So my job required me to go to Penang recently. It would be my very first outstation trip since the MCO (then CMCO, or whatever it was called later and later, it just kept changing I had stopped trying to memorize them all) was reinstated when the number of Covid-19 positive cases sky-rocketed to new record high sometime in October last year. The excitement was there, but I knew Penang – like the rest of the world – is still struggling to return to its normalcy.
I flew off from the historical Subang Airport on a Firefly, and for a moment was taken aback by how eerily silent the airport was. I used to fly a lot from there before Air Asia moved its flying base to KLIA2 so all the hustle and bustle are so embedded in my head it is almost impossible to imagine it in any other way.
After touching down at the just as deadly silent Bayan Lepas Airport in Penang, I took a Grab to the meeting that I was there to attend, and after the meeting I took another Grab to the city of George Town.
I remember how the Grab driver was so eager to tell me about Penang, as if I was some foreigner who had never set foot in Penang ever before. Not wanting to kill his excitement, and me being me, I acted just as excited as he was.
He dropped me off right in front of the hawker that sells the famous Teochew Chendul. I was surprised but delighted by the absence of a long queue that was always there every time I came in my previous visits. After doing all the usual MySejahtera check-in and body temperature scan, I took a seat at an unoccupied table, and instantly ordered a bowl of chendul and a Penang laksa which is another dish that Penang is quiet well known for.
To tell the truth, I was quiet taken aback by how the prices of food had increased so much over the years. I remember when I first came to Penang, I was delighted to find out how cheap (may be ‘affordable’ is a better word but you get what I mean) the food in Penang was. Coming back to Penang now, I no longer think that is the case. But then prices of things have all increased over the years and food in Penang is certainly a no exception.
Having had those two dishes, my stomach (or rather my mouth, I think my stomach had had enough) decided that I was not quiet done yet. So I ordered a Char Kueh Teow and surprised myself by finishing it off to the very last bits. I wondered if it was a real hunger or merely the excitement of being there in Penang with all its hyped-up food right in front of me.
So having had my empty stomach refilled
to its fullest capacity, I was all set to explore the UNESCO site of Penang. As
always, the streets are certainly my favorite stuff in the city of George Town,
and the food probably only comes in second. But it is certainly the combination
of both that keeps me coming back to Penang.
But then, just as it is in most parts of the
country, and probably the world over, Penang did not seem to have escaped the
impact of the pandemic. Those streets that used to be bustling with tourists
and visitors, are mostly empty now. It can be a good thing for seasonal
visitors like me, as the emptiness gives me the rare opportunity of taking
pictures without any obstruction of the view and all, but then, I don’t think
it is a good thing in a long run. Penang has to bounce back and the sooner the
better.
I wish I could explore more, but the blistering
sun was just too much on me, I could almost feel my brains boiling inside my
head. The heat was attacking me from every angle, I could almost feel my skin
crunching up, my feet melting. In the end I gave up and took a shade at a food
court just off Pengkalan Weld road. I ordered a mug of Orange juice, then
another, and another.
I really felt like I could go for another but I had to stop myself. Burning my stomach with asidic drink was the last thing that I could afford to do on a day trip like this one. Instead, I forced myself to get up and continue my lil street exploration. I walked on, without keeping track of my bearing and rambling into more streets along the way. I’d stop whenever something interesting caught my eyes and attention, even though most of the streets were quite empty. It wasn’t hard to find beauty in those emptiness though. Heh.
I wish I could stay longer, but I had a flight to catch later in the evening. So I took another Grab to the airport where I’d spend another hour or two before saying good bye to the beautiful island of Penang.
There were a lot of places in Penang that I really wanted to come back to, but looking at how most places were closed in light of the damn pandemic, I don’t think it was worth the time of going to all these places only to find out that they were closed, or half-opened. I’d rather be at those places when there were fully-opened, whenever that might be. Of course, there is nothing in this world that I want more right now than for the pandemic to be over – like really really over – so that I can go back to those places that I really want to go back to in their entirety of course, and Penang is certainly one of them.