirmed with the ticket agent that this was the train to Kuala Lumpur, and we hopped on to find our seats.

The train was old, much older than the one we took from Bangkok.  The seats were worn, cushioned seats like those on an airplane with not much leg-room.  At least we were all seated together in one row and the seats reclined.  The storage was on a shelf above your head.  We put the big, heavy rolling bag at the very front of the coach where there was room.  And the restroom?  Another squat toilet, of course and gross as usual.  It was a 6-hour trip.  I prayed I didn't have to go.  Interestingly the only modern thing on the train was a SAMSUNG flat-screen TV at the front of the coach, which remained off the entire ride.  There was also AC, which I made sure we got by booking Superior class.  Each ticket cost RM 34, or about $11 USD per person.  We really couldn't complain.  There weren't many people on this early train -- at least in our coach anyway, there were plenty of empty seats.  But with stops along the way, it was bound to get full.

My sisters on the Express train to KL

$11 USD per person for a 6-hour trip - not bad

So I was wrong.  Things do leave on time here because the train left at 8 AM on the dot.  As usual we passed a lot of green open land; small rural villages; houses big and small; and men and women on their scooters while kids played outside their homes.  It was a rather dull train ride.  No one came aboard to sell any snacks.  I can't even remember if there was a dining cart on this train.  I think there was but none of us got up to find it.  After all, it was still Ramadan.  Many Muslims were fasting.  We just relied on the few snacks we had left in our bags to tie us over until we arrived in KL.  We all tried to sleep but only my mom succeeded.  And within an hour into the trip, people started to get up and use the facilities ... the constant opening of the toilet doors caused an unpleasant odor in the coach.  It got to a point where it smelled so bad, Gigi and my mom used eye masks to cover their nose!

Mom and me

Gigi was hilarious -- it stunk so bad it was funny.

The trip seemed to drag on forever.  Sahara kept asking me how much longer, how much farther.  I kept watching the time and when it was almost 2 PM I told her we were close.  We were scheduled to arrive in KL at 206 PM, and when 206 PM came and went and we didn't stop, I too wondered how much farther?

We were all briefly entertained by the cutest toddler who sat three or four rows in front of us.  She was traveling with her mom and three older siblings, but kept leaving them to sit in the empty seats in front of Sahara and Gigi.  Every seat had a storage pouch that contained a plastic puke bag, which the little girl found fascinating.  She grabbed all the plastic bags she could find and brought them back to her seat in front of Sahara where she began to stuff one bag into another until it became one big ball of plastic bags.  She had such a determined look on her face, she was on a mission.  She then stood up on her seat to show Sahara what she had accomplished, and handed Sahara one plastic bag after another.  It was hilarious.

The little girl then left only to come back to her newfound seat, this time with a brand new plastic bag in one hand and a juice box in the other.  Instead of drinking from her juice box, she decided to pour the juice into the plastic bag.  She spilled some on her dress and made quite a mess on the seat, but that didn't seem to faze her.  When she finished pouring out the entire box, she held up the plastic bag once again to hand over to Sahara.  My mom and I watched this little girl the entire time, it was so funny we couldn't stop laughing.  Sahara of course, did not take the bag now filled with juice, so the toddler brought it to her mother.  The next thing we heard was scolding in Malay, a few slaps, and a toddler's cry.  Clearly her mother didn't find this funny. 

Eventually we left all the green landscape behind for a modern city.  I saw skyscrapers and luxury high-rise apartments, a Starbucks as well as shopping centers.  I even saw the KL Tower and knew this was it.  We have finally arrived at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station.  It was now close to 230 PM.  As you can imagine we were all very relieved to get off the stinky train, stretch our legs, use the facilities, get some cash, and some food.

The challenge, however, was to now find the Monorail Line to get to our hotel, which unfortunately wasn't as easy as I thought.  This marked the beginning of many obstacles to come.  Stayed tuned for the next post! 

KL Sentral Station

Thumbs-up to Malaysian Roti Canai!

The roti canai that I know and am accustomed to eating is a round Indian-influenced flat-bread made with butter and topped with sugar.  As a kid, I remember we would order two or three of these to go and they would come out wrapped in a banana leaf, which was wrapped with newspaper.  You'd undo the wrapping to find one hot, delicious helping of fluffy, soft, melt-in-your-mouth, buttery bread with sugar on top.  Mmm ... mmm.  

Roti canai Indonesia-style (with sugar)

Roti canai can be eaten with utensils or just your hands.

The Malaysian version, however, is different in that it's served with dhal, or lentil curry.  (It can be served with any kind of curry, really).  There is no sugar.  And it can be consumed for either breakfast or a late night snack.

I decided we couldn't leave Penang without trying their roti canai so mom and I bid Sahara & Gigi good night (they were exhausted from today's adventure) and asked a few locals which roti canai stall is their favorite.  Amazingly the answers varied.  People sell roti canai all over Penang.  How do you know which one is good?  I guess you just have to be brave and try one.  We decided to stop by one on Penang Road that had a lot of people in it.  That's always a good sign, right?  Sold by Indians, as many of these stalls are, we went up to them and requested one roti canai and one martabak telur along with two teh tarik, iced Indian pulled milk tea.  We then plopped ourselves down on a couple of plastic stools at a table al fresco.  It was a beautiful night with lots of people out at 10 PM. 

Five minutes later our food came out, and we couldn't wait to dig in.

Roti canai, top right corner and martabak telur, bottom left corner

I dove right into the roti canai first.  The roti, or bread was just as I remembered it from my childhood days.  Slightly crispy on the outside, but fluffy on the inside.  I broke a piece off and dipped it into the dhal, which was flavored with onion, garlic, turmeric, cumin, and red chili pepper.  It was delicious!  Some people might find the dhal a bit spicy, but I thought it was perfect.  The martabak telur, on the other hand, was fair.  I think it could have used a little more seasoning, but pairing it with its own bowl of dhal helped zest it up.  A side dish of raw red onions was also available to add more flavor if desired.  I'm not a fan of raw onions, so I didn't touch it.  The best part of this whole meal?  It cost 7.60 Ringgit, only $2.50 USD.  Love it.  :)

The couple next to us kept looking over at us.  Finally, my mom said hello and the young man said they couldn't help but admire our food.  We explained what it was, and got into talking about food in general and their experiences in Penang so far.  We learned that they're from New Orleans and were vacationing in Malaysia for one month.  A very friendly couple, and it was nice to run into fellow Americans.  Come to think of it, they were the only Americans that we had the pleasure of meeting this entire trip.  Hmm! 

A Stroll Through Georgetown

Because we only had one day in Penang, I wanted to make the best of our time.  I had three things I most definitely wanted to do in Georgetown, and those were: 1) see Kek Lok Si Temple, 2) see Masjid Kapitan Keling, and 3) have roti canai.  We ended up doing two of these things.  (See roti canai on the next post.)

After lunch at Ho Ping Cafe, we decided to go find Kek Lok Si Temple, apparently the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.  C'mon, who would not want to see this?

With a colorfully detailed map of Georgetown in our grasp, we were excited to go find it.  Unfortunately many of the streets were not labeled.  What good is a map when you don't know what street you're on?  Hmm ... this challenge reminded me of our getting lost on the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica in 2010.  Not so much fun when you're trying to get somewhere.  We stopped and asked many locals along the way, some of whom asked other locals, and ALL of them gave us conflicting advice, in Malay of course.  The following is the English translation: 

"Oh yes, just keep going straight.  Straight and straight and straight until you get to ______, turn left, go up three blocks, then turn left on _______ and there it is.  But just keep going straight and straight and straight."

"No, no, you can't walk there.  Too far.  You must take taxi."

"Yes, you walk there.  Just go straight and straight and straight until you get to _______, turn right, go down two blocks, then turn right on _______, and there it is.  But just keep straight and straight and straight."

"No!  Impossible to walk.  Take taxi.  I tell you take taxi!"

Seriously??  Do these people really live here?  Why did this have to be so confusing?  It was right there on the map.  It looked like a reasonable distance, yet here we were walking in circles.  Perhaps it was all a matter of opinion.  What may be close to some people may be far for others?  We finally gave it up and decided to look for Masjid Kapitan Keling, the largest historic mosque in Georgetown.  It took us awhile to find it, but with perseverance we found it.  It was worth the exercise.

We didn't go in, but ran into a couple from Amsterdam who asked if tourists could enter.  Yes, but you'll have to cover up with robes they have available.  Some places loan it for free; others ask for a small fee.

We then found ourselves in Little India ...

Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Penang

The interior of Sri Mahamariamman Temple

Penang's "tuk tuk"

A food festival!

Mmm ... samosas!

A cute, little girl

And took up rest at a pretty spot known as the Esplanade, a patch of green in the northern corner of the island.  Had we more time, I would have loved to do a walking tour of the area.  At least we got to see the Town Hall, City Hall, and the water.

The Padang Esplanade

City Hall

Cute telephone booth

A view of the North Straits, and a tiny slice of beach

My beautiful family and me

Keep reading for what I thought of Malaysia's roti canai ...