Alcohol-free and vegetarian meals aplenty in Penang!

Puppet Ponyo presided over our table at 

a banana leaf rice restaurant ;b

 

It may not look it but the kacang botol (winged bean) salad

was the spiciest of the dishes on this table!

 

One of my favorite snacks/desserts when back in Penang :)

 

The evening after I returned to Hong Kong from my most recent trip back to Penang found me once more spending time with friends at Sake Bar Ginn.  As it so happened, the previous time that I had drank any alcohol prior to that occasion also happened to be at Sake Bar Ginn a few days before my eight day Penang trip.  Put another way: I didn't drink anything alcoholic while back in Penang this time; and despite there being a particular watering hole there that I do like, it really didn't take much effort to be alcohol free while there! 

 

As I explained to my fairly incredulous friends at the sake bar that I've come to think of as a cross between the eponymous establishments in TV series Cheers and the Midnight Diner movies for me: I prefer to drink during meals rather than outside of them but I also tend to steer clear of alcoholic beverages when eating spicy food -- and as it so happens, a lot of my favorite Penang foods are on the spicy side.  Consequently, my drinks of choice at meal times in Penang tend to be non-alcoholic concoctions like rose syrup with lime and ice or various fruit juices.     

 

Something else that I noticed this time around is that I really do tend to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables when I'm back in Penang; and this even when it's not durian season!  As it so happens, I had a few vegetarian meals on this recent trip, including a banana leaf rice lunch, an ethnic Chinese fried noodle dish known as "cheap mee" because it's traditionally one of the cheapest dishes on offer in Penang and has mee (egg noodles) as its main ingredient, and a large order of the distinctly Malaysian fruit salad-prawn paste combination known as rojak.  And in addition to the many glasses of fruit juice that I drank on this recent trip, I also once again enjoyed eating more than one portion of coconut jelly as well as the flesh of the fruit that serves as its container.

 

More than incidentally, I also love drinking coconut water but won't drink coconut milk and was horrified to discover while living in the West that people there actually drink the latter liquid and have it as ingredients of alcoholic cocktails such as piña coladas!  Something else that shocked me -- and would similarly shock my brother years later when he went to boarding school in England -- was that quite a few people we knew in England (and, in my case, the USA too) had no idea that coconut water existed, since the coconuts found in their parts of the world didn't have any clear liquids inside of them because they already were old and dry! 

So frustrated, in fact, was my brother when trying to convince his boarding schoolmates of the existence of coconut water that he told us more than once that he wished he could bring a young, clear liquid-filled coconut, with him back to England from Penang.  Adding to his vexation was his schoolmates also not believing that coconuts were anything but brown and hairy on the outside, and -- what with it being the days before the internet came along -- his having great difficulty finding pictures of green young coconuts to show them! ;b

Meditations on cruise ships and their impact

The kind of cruise ship that's hard to miss!

The Ovation of the Seas dwarfs most other cruise ships I've seen 

to date, and much of its surroundings when docked at Penang's port!

As astounding a sight to me was that there were not one 

but three cruise ships in port in Penang that day :O

You know a cruise ship is big when it can get mistaken for an apartment building.  And while it's true enough that the error occured when it was viewed from a distance and partially obscured by existing structures, it's also the case that the vessel in question spotted docked at Penang's Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal last week happens to be the sixth largest cruise ship currently in existence!

With a maximum capacity of 4,905 passengers (and goodness know how many crew members), the Ovation of the Seas is, the kind of mega cruise ship I'd expect to see visiting Hong Kong -- the most visited city in the world -- but not so much Penang, where tourism is a big deal but still not that mega as far as overall numbers go.  So imagine my amazement when I saw that Royal Caribbean vessel in port in Penang that day and also two other cruise ships at the same time!

If truth be told, I hadn't realized that my home state had the port facilities to deal with such a mega cruise ship.  In addition, while I can see certain government officials -- particularly those who think big is better and that anything record-breaking would be a good thing -- would welcome cruise ships docking in droves in Penang, one only has to see the recent furor over the prospect of some 10,000 cruise ship passengers visiting Penang in a single day to realize that this is not something that all the locals are ecstatic about.

Back in the summer of 2015, my mother and I enjoyed cruising about the Norwegian coast on the Hurtigruten's MS Richard With.  But I truly believe that one big reason why we had such a great time in Norway was because that vessel was not a mega cruise ship (or, for that matter, a conventional cruise ship featuring all manner of bells and whistles in terms of facilities).  

Because the MS Richard With is not a super size ship, it could sail into fjords like the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Geirangerfjord and even narrower Trollfjord (where it was actually able to admirably execute an 180 degree turn) that larger vessels could not.  Consequently, the likes of my mother and I got to see far more amazing scenery than if we had been on a bigger cruise ship, like quite a few of those we saw in Norway and heaved a sigh of relief that we were not passengers on.  

Something else I noticed while in Norway was that certain smaller towns that the MS Richard With docked at would feel way too overwhelmed by a larger number of visitors suddenly descending upon them in more or less one fell swoop.  All in all, I could imagine locals getting stressed out, including those assigned to service the visitors, and the visitors also coming away feeling with a less than optimal touristic experience courtesy, among other things, of the town they were visiting ending up having more tourists than locals at the time of their visit!

Going even further back in time: decades ago when I was living in Zanzibar, a senior government official told me that while they were happy that cruise lines were putting this storied Indian Ocean isle on their itinerary, it was imperative that they made it so that passengers of cruise ships docking at its port would have time -- and consider it worth their time -- to venture further away from the port area than they thus far had been doing.  More specifically, he said that for it to be worth Zanzibar's while to host those cruise ships, the passengers needed to be visiting, dining out at and otherwise patronizing more local than foreign-run establishments.  Otherwise, Zanzibaris would only have the hassle that came with the increased traffic and such but not the benefits.

I often have thought about that wise Zanzibar official's words when contemplating many a regular Hong Konger's dislike of, and disdain for, the millions of visitors from Mainland China that pour into the Fragrant Harbour annually.  And I definitely hope that tourist arrivals in Penang can be handled more responsibly and intelligently than it observably has been in Hong Kong.  In the latter case, I think spacing out cruise ship visits would be a step in the right direction.  Otherwise, as we have seen too often, too much of a good thing can make it become unpopular, unwanted, despised and just outright bad. :S              

Unusual critter spottings in Penang Strait!

Not the kind of creature one expects to see 

swimming in the waters off George Town! :O

 

Ditto re this other exotic creature whose colors get me

thinking of the Penang flag (and Tanzania's too, actually)! 

Decades ago, when my family took the ferry from Penang Island over to the West Malaysian mainland (or vice versa), I'd go stand on the side while the ferry in motion and eagerly scan the waters for jellyfish and other interesting looking aquatic life as well as take in the panoramic views that unfolded before me.  On no occasion that I can remember, however, did I ever catch sight of the kind of creatures that I did while standing on the shore meters away from the George Town ferry pier on my most recent trip back to my home state.

 

While I've seen monitor lizards before (including in Bangkok's Lumpini Park and intruding into the garden of my family home in Penang!), I'd never seen them swimming in the waters of Penang Strait.  Even weirder was that the area where I spotted this large reptile which can easily be mistaken for a crocodile when it's in swimming mode is pretty built up and urban, with a mainly concretized waterfront just meters away from the Tanjung City Marina and Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal!

 

Then, as I was calming down after the shock of spotting that rather scary looking lizard in a part of Penang where I didn't expect to see any wild creatures casually roaming about, I actually spotted what to my mind was an even more unusual critter in the nearby waters: one whose species I even am unsure about.  For while my initial impression was that it was some colorful kind of squid, my aunt, who was with me at the time, is pretty adamant that it's actually particularly sharp nosed fish!

 

I realize that my photo of it is not the sharpest -- and it doesn't help that the waters of Penang Strait is not among the clearest out there.  But I'd be grateful to those readers who click on the image near the top of this blog post to get an enlarged view of the creature -- and truly grateful to whoever can actually positively ascertain what it in fact is!  So... any takers?  I do hope so! :b 

Penang changes!

A colorful ferry plying the George Town-Butterworth route

 

Quite a bit of traffic on the First Penang Bridge

 

A much less busy scene over on the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah 

Bridge (which locals prefer to refer to as the Second Penang Bridge!)

 

Penang never changes -- or, at least, doesn't change much.  That's the sentiment I'd often heard voiced by visitors (especially those from Singapore) but also a fair few local Penangites over the years.  But to judge from the changes I noticed on my most recent visit back to my home state, I have to opine that that's no longer the case, if ever it really was so.  

 

For example, I remember being incredulous when an old family friend visiting from Singapore remark on how clean Penang's streets were back when both he and I visited my home state last July; this because, my impressions of them in the past was that they often were less pristine than I would have liked.  But while the waters off Penang Island still can leave a lot to be desired, I must admit to thinking on my most recent visit there (from which I just returned yesterday) that it really is true that Penang's streets actually do look pretty good these days, with no noticeable piles or even scraps of rubbish on them -- and, for good measure, quite a few buildings (including regular houses and heritage establishments as well as such as mosques, temples and churches) looking like they've been recently given new coats of paint.

 

Other positive developments I've noticed this time around include more public buses in service, better equiped bus stops (which now have bus schedules posted on them), and a welcome increase not only in the number of tourists to Penang but, also, more visitors who are happy to explore the street art-rich heritage zone of George Town on foot.  As for new structures: It may have opened to the public back on March 1st, 2014, but the Second Penang Bridge still looks pretty new as well as intimidatingly long (at 24 kilometers in length).  And although it's been some three years since it became operational, it was only on this March 2017 return to Penang that I went on it!

From the looks of it, the Second Penang Bridge has yet to win the affections of local folks.  For one thing, the toll for it costs more than for the First Penang Bridge.  For another, as the friend who drove me along it complained, it's actually quite boring to go along it because, unlike the older bridge connecting Penang Island to the West Malaysian mainland, its higher walls have helped ensure that sights are few and far between on the side!

 

For my part though, I'm actually in awe of people now having so many choices of route to take between Penang Island and the rest of West Malaysia since, for much of the time that I lived in Penang, there wasn't even a single bridge that connected Penang Island to the part of Penang state that was on the mainland and beyond!  Instead, if one didn't fly out of the airport at Bayan Lepas (on the southeastern side of Penang Island), one only had the option of taking the ferry over to Butterworth.     

 

In point of fact, construction work on the First Penang Bridge wasn't completed until after I had left Penang to go to boarding school in England.  So I actually haven't even been on that older bridge all that often, never mind this newer one.  But to judge from the amount of traffic along the former, it really is old hat for many folks.  And it actually is funny for me to realize -- and yes, it makes me feel pretty aged -- that for quite a number of Penangites, there never has been a time in their life when there never was a bridge connecting Penang Island to the rest of West Malaysia! ;b  

David Suzuki in Hong Kong

David Suzuki at City University of Hong Kong earlier today

 

The view from just outside the lecture hall where he spoke :)

 

This afternoon, a friend and I went along with a number of others to hear an energetic 81-year-old man who had flown over from Canada speak passionately about our planet and our species.  David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and environmental activist.  Considered by his countrymen (and women) to be one of the greatest Canadians ever, he is an eloquent speaker who is unafraid to admit when he doesn't know the answer to a question and bold enough to show righteous anger against people he considers to not have the most helpful frame of mind.

 

Early on in his lecture, Dr Suzuki spoke about how the Earth is shaping up to warm up faster this century than it has ever done before, many species of animals and plants having gone extinct in recent years, of coral reefs dying, and of how, as water warms up, it expands, which means that so much land will be underwater before too long.  Still, rather than overly worry about the fate of the planet, he's actually quite confident that the Earth will be around for a long time to come.

 

Instead, it's the human race that he's concerned about.  More specifically, he reckons that, the way we are going, humanity may become extinct before this century draws to a close!  What's more, he hastened to point out, he's not alone in harboring such thoughts; with the similarly eminent likes of Britain's Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, estimating humanity's survival past the 21st century as just 50:50!       

 

To hear David Suzuki speak, it should be obvious to pretty much anyone with a functioning brain and sufficient education that what humans need are clean air, clean water, healthy food, and healthy soil (for plants that we eat, and also the animals we eat, to grow).  So why is it that humans seem so willing to pollute the air, water, soil and even food that's produced?  (More than by the way, doesn't it say a great deal that he was told by people to make sure to drink bottled water -- like that placed on his lectern -- when he's in Hong Kong?) 

One of the reasons stems from it being so that somewhere along the line, we've become programmed to prioritize the accumulation of wealth and status above everything, even our individual health, that of other people, and that of the planet as a whole.  We've also come to think of humans as being distinct from nature, as surely not an animal as well as not a plant. 

 

But the truth of the matter is that human existence is actually predicated on the health and wellbeing of the environment as well as other people.  And, as he's had to point out to people: the fact of the matter is that humans actually are animals too, with all that that implies. (More than incidentally: it really is true that one of the three core anthropology courses I took at my alma mater was entitled The Human Animal, after having been known in older, more sexist times as "Man, the Animal"!) 

Something Dr Suzuki also marked out as pretty ironic is how humans seem to not think too much about adversely impacting nature, yet seem to think that human creations, such as the dismal science whose English name comes from the Latin word for "household management", have immutable laws.  Maybe even more so than politicians, economists (and CEOs of such as oil companies) are the environmental activist's enemy.  If only, he lamented, he could get economists to emphasize the "eco" that's in economy as well as ecology!

 

Even some hours on, I'm not sure whether I should have come away from David Suzuki's lecture feeling heartened or depressed.  On the one hand, he totally acknowledges that getting most humans, particularly adults, to change their mindset into one that prioritizes the Earth rather than their own selves, companies and/or groups, is pretty difficult, sometimes seemingly well nigh impossible.  On the other hand, he also believes that the knowledge to save the planet and humanity is actually already out there, and completely implementable if the will to do so exists.      

 

If he were to be selfish, he could actually afford to not care since, in noting his age, the projected extinction of the human species will only occur decades after his death.  And, actually, the same applies for many of the people who were in the lecture hall this afternoon.  At the same time though, some of the secondary students in the audience could concievably expect to still be alive when the end of the 21st century comes along.  And I hope that it won't be too late to save humankind by the time they come of age, never mind the generation or two that will come after them.  

Critter spotting on Hong Kong Island! (Photo-essay)

Prior to my having caught the hiking bug in Hong Kong, I didn't know what stink bugs looked like -- forget the kind of position that comes naturally to them when they engage in procreation!  -- or that creatures such as skinks and lantern bugs existed.  Heck, I didn't even know that the Big Lychee is home to so many kinds of snakes, some of which are at home in the water and quite a few of which are poisonous, as well as truly large spiders whose leg span may be wider than my face and frogs that make sounds so large that they can be mistaken for construction work noise!

Among the more amazing things about Hong Kong to me is how rich is this territory's biodiversity.  Close to 300 hikes on, I still feel that it's completely likely that I'll spot a bug or some other critter that I've never ever seen before on my next outing in one of Hong Kong's 24 country parks and/or 11 designated "special areas", or even green spaces outside of their boundaries such as the Bowen Road Path.  After all, here's a sample of the wildlife (some of which I still can't put a name to!) that I managed to see, and photograph, in the space of less than two weeks, and all without leaving Hong Kong Island:-

Yup, more procreating bugs! ;b

Did you know there's such a thing as crane flies,

and they (can) look like the critter in the above picture?

A stink bug with what looks like a dead caterpillar in its mouth ;S

A sea horse (logo) spotting! (Sorry, I couldn't resist including 

this view of part of Ocean Park from the carnivorous stink bug hike!)

Yes, there are squirrels in Hong Kong! ;b

As strange as it may sound, there are Hong Kongers who disregard

signs like this to feed wild boars, not just stray cats and wild monkeys! :O

Black kites in flight always strike me as a magnificent sight :)

Two for the price of one: a bird on a perch,

and the dragonfly that photobombed my shot! ;b

No longer Asia's finest and in danger of sinking still further: my updated thoughts about the Hong Kong police

Time was when I used to think of the Hong Kong police 

as shining lights of sorts...

 

...but that notion doesn't apply now

Around this time last Wednesday, I was heading over to have dinner with a former colleague over in Tsim Sha Tsui East.  As we feasted on goodies and generally had a good time catching up, we had little inkling that a very disturbing event was taking place further up the Kowloon peninsula involving thousands of serving and retired Hong Kong police officers.

 

In a nutshell: a crowd estimated at over 30,000 in number, and mainly consisting of current along with former purported law enforcers, had assembled to protest the sentence handed by a judge against seven men found guilty of assaulting an unarmed -- tied-up even -- individual.  Think about this for a moment: a large number of the very people that Hong Kongers are supposed to trust to uphold the law had turned up to show their support for seven convicted criminals!

 

How horrifying is that?  And, frankly, those seven convicted criminals happening to be policemen -- comprising one chief inspector, a senior inspector and a sergeant along with four constables -- and the man they attacked a pro-democracy activist, and the attack having taken place at the height of the Umbrella Movement, makes the deed of their fellow police officers even more terrible to my eyes. 

 

One week on, the shock of it all has still not yet faded; and this particularly in light of details such as a police sergeant speaking at the rally having likened the situation in which the Hong Kong police have found themselves to that of the Jews persecuted by the Nazis!  Quite apart from causing diplomatic embarassment for Hong Kong -- and prompting both the Israeli and German consulates in Hong Kong to issue statements criticizing the Holocaust comparison -- there's the horror of realizing how ignorant that policeman and those who applauded his words, and how their perception of what's going in Hong Kong is.

 

Something that makes me feel so very sad is that many of my favorite Hong Kong movies feature heroic and righteous police protagonists.  And less than seven years ago, I happily noted down how the local police force had an 85% community confidence rating.  Not anymore.  Instead, the question now is: how much lower can they go?  Hopefully not down to the point where their reputation as "Asia's finest" will never be retrievable.  But if the faith of the public is to be restored in the local constabulary, things definitely will have to change for the better (including with the sacking of the seven convicted criminals, who still haven't been dismissed from their positions in the police force), and soon.