Georgetown's Hotel Penaga

The penchant for boutique residences, holiday lifestyles and heritage restorations all meet at a junction along Hutton Lane in the old quarter of Penang Island's Georgetown. A whole block of early twentieth century double storey terrace houses has been renovated and rebuilt into a unique experience for visitors seeking an alternative to hotel chains that apparently offer more of the same around the world. Low rise in structure, utilising lots of dark coloured wood panelling and suggesting an ambiance of times gone past, the Hotel Penaga infuses and blends both its external and interior decor with memories of British, Straits Chinese and Malay influences - much like this tropical isle itself is.

There are the obligatory bar and dining areas - with names like Tanglong (meaning 'Lantern") and stark white tablecloths. We had martinis, tia marias and cofffee. Also on the bar list were Pims and Bombay Sapphires.

Outside, a south Indian coffee shop was chock-a-block with youths watching intently a football match on the ESPN channel. Light rain moistened the tarred roads outside, matching the rather quiet elegance of the hotel functional rooms inside.

Antique Straits Chinese window frames form the center piece as one checks into the lobby. There is generous use of stained coloured glass, brass knobs, ornamental lamps and carvings inspired by the likes of the Malayan peninsular and Bali. Looking from outside, some of the character of the original British Malaya architecture is retained, although now topped up discretely by hints of southern Chinese roof styles. There may be plumbing issues to over come though - the taps were not exactly user friendly when we visited.

Hotel Penaga has attempted to evoke a time of when tea and pepper merchants crossed paths with colonial government servants, South-east Asian royalty and Australian naval officers. Today it tries to lure bond and currency traders, political brokers, internet professionals and new China hands to its corridors.

Nan Tien, The Southern Buddhist Heaven

Illawarra Beaches - Bellambi Point

A Malaysian Food Trail

A refreshingly cold drink on the hottest January day in about twenty years. This concoction, called the three flavours, is an ice shaving mix drowned in milk, black jelly strips and green coloured crunchy bits made from mung beans (cendol). Cendol is ubiquitous on the street food stalls in South-east Asia from Vietnam to Indonesia. A dessert that also serves as a quick teatime snack, it is a necessary tool of defence to cool down the palate, body and temperament, especially when temperatures soar above 30 degrees Celsius. It is also highly effective when taken with curries and deep fried foods. The concoction has to be stirred thoroughly before preferred through a large sized straw, to allow the bits and pieces to be slurped through, accompanying the drink portion. We had our share of cendol this time at Albee's along the main strip of Beamish Street in Campsie, south-west of Sydney CBD.

Joyce's Mum, Rosie, had just returned from Penang, Malaysia and we reckoned we should check out some parts of greater Sydney that was hardly frequented. I was fascinated by this unassuming mural (above) painted on a back wall beside a side street off Marrickville Road in the multi-ethnic suburb of Marrickville. The musical instruments depicted on this mural reminded me of some of the traditional instruments used in multi-racial Malaysia, except for the one with a duck shaped handle. You can spot Indian drums, Chinese pipas and Malay violins. The vegetables offered on display in Marrickville (below) seemed to be wilting under the harsh sunlight, but contribute to the variety of stir-fried dishes often complemented with condiments, garlic and ginger on the wok.

One of my favourite supper or lunch snacks back in my hometown of Penang Island is the Cantonese-inspired wat tan chow hor, soaking in a delicious egg-based gravy poured over an aromatic mixture of prawns, cut choy sum vegetable stalks/ leaves and stir fried wide flat rice noodles (hor fun). For this dish to have a kick, it has to be eaten whilst warm and with vinegar-soaked cut green chilli rings - and the wok used to stir fry the noodles must have been going for several hours. Home kitchens rarely produce a mean and really rewarding quality of this culinary creation. In my mind, this chow hor is associated with a fun trip with Papa and brothers, the kids in pyjamas, going for a special treat in a car in the latter part of the night, for a quick meal in Georgetown before turning into bed.

Mum makes the best mee rebus, and interpretations of this South Indian inspired dish can vary with different crunchiness of the battered shrimps, the smoothness of the potato-based gravy and the spiciness of the dish.

Rebus is to simmer, and yellow Hokkien noodles are preferred, with fried shallots used as the garnish.

The experience is heated up with an optional dollop of paste made from pounded chillies and shrimp. Above image, the dish made at Ginger and Spice in the Chatswood Chase in Sydney's upper north shore.

I Was Just Standing There

The sky above the horizon was changing colours - mild purple, relaxing pink and topped up by an on-coming grey. That evening,the Tasman Sea was benign and reflected the colours of the sunset.  It was past 8pm, and what transfixed us, along the North Gong Beach, was not a late summer evening's ambiance, but the fast changing eclipse of the full moon.

Smoky wisps of shadow gradually engulfed the largest lamp in our Earth's night sky -and just as fast as it came, the eclipse left in a huff, with the whole process taking just about 30 minutes. The event did not bother the wave and board surfers along the beach. Some diners in covered buildings were oblivious to this, what Nature can surprisingly throw up, but most pronounced and evident when it happens in that window of change called either sunset or sunrise.  Different cultures ascribe various and varying meanings to such eclipses, but to me it was just beautiful -and my group was just awe-struck.

At twenty six degrees Celsius, it is not that temperature hot, but recently the radiating heat felt has been more like what an Australian summer should be like.  What is lovely is the accompanying sensation of cooling breezes on the skin, standing beside water, standing at a look out point, or just looking out from your open house windows. I noticed an increasing preference for ceiling fans in several abodes visited in the past year.  I am not convinced that this pattern arose out of an urge to primarily save the environment. Maybe it comes from a more practical mindset and to be more financially sustainable.  As a Dave Soutter remarked to me, air-conditioning can be over the top for bedrooms when one sleeps at night, and all I may need is just a good circulation of air, like that experienced after winding down the windows in a moving vehicle.  Utility rates have gone up in pricing as well across Australia.

At a Hornsby, Sydney party, looking out at the balcony, we could hear the passing traffic below. I have not been to a residental high rise much lately, and the impact of  this lifestyle did rear up to my mind and imagination that evening.  We could see beyond the suburb, the bush at the Ku-ring Gai Reserve, the lights of Westfield and the railway line and station. The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite, but both the kitchen and laundry room have no windows.  The complex has two layers of security, one controlled by a resident guard and the other by buzzing the address button.  The lounge and bedrooms of the apartment we had a party in were rather spacious for a Sydney location.  There were proper garages in the basement.

We were hanging around, after a good spread for tea, and coming from Wollongong, it made me think.  Numerous facilities were nearby, but mostly man made. Standing near the open windows did make me feel the breeze, but not immediately from the ocean. Permission was required for things that stand alone house owners may have taken for granted. Neighbour Ann and her young daughter Karlina dropped by at the gathering - Karlina loved rolling around on the carpet and seemed to be aware of the limits of the balcony.

I may have missed the point, though -you can still view the full moon, maybe even better, and any lunar eclipses, from a high rise residence.  And talk of feeling, full on, of breezes at that  height!