Kelvin, Alex, Stephanie and me went to Penang to celebrate Chinese New year but we enjoyed it separately.
That meant I had to discover Penang by myself!!!!!!!!! This would be the first time I travelled alone. A big challenge was waiting for me ahead ….
I booked the bus ticket for departure at 7am, Jan 22nd and for return at 2pm, Jan 24th.
I tried to google about Penang but what I got didn’t give me a clear view about it. Sweehar- ICXer at UM helped me to find hostel at George Town but I also had no idea about my location. At that time, I thought that the best part in Penang must be the beach. Therefore, when I knew that George town is nearly 1 hour by bus from the beach, I was a little bit sad.
Ok, so below is what I had for my trip to Penang:
- A sleepy face (I had stayed up late the night before and woke up early in the morning)
- Have no idea about what to see in Penang. What I got from Google was: “The best way to discover Penang is by walking” and my plan was: walking around the town and finding bus to the beach!
- Foresee how lonely I would be in Penang.
1. Am I dreaming??????
After 5 hours on the bus, I was finally at Sungai Nibong station, Penang.
Next step: ask for the bus to Jetty- another bus station.
I found 2 girls in the station to ask. When I finished, you knew what happened next?????? I heard them speaking Vietnamese!!!!!!! I couldn’t believe in my ear!!! It took me 1 minute to confirm if I was correct….
“Am I dreaming???” – I thought.
I hadn’t spoken Vietnamese in person for 3 weeks so the moment I heard those girls talking was a miracle to me.However, the bad thing is… I forgot how to address a girl at the first talking in Vietnamese… It took me a while to change my accent and also to found a title name to call them…. So embarrassing…
I followed the girl to Jetty and then asked them which bus went to Love Lane, where my hostel is located. The girl seemed not live near this area so they helped me to ask a taxi. The driver charged me 10RM including “finding hostel service”. Fortunately, I learn from Lily taxi experience that the taxi always gives double price so I guessed Love Lane must be near Jetty. I decided to find the information counter as Sweehar had told me. Finally, I got the bus!
2. We don’t need to speak the same language :)
5 minutes later, the bus dropped me in a big road near Love Lane. I had to walk around to find my hostel. Walking didn’t matter to me but the problem here was this town looked like a “ghost town”. All doors closed. No one was in the street. It meant that I had no one to ask for direction! I was very tired after 6 hours on bus and then I- with my heavy luggage, still had to keep walking. My trip was turning worse and worse…
I found a girl and followed her instruction. However, I still couldn’t find my hostel?!? Then I met another boy. This boy seemed like he cannot speak English so when I said: “Excuse me”, he ejected me and tried to…run away! Hold on, Don’t be disappointed so soon because this is not the end of story about him:)
Suddenly, he stopped. Maybe he realized that there was no one around this area and I looked so helpless. He turned around and came to me.
“I knew he is a good guy, I knew it!”
I prepared for this case: meeting a person who cannot speak English. I showed him the paper in which I had written down the name of the hostel and its address. … His face turned …shining! He knew that hostel! However, he cannot speak English so he was perplexed. After 30 seconds hold on. He decided to take me there :). This was absolutely better than giving directions.
Everything was still ok although he cant speak Eng :)
Even we cannot understand each other language, we can still know if they need our help and help them in the best way!
We don’t need to speak the same language, right :)
3. Miracle
My hostel is very cheap, 25 RM, so no wonder that the quality is also proportional.
There is nothing in our room but a bed and a chair (also a recycle bin). It’s dark even when I turn on the light. We have to share the bathroom which is not better than my room. Everything was so boring: quiet (outside) and dark (inside my room).
“I came here for celebrating Chinese new year!!!!!!!!! Why was everything so quiet??? “
I asked a guy working for the hostel to suggest me a nice restaurant for lunch. He showed me an Indian restaurant because according to him, all Chinese restaurants closed!!! Well, I was hungry, I didn’t have time to feel bad about that news. Just go for lunch first!
Again, I am very bad at following directions. Therefore, as usual, I couldn’t find the restaurant he had talked about… “Find a restaurant open, no need a nice one anymore”- my plan changed. When I was looking around, that guy suddenly appeared and led me to that restaurant. He also…. waited for me finishing my lunch…????
We had a small talk. I knew that he is Indi-Malaysian. His name is Jhahid and he works part time in the hostel because he has nothing to do in Chinese new year. He knew that I’m from Vietnam and I traveled in Penang alone.
Guess what was next???
He wanted to guide me around the town!
I had a tourguide who I just knew 30mins ago!
However, going with a stranger also carries a risk…
The first destination was …his company. I had no idea about where we were going until I went inside the company, found there was no one here and saw he …locking the door… "Please tell me that I’m not that bad luck”.. What I could think of at that time was trying to look around for a knife or something that can save me.
And then… nothing happened, he got some stuffs and we kept going?!?
“Hey, you really did scare me, Jhahid!!!!!”
We started our trip by walking on a street full of temple and mosque. Now I really felt that this town was in Holiday with decorations around. Next was “shopping town” with 4 big malls. I had kept wonder where all people were, why I could hardly find a person in the street. The answer is “they were shopping here”. The high light of visiting shopping mall is that Jhahid had a KFC coupon- Chinese new year gift from his company- so we had a big-free-meal haha.
The next destination was Komtar- Penang’s tallest building. It has 65 floors :). Following the stair steps, we got to a “mini park” which is located around 3rd or 4th floor of the building, I guess. From there, we can enjoy the windy atmosphere which will cool you right then.
After that, we walked through small lovely old streets to go to the beach :). It was near a football ground. We sat on the grass ground and let our eyes toward the sea. Far away in light mist were some buildings, a ship and the mainland. World was away in peaceful Penang at that moment!
Leaving the football ground, walking along the beach, we found the best part of our trip here- the Time square. It was a Sunday holiday afternoon so the time square was crowded with people. That the sun started setting brought away the strong sunlight and left behind the gentle wind. I felt like I was lost in an old European town I had seen in the TV because of the architecture and the doves. Malaysia in general and Penang create a perfect mixing between the nature and people. The cities are cover with trees and the birds freely fly everywhere.
Some kids were exciting with the bubble toy gun. Thanks to them, we had a bubble paradise there.
Walking in the middle of bubble paradise, seeing the choppy blue sea, enjoying the fresh air and letting my eye-view free with the birds…
Who need wings to come to the heaven?
I was in heaven!
Penang moved to the night time and the cuisine area was full of people and the food smelled so tasty!!!
We kept walking around the town until 8:30pm (remember that I went out at 2:30pm). Unbelievable that we had been walking for such a long time!! Jhahid told me: “you finished your tour around Penang”.
Yes, Penang is small but .....lovely :).
I was back to my hostel to take a bath and then made video call to my family in Vietnam at 11pm to join with them in watch-night time. The hostel doesn’t provide wifi after 11pm but Jhadid helped me to extend the limit time. I was so grateful.
4. Conclusion for the first day in Penang:
Back to the title I put for this part. Yes, to me everything happened like a miracle. I came to Penang alone with no plan. Miraculously, I had a new friend here and he brought me truly Penang :)
I ended my day by calling to my family. This is the first time I celebrated Lunar new year far away from home. I don’t know how to express my feeling at that time but it’s absolutely not the lonely feeling, it is somehow the feeling of becoming mature :)
Thuy Duong Phan (Zany) - Vietnam
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