We've been to a dozen countries now, and at each one, we’ve had to deal with different immigration and visa policies. Some like Tanzania’s, have been expensive, some, like India’s have been bewildering, and some, like Burundi’s have been frightening, but in every case, the red tape associated with visiting a new country has been a time consuming jumble of strange, seemingly arbitrary requirements. It takes a bit of patience and a lot of good humour to muddle through it all. Even after all this time on the road, each time we get to a new country, we spend a fair amount of time and energy trying to figure it all out. Thailand was no exception, but for once, all the red tape was good for more than just headaches, it actually lead us, in a roundabout way, to one of our favourite places on the trip to date: Penang Malaysia.
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| Bangkok train station |
Thailand's visa policy has its pros and cons; pro - free visas issued on arrival, con - visas issued for 30 days only. This means that if you want to visit for more than 30 days, you either have to pay a substantial fee for a visa extension at the immigration office in Bangkok or leave the country and reenter to get a new visa. While the logic of this system escapes me, time was running out on our visas, and we were still interested in visiting Thailand’s southern beaches, so we had to deal with the red tape in order to stay. In the end, we decided that leaving the country for a “visa run” as it is commonly called, was the better option as it was less expensive, and would give us a few days visiting a new place. Our choices for places to go were Vientiane in Laos, Siem Reap in Cambodia, somewhere in Burma, or Penang Malaysia. We had already been to Laos and Cambodia, and Burma was difficult to get to not to mention tricky given the current political climate there, so we decided on Penang. To be honest, we weren’t expecting much from Penang, it was more of a means to an end. Thankfully though, it ended up being a fantastic experience, a surprise highlight of the trip.
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| Train ride to Penang (take two) |
The most convenient way to get from Bangkok to Penang is the overnight train to Butterworth, then a short ferry ride to Georgetown, Penang’s main city. I love trains, so I’m happy with any chance to ride, but this one was particularly special for Colleen. She took this exact train years ago with her High School band when they toured Southeast Asia. It was difficult to imagine the sleeping car we were in filled with dozens of awkward teenage boys and girls, Colleen among them, giddy with the excitement of their adventure. It was great fun hearing Colleen reminisce about her trip and note some of the similarities and differences in the countryside we were seeing through the train‘s window. To revisit a part of her first experience with travel while on our big trip was a pretty unique experience.
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| Georgetown street before a storm |
It only got better when we arrived in Penang. Penang is an Island off Malaysia’s west coast, just south of the border with Thailand. It has a fascinating history. Indigenous Malay, colonial British, and Indian and Chinese immigrants have each left their mark, leading to a wonderful fusion of cultures unlike anywhere else we’ve been. Nowhere is this mix more evident than in the island’s main city and former colonial capital Georgetown, where we spent most of our time. While the British are long gone, their legacy lives on in (sometimes crumbling) colonial architecture and street names. Little India had its shops and teahouses, Chinatown had its temples and noodle restaurants, and on one street near the centre of town, we walked past a Hindu temple, a Buddhist shrine, a Mosque, and an Anglican church. A walk in Georgetown could take you past the sea with a view of the ferries taking people to and from the mainland, past old victorian mansions, and through colonnaded sidewalks with shops selling everything from motorcycle engines to fresh meat or vegetables. A walk around town was a feast for the senses. We even managed to be there (accidentally of course) for Chinese New Year (Year of the Rabbit in case you were wondering) and were able to take in all the festivities.
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| Hawker stand in Penang |
As great as all of the above may sound, it paled in comparison to the food. In addition to amazing Indian and Chinese food that we were more familiar with, there were local dishes I had never heard of. Dishes like laksa assam, nasi lemak, chee chong fun, koay teow, oyster omlettes, cendol, the list goes on, different ingredients, and flavours that were completely new to me, each more delicious than the next. For example, nasi lemak consisted of coconut rice with dried anchovies, shrimp in a spicy tamarind sauce with a chopped hard boiled egg all wrapped in a banana leaf and was usually served for breakfast – absolutely fantastic. Getting the food was just as fun as eating it. While you could eat at restaurants it was more fun to eat at food stalls in the street (called hawkers in Malaysia). Each stall specialized in one or two dishes that they sold for 3 or 4 ringgits (around 1 us dollar) and served in relatively small portions. Because the portions were small and the price low, the idea was to walk around town for an hour or so trying out different hawker specialties until satisfied, or in my case, ready to burst. The only bad part is that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find any of these dishes when we get back to North America. Oh well, it is better to have loved and lost…
I suppose we have the vagaries of the Thai visa system to thank for introducing us to Penang, because without it, we probably would have given it a miss. I wouldn’t say this makes up for all the visa headaches we’ve had in other countries, but it’s a start.
Michael
My brother’s apartment,
East Melbourne
Australia
