Photos: http://princeton.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057798&l=c5bb9&id=1101094
After the cool, rainy climate of the Cameron Highlands, I was ready for the real Southeast Asia, so I caught a bus from Tanah Rata to Ipoh, and then from Ipoh to Lumut, the jumping off point for Pulau Pangkor. I’d heard good things about the island from some Brits in the Cameron Highlands—they said it was quite beautiful, and far less touristy than the islands in southern Thailand. I hadn’t been to any of the islands in southern Thailand yet, so it was hard for me to judge the comparison, although I’d later find out that Disney World is less touristy than most of the islands in southern Thailand. So, in the end, the Brits weren’t saying that much.
Nevertheless, Pulau Pangkor fit perfectly for me—it was hot, it was sunny, I could go swimming, and I could be on the beach by early afternoon if I caught the first bus from Tanah Rata. So at 8am, after a quick breakfast of roti and sugary tea, I set off.
The bus and ferry connections were surprisingly easy, and by 1pm I had checked into a bungalow and was headed for the beach. My Lonely Planet suggested I walk a few minutes north of town to a beach called Emerald Bay—apparently, the water there was especially clear, and the beach was less crowded.
As is often the case with Lonely Planet recommendations, the picture painted in the guidebook was a bit too rosy. The beach wasn’t particularly empty, and the water wasn’t particularly clear—in fact, even with my goggles on, I couldn’t see more than two feet in front of me.
After a couple hours on the beach, I got antsy and decided to swim to the island that was about 600 meters off the beach. I had seen boats taking people there all afternoon, so I assumed there was something worth seeing there. So I strapped on my goggles and set off through the supposedly-clear murky water.
About halfway to the island, I slowed down to rest near a fishing boat. A boy about my age waved from the back of the boat and said, “You not tired? Why not take boat?”
“No boat,” I said. “Good exercise!”
He smiled, and then I said, “What are you fishing for?”
“Shark!” he replied. My body froze for about five seconds, at which point he started laughing uncontrollably.
“I joke!” he said. “You look scared!”
Funny kid.
Ten minutes later I was walking ashore on the island, which turned out to be Pulau Giam. Finally I had found a good, private beach—the sand was white, the water was far clearer than on the other side of the bay, and there wasn’t another person in sight. All the people in the boats must have been headed for the other side of the island.
I snorkeled around for a bit but didn’t see many fish, so I hiked up the hill to the other side of the island, all the while wishing my bare feet were a little tougher. Sure enough, the boats I had seen leaving Emerald Bay had been bound for the back side of the island, and when I reached the water I ran into nearly twenty people, mostly Malaysian tourists. Most everyone was snorkeling, so I jumped into the fray, and the scene underwater both disappointed an astounded me. I only saw one type of fish the entire time I was underwater, but the population density overwhelmed anything I’d seen, anywhere. The fish were so concentrated that when I swung my arm through the school I hit two of three of them, despite their attempts to move out of the way. I still have no idea why the fish were so concentrated in that one spot, but in the end seeing one type of fish over and over again gets a bit boring, and I hiked back to the other side of the island to hang out on my private beach.
An hour later I swam back across to Pulau Pangkor, but this time I had a bit of a scare—midway through the swim, I hit a patch of water where every stroke I took, my hand hit something slimy. I don’t know if I was swimming through a patch of fish, or eels, or slime, but whatever it was it scared the life out of me. This is why swimming through murky water is not ideal.
That evening I ate dinner at an Indonesian restaurant and spent a quiet night reading in my bungalow. Though the island was nice enough, I figured that there would be plenty more beaches to come, and I decided to spend the following morning on the beach and then head back to the mainland.
In the end, the decision to leave was made easier by the following morning’s rain. A little unenthused with Malaysia and its many comforts and thinking I’d want to spend more time in the less-developed Laos and Cambodia later in the trip, I decided to get as far north as I could before the end of the day. Unfortunately, the bus connections weren’t as smooth as the previous day’s, and I ended up in Butterworth, just across the harbor from Penang, at dusk, having missed the last bus to Thailand by two hours.
I hadn’t heard great things about Penang, and I hadn’t planned to stop there at all, but once I got stuck in Butterworth I decided it would be silly not to check it out for the night. So I caught the ferry across the harbor, and on the way I met an Australian who had been through much of Indonesia a few months ago. We exchanged stories and before I knew it we were disembarking at Georgetown, the main city on Pulau Penang.
Unlike Pulau Pangkor, Pulau Penang is an island with historical significance. Once the headquarters of the famous East India Company, Penang was the first British settlement on the Malay Peninsula and became a bustling center for trade in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Even today, the population is a mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indian, and the languages and cuisine on the island are just as varied. My bus driver spoke Tamil, and my guest house owner spoke Mandarin.
Figuring I’d eaten Indian food in India and Chinese food in China, I went to a Malaysian food stall for dinner. The dish I got, called char kway teow, was noodles stir-fried with egg, vegetables, and shrimp, and turned out to be one of the best things I’d eaten in all my travels. I guess a night in Penang wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
The nightlife in Penang was supposed to be decent, but I was exhausted from my day of traveling, so I headed back to my guest house, finished The Inheritance of Loss and started The God of Small Things, and turned out the lights early.
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