A week in Malaysia was just enough to give me a taste and leaving me wanting more. Langkawi was a fun island to explore. Big enough to not feel limiting but small enough to get around anywhere I wanted quite easily. The street food was top notch, and wildly cheap.
Penang had good vibes all around. Being a port city, there was a little bit of familiarity that made it feel like a touch like Seattle. It was very walkable, and I had a fun crew of folks that I explored with. I ate so much good food, and it’s the first place I’ve been where I felt like I could have stayed a whole additional week just trying new foods because there were that many different options.
LOCATIONS
- Langkawi, Malaysia (Dec 5 – Dec 7)
- Penang, Malaysia (Dec 7 – Dec 11)
ACTIVITIES
Machinchang Peak & Waterfalls
(this week’s cover photo)
Langkawi is home to a pedestrian skybridge, which gives a panoramic view of the island from 660 meters. In order to get there, you need to pay for a cable car up, and then pay an entrance fee on top of that. Me being me, I cared more about the view than I did the skybridge itself, and I looked around to find if there were any free or cheaper alternatives to get a similar view that you would see from the skybridge.
Enter Machinchang Peak. Nearby the skybridge, 40 meters higher, and a next to nothing entrance fee made the hike a no brainer.
The night before I met a German named Felix who was interested in joining, so we scootered (apparently this is a legitimate past tense verb) over in the morning and made our way up. I’m used to the steep hikes over here at this point, and no surprise, this one was just as straight up as the others I’ve done. Maybe even more so. Heavy breathing and sweat abounded. Two hours later we had the top all to ourselves. We couldn’t quite see the whole island, but we were pretty darn close.
On the way down there were two waterfalls that we stopped at to cool off, a welcome refreshment from the heat. The first one was a little pool tucked away in the forest, and the second had several swimming holes with a nice view towards the ocean.
Lunch with the Sims
When Alan said that we should grab lunch after church, I figured it would be just the two of us chatting over a quick bite in the afternoon. After the service ended, he introduced me to his wife. A minute later, two young boys come running up to me to say hi and Alan said that these were his two oldest. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, I was really invited to a full family meal.
Each of the boys grabbed one of my hands and began excitedly leading me over to the ramen shop we were eating at. At this point, I was just along for the ride. Isaiah (the oldest) immediately started peppering me with questions, giving me only a brief moment to respond before moving onto the next one.
What’s your name? What country are you from? How old are you? Is this your first time to Penang? What’s your favorite animal? What’s your favorite kind of food? What have you learned in your life? (Yes, he really did hit me with that one) What’s your favorite species? What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I haven’t been around kids in a while, and although the high energy was an initial shock to the system, I settled in and we had a great time throwing questions back and forth with each other and playing around. The boys were kind enough to eventually let me talk to their parents as well about their work with the Penang House of Prayer and their story of coming from Singapore to Penang nine years ago.
Lunch was such a sweet time. I’ve been pretty strictly around people close to my age since traveling, and being welcomed into a family space for a brief moment was a privilege. To cap off an already special meal, when we were saying our goodbyes, Isaiah said “Daddy, when do we get to see Uncle Trevor again?”, and I almost lost it.
I’m incredibly grateful for my time with the Sim’s and their hospitality. My heart was left very full. Thanks to Kelsey for initiating the connection for us.
Penang Hill
Another day of taking the free route up. Instead of taking the tram up Penang Hill, I convinced Annabel (middle) and Laura (right) to take the Heritage Walk which involved a very large number of stairs to get up to the top. It really was almost all stairs, and the few parts that weren’t were, you guessed it, steep again. A little over an hour and we arrived at the top. Much to our dismay, the top was covered in fog and we couldn’t see out over the city at all. Thankfully about halfway down we dropped below the fog and got a decent view of Penang and the surrounding hills.
Fun side story – It continues to amaze me how small the Southeast Asia backpacker world is. Annabel and I met a month ago in Sapa, Vietnam. We were meant to do a trek together with some others, but then my first bout of sickness hit and I had to bail. I didn’t even have the energy to be social, and so after our initial conversation we didn’t end up getting to hang out much at all. Then we both left Sapa and went completely different directions with no expectation of ever seeing each other again. Multiple different countries later, we were both surprised to see each other again in our hostel in Penang. I think that’s pretty wild. It was fun having a chance to reconnect when I was in a good mood and up for being both social and active.
Drum Studio
Those who have spent any kind of significant time around me know that I’m nearly always tapping with my fingers, hands or feet. I’ve been stuck only tapping for two months with no drum kit to let loose on. Most of the time when I’m traveling from one place to the next, I’ve got music in my ears, and the more music I listen to the more I’ve been missing being able to play on a kit at home. There’s a few spots I’ve looked around to try to find a place I can play, but I’ve been out of luck in the places I have searched.
In Penang, I finally found one! I booked a practice room for an hour, took my headphones, and jammed out all by myself. Oh my goodness I didn’t realize how much I needed this. Maybe need is a bit of a strong word, but being able to do one of my favorite activities brought me such deep joy and a strong sense of comfort. I don’t think I realized how much I missed playing music until that day.
The owner of the studio started chatting with me after for a bit and was wanting to show me around the music scene in Penang. I think if I was there for an extended amount of time he would have even tried to connect me with some other musicians in the area. Unfortunately, I did this on my last day here and didn’t have time to get out to any shows.
Food
One of the big reasons I was excited for Malaysia was the food. Malaysia has a large Indian, Chinese, and Malay population which creates a huge diversity of food. Street food stalls abound, and restaurants and cafes are everywhere. I hit a mix of different types of food when I was there, but as I mentioned earlier, I felt like four days was only enough time to get a small sampling of all the food Penang and Malaysia has to offer. I could have stayed so much longer and been content simply eating more and more good food (and I don’t consider myself a foodie at all). It’s definitely somewhere I would like to get back to in the future. If you’re big into food, definitely add Penang & Malaysia to your list. Here are some pics of some of the dishes I had,
- Popiah & noodle soup with dumplings and char siu
- Lamb Milani (restaurant special sauce) w/ butter garlic naan
- Char Tway Keow (Malaysian noodle stir fry with sausage and shrimp)
REFLECTIONS
There wasn’t anything major that stood out to me this week that I feel is worth sharing. I do enjoy reflecting most weeks, but it’s also been nice to just enjoy what I’m doing without feeling a need to analyze or think too hard about it. It was a good week, and I’m okay leaving it at that.
If there’s any sort of lesson or meaning behind that, maybe it’s this – if you’re someone that always feels a need to analyze and reflect, perhaps it’s time to give it a rest for a bit. Clear your head, be present, and don’t spent too much time evaluating.
On the other side, if you’re someone that doesn’t regularly take time to reflect, maybe it’s a good time to spend some intentional time reflecting about where you are going and what you are learning. If that’s you, and you have trouble finding a place to start, feel free to reach out and I’d be happy to chat about it. The year is also coming to a close, and it’s a good time to take stock of what life looks like now and what you want to prioritize next year. I’ll have a more focused piece on that out in the next couple weeks that can hopefully provide some more inspiration as well.
NEXT UP
I made it to Indonesia on Thursday and started with a few days on Nusa Penida exploring some beaches and doing a day of diving that was by far the best diving I’ve done yet (I’ll share all the details next week). Now I’m back with Amy and Becca hanging out in Uluwatu. We’ll spend a few days together and I’m trying to decide what to do after we split again. It’s rainy season here, and my plan A requires mostly dry weather. So I’m keeping an eye on the sky and will make a call in the next day or two whether I want to head to Lombok to climb Mt Rinjani (third tallest volcano in Indonesia) or if I stick around and explore Bali a bit more.
As always, if you know anyone that you think would be interested in anything I’m writing about, I’d ask that you consider sharing this with them.
Thanks for being here. Talk to you next week.
– Trevor