mansions! fishball lady! dead man's curve!

so much to tell. it's been too long, we know. sorry but sometimes you just don't want to (or can't) sit in front of a computer when you're on vacation.

we left ipoh (and the bugs) behind and headed to kuala kangsar. this is the royal city in the state of perak. bat (daddy) went to high school here. there is a giant, pristine mosque and the royal palace. we got coffee and breakfast at a "kopi tian", or chinese corner coffee shop that makes the best "poh piah" in all of malaysia (a bun filled with various meats or sweet beans. in nyc we call 'em pork buns). the royal family orders them by the truckload. from there we drove and drove to penang, an island off the northwest coast of malaysia. it is a wonderful place.

let's begin with our accommodations. the cheong fatt tze mansion is an historic building in georgetown, the main city on penang. it was built in the 1880's by cheong fatt tze, a man who made his fortune in tin mining. the floors are teak, the exterior walls are blue, there are art nouveau stained glass windows all over the place, wrought iron spiral staircases, and intricate tile work on the roof. we were so spoiled. we didn't want to leave. the building was our home base for a few days while we explored.


let's talk about the food. that's what we do the most. eat.

in little india we ate roti canai (pronounced cha-nai, a crepe-like bread that you dip into a special curry sauce), several other indian style breads like thosa (dosa in the states) and poori. we had briyani, a rice and meat dish with a different curry gravy which we had to eat with our hands. or, rather, our right hands only, as that is the muslim way. right = food. left = not food. we had the world's most thirst-quenching beverage: rose sirap with lime. just like you read: rose syrup with lime. swear to god, we were not thirsty after that for mad long. we seriously ate so much in penang that we'll just get to the main highlights. samosas. there is a guy on the corner of jalan king and jalan queen (jalan=street) that makes the best samosas of life. plus lots of other goodies. He has the cleanest, most well-displayed street food cart we’ve ever seen.

later that day (that’s right, we’re pigs) we went to the “most famous fish ball soup” restaurant. as soon as we walked in diane, the youngest member of our gang said “hi fishball lady!” to the nearest woman. it was cute, and the soup was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. light. tasty. mmmm. we promptly made our way to get nutmeg juice. what? nutmeg juice? That’s right. it's as good as it sounds and you wish you had some.

our amazing guide in penang was a woman named teresa who escaped her traditional arranged-marriage fate in india to travel and learn and finally settled in georgetown. she's big on preserving penang heritage and has herself restored a beautiful shophouse on armenian street. shophouses are typical of penang architecture, with a shop on the ground floor and living space on top. they are really cool buildings, made with ornamental ventilation windows and beautiful wooden doors and window shutters. very chinese. teresa took us to visit several “endangered trades” that operate out of shophouses. one of the most impressive is the coffee roaster. for real the smokiest room ever. traditional malay coffee is roasted in giant pans with margarine and sugar over an open wood fire. the workers all smoke cigarettes while they maintain the beans. we’re bringing some back for you. it’s intense.

we went to the mall. it was very noisy and there was a young boy riding an “exercise machine” called the i-gallop. google it. you'll understand why we were laughing so hard. we visited many many temples. the biggest and most opulent of which was the khoo klan temple. the khoo klan is perhaps the most powerful in penang and their property shows it. they own most of the blocks surrounding their temple. recently restored, it is a little overwhelming. statues, frescos, gold leaf, carvings, mosaic, incense, smiling buddhas, crying buddhas, reclining buddhas, it’s wild. there are a series of murals that explain the 24 examples of filial piety. one is told as a parable of a lactating woman whose mother-in-law is very ill. she breastfeeds her and not her own child. we were all, “oh. that’s real filial.”

we played candyland with diane. we sang a million songs, most of which were to the tune of ‘the 12 days of christmas’ (she’s five). we ate more. then we got in the car and drove to the cameron highlands. and we almost died on deadman’s curve. we’ll get to that. the cameron highlands are where all the tea and strawberries grow. we drove up switchback mountain roads surrounded by jungle trees and tea plantations until we were in the clouds, about 1800 meters above sea level. you can convert that yourself, we’ve switched to the metric system. it makes way more sense. we had tea and scones at a little mountain bungalow, took 85 thousand pictures of flowers (so many beautiful flowers, you can’t even believe it) and cuddled with the resident rooster, who behaves like the sweetest cat you’ve ever seen. for real. he purrs. a rooster.

now. this is the scary part. stacey, corey, mari and tara had to drive down the mountains. on the left side of the road, cause that’s how they do it. and the steering wheel is on the right. the “old” road down the mountain features the following attributes: hairpins, sheer cliffs, avalanches, rockslides, blind corners, slow buses and no guardrail. also, it was definitely raining really hard. so. stacey may have been driving a little bit fast for these conditions. maybe it was the car, which was a little bigger than the motorcycles racing around us unexpectedly. perhaps we aren’t used to the foreign driving on the left style. mari, tara and corey screamed continuously until, at last, one wheel went off the edge “just a little bit” and we erupted into full-scale panic. that was shortly followed by the following roadsign: !. yes. that's all. an exclamation point. as if re-iterating tara’s apt suggestion that “jesus set us that sign to remind us to go really slow”. so we pulled over and breathed deeply. poor stacey was shook, mostly from us screaming at her to slow down and “watch the left!! the left!!!”. corey took over and went .07 kilometers hour down the hill. at one point, we stopped completely to allow a bus to turn a corner and discovered a line of about 15 cars behind us. we let them pass too and carried on. slowly. when we finally made it down, we pumped the new justin timberlake album and hightailed it to the new year’s eve celebration under the twin petronas towers in kuala lumpur. new year’s was super chill and fun. total strangers hanging out and spraying each other with this weird foam that disappears (not like that silly string) in about 20 seconds and we even saw a little kid bike gang. they were super tough.

after a fun-filled morning-turned afternoon in the airport (they had to change a tire on our plane), we flew in to kota bharu, right near the thai border. Our pal rina’s mom and sister live here and they hooked us up with the beach barbecue (malay style, of course). We had the nicest evening ever. sitting on the porch of our bungalow, eating and talking and fending off a couple little cats that eventually won our hearts. except for “crazy”, the schizophrenic vampire kitten. we didn’t like him. he really didn’t like us and was very loud about it. khota baru is ruled by the opposition islamic party of malaysia and much more strict muslim law applies. the majority of the women here cover their heads. the government has tried, unsuccessfully, for years to impose syariah law. many native malay traditions and arts have been outlawed or dumbed down for the tourist trade and it is one of the poorest parts of malaysia, due to the lack of federal aid. however, rina’s family is wonderful. we have been treated so well and the people in kota bharu are some of the friendliest we’ve met.

we’re going to sleep now. tomorrow we fly back to kuala lumpur and then on to thailand. say word. xoxoxoox corey, mari and tara for mataco travels.