Penang, like Seoul, is a new destination for B-Rod, but it’s my second time visiting this city. In 2018 I was here with DawnO. On that previous trip, the day we left, Malaysians went to the polls for an election. While B-Rod and I are here, Malaysians went to the polls for an election. It was the talk of the town, the talk among the staff at our guesthouse, Malaysians outside the country were coming back home to vote and the bistro at our guesthouse was closed on election day, so most of them could travel to Kuala Lumpur to guarantee their vote was counted. We don’t follow a lot of politics, but even we understood . . . . . this was kind of a big deal!
During our time in Penang, to be honest, B-Rod and I didn’t really get up to much. We spent most of our time wandering the streets and eating . . . very similar to what DawnO and I spent our time doing!
We checked out a bunch of street art,
The now & then series
The street art is play series
The this is cool & sweet series
we aimlessly wandered the streets just checking things out,
and we went on a food tour!
The cool thing about this tour is that it combined information about the various cultural and religious groups and the food associated with them. Which means , we stopped to visit a site, walked a bit, then sat down to feast. That didn’t seem to prevent us from being stuffed at the end though!
One of the highlights (for me anyways) was that for the first time in a couple years, I got to FINALLY continue my tradition of escaping Canada during my birthday! Now as great as the city is . . . . . I needed some nature therapy, and was more than happy to head out to the beach for a bit before coming back in for a feast and cake!
Besides politics, culture, history and food, I did learn a few other things during our time in Penang. Did you know that rats did not spread the black death plague like it was previously thought? Did you know that studies have shown that rats are empathetic and love to laugh? Why, you may be asking, do I know these random facts? Because during our time in Penang, rats appeared to be my “spirit animal” and I saw them almost everywhere! I also discovered that I really, really don’t like to see rats (which is why I’m working on changing that story!) Maybe the heavy rains are drawing them out, or maybe like the rest of us, they were just tired of sitting around during Covid and wanted to come out and be seen for a change. I just don’t remember seeing them so much the last time I was here, and it’s definitely more than I’ve seen during any of my other times in Asia (more realistically . . . that I’ve noticed!)
As I worked on coming to terms with uncovering the positive aspects of my Penang spirit animal, it was time for B-Rod to go. Originally, he wasn’t even supposed to be here for my birthday, and I had decided that I wasn’t coming back with him (didn’t I tell you I have a tradition to get back to!) What a gift that he got to stay! But as he got set to leave, we both decided I should stick with my original plan of staying a little longer . . . I know there are crazies out there that love Canadian winters . . . . I’m just not one of them!
Thanks for the good times B-Rod!
