Georgetown, Malaysia
This city could be a contender to be in the top 5 of my favourite Asian cities. It has a lot to offer: great food, fantastic street art, architecture and friendly people.
A walk down to the historical part of the city this morning and we found these beautiful murals.
I had the best lunch I have had in Asia. I was in search on Penang Curry, only to find there is no such thing. I was told that there is no one Penang curry; almost everything is curry so it is a matter of what kind of curry: Indian (very spicy), Chinese (spicy), Malay curry and Nyonya curry (mild and sweet). We chose a chicken nyonya curry with a spicier eggplant curry and an appetizer plate that had tempera bean sprouts, spring rolls and some type of meat, and carrot/zucchini pickles. Everyone liked it.
In little India a food cart had fresh vegetable samosas so that was considered dessert.
Little India has the food, clothes, jewellery, and music of real India.
I am trying to convince the boys to go to a Bollywood movie just to watch the crowd (if it is like India).
Georgetown is a very multicultural city. Next to Little India is China Town. Chinese clans were established in the 19th century when many Chinese immigrated to Malaysia. They lived in clans set up on the water in floating villages. Today there are 6 clans living on the water in houses built on stilts. In every village lives one clan. They each have their own temple.
Even though we had had such a big lunch, Georgetown is also noted for its hawker food. A 2km walk to the Gurney Food Stalls was supposed to increase our appetite. The heat is still near 30 at night and buying food required patience and guess work.
The line for Levi's choice of fried rice was long so settled for some type of curry sweet and sour chicken with rice. Nate and Luke had chicken satay. Everything was OK, but not great.
These signs were everywhere. All day Jack and I were looking at them and could never figure out where this "Jalan Sehala" was and why it always seemed to be pointing in different directions. It seemed it was a place we would never reach. Finally Luke told us it meant 'one way street'. OK, so the kid is brighter than us at times.
These days Luke is studying for his drivers ed. test. Levi is practicing card tricks. Nate is planning his career as a track star, turned NFL super bowl champion, along with writing the first draft of the book he is going to publish about his travels.
