Penang!
Last weekend, I travelled to Penang, Malaysia with my mom. Penang is an island in northwestern Malaysia that is famous for its delicious food, eclectic culture, and friendly people. The main attraction of Penang is the district of Georgetown because of its strong colonial influence and status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Main highlights included (but are not limited to): biking around Georgetown, eating biriyani with my hands like a local, taking a Malaysian (
Nyonya) cooking class, and visiting temples.
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| Street art in Georgetown (the Bicycle one is the most famous) |
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| They gave me a fork and knife expecting me to actually use it... HA. |
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| Biking around Georgetown |
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| Cooking class with my mom! |
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| Very talented local, let me actually "play" his guitar too! |
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| My mom noticed that this local looked Hispanic, and it turned out that he is originally from Peru! |
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| The oldest and largest mosque in Penang |
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| My fellow classmates and Pearly (the teacher) |
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| Gurney Hawker Centre (a large food court) |
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Ball is life.
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| Clan Jetties, a water village established by Chinese immigrants |
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| The water isn't quite like Thailand or the Philippines... |
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| There's even "street art" in the Clan Jetties |
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| Kek Lok Si, perhaps the most beautiful temple I've visited in SE Asia |
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| I've never seen so many turtles in my life |
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| We took a cable car up to Penang Hill, the tallest point of Penang |
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| We met a friendly group of locals celebrating a birthday party (for Gino!) at the top of the hotel we stayed at! |
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| Khoo Kongsi |
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| Very friendly street food vendor at Penang Hill that let me and my mom try a lot of his food |
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| Special South Indian Chickpea Masala |
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| Me and my friend Mr. Tan, the nicest and most knowledgable cab driver there is |
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| Had to bring back some durian coffee for my Singaporean friends! |
My Perspective on Lee Kuan Yew
As I am sure many of you are aware, Signapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, passed away at 91 this week. I've had a few people from back in the states ask me how Singaporeans are handling this and to ask what my thoughts are on Lee Kuan Yew. Here's my two cents.
Stores closed. Events were cancelled. Profile photos on Facebook changed. People mourned.
The MRT -- the public transportation system in Singapore -- remained open 24 hours so that people could pay their respects to LKY at the parliament building. The line to see LKY's casket was consistently about 8 hours just to spend about 5 seconds in front of his casket. In fact, I have a Singaporean friend who entered the line at 2am and did not even get to LKY's casket until 11am. It takes a very special human being to inspire thousands -- actually, millions of people -- to wait in line for that amount of time through the night.
What I've noticed about Singaporeans' view on LKY is that even if people may have differing opinions on some of his policies or actions, everyone deeply respects him and finds him to be a noble man. He may have been stern and at times authoritarian, but there is no disputing the fact that through his leadership Singapore was able to develop from the third world fishing port it once was to the cosmopolitan metropolis it is today.
After seeing how affected Singaporeans (and the whole international community, really) is by LKY's passing, I look forward to learning more about him this summer by reading a couple of his books. If you're interested in learning more about LKY, there are many great articles online that I recommend.
The Independent, Cheng (While I don't necessarily agree with this author's viewpoint, this one is definitely worth reading if you are a Westerner)
In other news...
This will probably be my final blog post until finals are over, which ends on the 28th of April. I'm really trying to focus all of my energy on classes. Unlike many exchange students, I'm even postponing my travel plans until after finals end. That said, I have decided that I will travel to Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea before returning back home and starting my summer internship!
However, even though finals may end on the 28th, I will remain active on this blog for the month following finals. I feel as though it is necessary to continue the blog after finals end so that I may have time to reflect on my experiences and articulate them properly back to you all. I anticipate that the blog posts following finals will be among my best, as I already have a general sense of what I will share.
In the meantime, please feel free to catch up on any of my previous blog posts -- wish me luck in my classes!
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