I visited Penang in Chinese New Year (CNY). Chinese New Year is the festival that gathers relatives together, dead and alive. A family portrait is usually a typical ritual of such events. In the temples the longest incense sticks I’ve ever seen in my life burned. In the temples everything that could be burnt was burnt.
My friend and I were in Penang to learn what CNY was about. We hired a moped and drove around the island. At dinner we stumbled across my first (of soon to be many) lion dances. The two boys in the lion costume climbed on to gymnastic platforms gliding and jumping from step to step. It was a delight to experience for the first time and according to a nearby Malay a bigger lion would arrive tomorrow.
In CNY time, lion dances seemed to happen everywhere and anytime. Usually without warning. I seemed to hear the clang and then the pandemonium of drums every time I stopped for a drink or turned a street corner.
{ L: “Usually without warning” to the tourists ;p haha – lion dances in Malaysia and Singapore are always a sign that some business owners have paid for their performances. These lion dancers would usually start a distance away, drawing crowds to the place(s) of business. Business owners, together with their family/friends/employees would have gotten the necessary props (lettuces and red packets etc) ready for the lion dance performances – which are blessings for great prosperity in the new year to come. So, if there are 10 shops in the same area who have engaged the lion dancers, then most likely, they would be going from shop to shop doing the same performances again and again. All for the sake of good fortune! }
The following morning we took the bike and with the wind in our helmet-less hair, we circumnavigated the island of Penang. We stopped at a cafe on the coast. The beach was road and debris. We chatted to a man on his way to work who gave us directions to a snake temple. After finishing some sticky rice with anchovies in a banana leaf we headed on our way. { L: is this Nasi Lemak? } The snake temple was a slight disappointment, the temple had little character but it did live up to its name and did have lots of snakes. Adjoined to the temple was a snake zoo with 3 caged monkeys (😔), random rabbits (jumping a bit too close to snakes 😬), chickens and some giant tortoises. I wondered if this is where the kids were sent whilst their parents were at temple.
The snakes were pretty vicious looking and they were everywhere. Some were in cages and some were slithering along the walls (be careful if you come here to pray).
The dangerous ones were in glass boxes. The spitting cobra watched me as I stared at it through the glass. As I moved my head, the snake’s eyes moved with me, until eventually it spat and lunged at me forward into the glass. In another glass tank a Burmese python killed a live mouse/rat. It locked its body around the poor creature and squeezed every last drop of its life. It was moving and powerful to see nature in action, with life disappear slowly as the mouse twitched its legs and give up its last bits of energy.
The snake keeper told me about how he kisses a King Cobra occasionally (it has a bite that can kill you in 15 minutes). He does this despite the fact that the nearest hospital where anti-venom was stocked was 45 minutes away. Some people just have a way with snakes… The snake zoo didn’t stock anti-venom. If a king cobra bites your arm or leg, you need to amputate to stand any chance of survival.
Away from the snakes, we drove on to some very quiet fishing villages. The houses and life seemed much more basic and fundamental than anything I’d seen in Malaysia. We later reached Batu Feringhi after a nice breezy drive through the hills where the beaches were nicer and there were several resorts. The beaches may have had the reputation of the best on the island but that wasn’t saying much.
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere we stopped off at a fish restaurant which was closed. There were young men there who worked there normally who were very hospitable. They gave us some beers from the fridge and we stopped and chatted. One was an international refugee from Burma. He couldn’t speak much English but his friendliness was obvious. They told us to enjoy the beach with its terrific view and a couple of swings which we did. A hammock hung further down the beach that I would have loved to use but that would have been pushing my luck.
On our return we were heavily sunburnt. We rushed to get ready and headed for New World Park to see yet another lion dance.
Having noticed the many rickshaws around Penang, we decided to take one for the short(ish) ride, at the bargain price of 15 Ringgit, however this decision was regretted moments after boarding as we ever so slowly moved towards our destination.
Our driver was 76 years old. As he huffed and puffed, the rickshaw got slower and slower. Convinced his life was in danger, we offered to finish the last half of the drive.
After some hesitance, he let me. I drove around the streets of Penang in a rickshaw with a 76 year old man cackling away, telling anyone on the streets who would look in disbelief at this sight that “I from London!” in an attempt at a cockney accent. Other rickshaw drivers laughed at their friend sitting in the back smiling away. For me, I wondered how a 76 year old could drive one of these things. The roads were busy and the acceleration of the rickshaw was so painfully slow that you couldn’t afford to stop. At a junction with no cars giving me an opening I had to close my eyes and pedal furiously into the oncoming traffic. I swung us round corners and edged away from overtaking cars. At one junction I almost crashed us into the side of a car. It was a lot of work for a twenty-something let alone a 76 year old man!
My trip to Penang ended on the main night of CNY. During the day the streets were empty but an air of excitement and anticipation lingered. As the night began, people filled the streets, the noise of drums, fireworks and firecrackers filled the air and lion dancers spontaneously danced in even the most remote spots.
However, I’m pretty sure no tourist in Penang that day could have said that they had driven a rickshaw. Driving an old man around Penang was a special travel moment for me that embodies what all travel should be about – sharing experiences with different people in different places. How fitting I got to share this on a day that brings people together. I think I was starting to understand CNY.
Someday, we will see the world 
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