It’s always dicey coming back to a place you love after a long absence. Will it be the same? Better? Worse?
During our long 2014–2015 trip around Southeast Asia, we spent a few memorable weeks in Penang, a largely urban island off the northwestern coast of the Malaysian peninsula. We returned in 2016 for a two-month housesit, which cemented our love for the place. Penang charmed us with its friendly people, diverse cultures, interesting old architecture, seemingly nonstop festivals, and delicious, inexpensive food. We always said that if it weren’t for the equatorial heat and the distance from our friends and family, we could imagine settling down in Penang.
Now we’re back in Asia for the first time in eight years, exploring some familiar and unfamiliar parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. Our first stop is Penang, to see what’s changed since 2016.
Chinese New Year
The last time we were here, it was August, and Penang’s large ethnic Chinese population was celebrating the strange and fascinating Hungry Ghost festival. This time it’s February, and our visit is exactly coinciding with the 15-day celebration of lunar New Year.
People throughout Asia celebrate the lunar new year—we experienced it in Vietnam, where it’s called Tet, in 2015. But here in Penang, everyone calls the holiday Chinese New Year.
It’s the Year of the Dragon, so dragon references are everywhere. “Enter the Dragon” (the title of a famous Bruce Lee martial arts film) is a common New Year’s slogan on signs. And dragons, which are usually limited to decorations in Chinese temples in Penang, are appearing in advertisements, street art, shop windows, and mall decorations, in versions from cutesy to stern and imposing.
Red is the lucky color for Chinese New Year, and with all the red banners and colored lights that people use to decorate houses and shops and temples, it feels a bit like Christmas in the United States. Another similarity to Christmas is that people take time off work and school and go back to their hometown to visit their parents and in-laws.
Is Chinese New Year a Good Time to Visit Penang?
There are pros and cons to traveling in Penang during the holiday. On the plus side, there’s a lot to do. We’ve had four street festivals in two weeks, and many Chinese temples and clan halls that are usually closed are open to visitors. Fireworks displays and acrobatic lion dances are common sights.
In addition, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia (Kek Lok Si) is decked in a vast array of colored lights every night during the holiday. From our AirBnB apartment in a high-rise building, we’ve had a wonderful view of the lit-up temple miles away at the base of Penang Hill (the mountain in the center of the island). When we finally got to visit the temple, the effect was mind-boggling and other-worldly, as though we’d stepped into a Miyazaki film like “Spirited Away.”
On the minus side, all of the interesting things to do in Penang are extra crowded during Chinese New Year. Street festivals have ended up being rivers of people moving in opposite directions five or six abreast on the closed-off streets. Traffic is a snarl, buses and ride-share cars take forever to get anywhere, and good restaurants are even more packed than usual.
In addition, hot and humid Penang tends to be even more steamy at New Year’s. And this year, it’s extra hot—with daily highs around 93oF—which residents blame on climate change and El Nino. Walking for more than a few minutes outside between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. leaves us bathed in sweat. As always when we travel in Southeast Asia, we rediscover the joy of cold showers.
What’s Changed in Eight Years
To answer the questions at the top of this post, some things have gotten better in Penang since our previous visit, a few things have gotten worse, and many things are wonderfully the same.
Better: There’s a regional ride-share service called Grab that makes it easier to get around Penang in comfort and easier to order food when you don’t feel like going out. We also discovered some good new restaurants, such as a great Balinese place called Nona Bali.
Worse: Parts of the old village of Tanjung Tokong, near where we housesat in 2016, have been knocked down to make way for yet more high-rise apartment buildings. And our favorite outdoor market, the large and vibrant Tuesday night market in Tanjung Bungah, is a pale shadow of its former self.
The same: Mostly, the things that charmed us during past visits to Penang are still here. There’s great food all over the island, friendly people happy to talk (in English!) to visitors, and always something interesting to do or see.
One of the loveliest aspects of this visit has been the warm embrace of the local chapter of Urban Sketchers. That club meets every Sunday morning somewhere in Penang for a few hours of outdoor sketching and painting, followed by a display of everyone’s work and lunch at some nearby eatery. People of all skill levels are welcome. Melissa became a regular participant during our 2016 housesit in Penang, and since then she has participated in Urban Sketcher events in the United States, France, and New Zealand.
As her introduction to urban sketching, the Penang chapter holds a special place in Melissa’s heart. Coming back to it, Melissa (with Chris tagging along as a nonartist observer) found the same welcoming atmosphere and helpful people that we’d experienced eight years ago. Much as we love to explore new places, sometimes it feels wonderful to come back to a place that feels a little bit like home.
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