A Sufiana qawwali, Celtic songs, a sylvan beach, Malay and Chinese cuisines are just a few of the many finds at Penang, the Pearl of the OrientThe number that I am going to sing now,” Dya Singh looks at the sea of faces in front of him and pauses theatrically, “will have you on your toes. It’s a Sufiana qawwali and in the country where my ancestors come from— India— it’s a song that celebrates unity,” he continues. The crowd waits tentatively and then as Singh breaks out in to Dum mast qalandar mast mast, a loud cheer goes around. Singh’s version is peppy, interspersed with quasi-Bollywood jhatkas by two of his daughters, who are also part of the troupe, and the motley crowd seems to have found its groove. The Irish band Teada follows, with their traditional Celtic ditties and the evening seems set to be an affair to remember. Sitting under the star-spangled sky at Penang, in a quarry overlooking the botanical garden, and watching musicians across the globe perform, it was a distinct feeling of well-being and happiness that washed over me. It was the second edition of the Penang World Music festival and 11 bands had assembled from countries as varied as France, Mexico, Denmark, Ireland, Tibet, the US and Croatia, besides various local bands. Two huge stages had been set up and an excellent acoustics put in place at the lush quarry garden. The year before rain had played spoilsport at the open-air venue, but this time the mood seemed upbeat and the weather just right. The evening before, at an elaborate dinner party organised by the Penang State Tourism Council, at the Khoo Kongsi, a gorgeous and undoubtedly the grandest Chinese clan house on the island, that seemed straight out of a Jackie Chan movie, we had met Singh, a musician of Indian origin, with 14 CDs to his credit and world tours across Asia and the US. A resident of Australia now, Singh was born in Penang, where his father, a Sikh musician moved over six decades back. “We grew up on these devotional songs and hymns. When I shifted to Australia, I thought I should continue with the tradition of Shabad kirtans, only make the presentation a bit more contemporary so that younger people had something to cherish as well,” he had said, tucking in to the lavish dinner buffet on offer. The contemporaneity certainly seemed to have worked for him the following day as encore requests kept coming in. Our party though, had started much earlier, when we reached Penang a couple of days ahead of the festival. Located off the north-western coast of peninsular Malaysia, Penang is often referred to as the Pearl of the Orient, and has a multi-racial population comprising Malays, Chinese and Indians among others. Even though Georgetown is the main administrative base of the island, and the more populated part of the region, it’s the sylvan beaches further up north that we were headed for, Batu Ferringhi to be more precise. “It means the rocks of the foreigners,” our cabbie told us, “because during colonial times the foreign ships used to dock here for food and fuel.” The colonisers have long gone since, but Batu Ferringhi, with its steady stream of tourists still serves as a watering hole for the romantic and the adventurous. We wandered through the butterfly farm, trying to differentiate between a Black Swallowtail and a Gulf Fritillary before hopping off on an agro-tourism trail through an extensive tropical fruit farm. The beaches are tempting, so are the night bazaar at the sidewalks, but most of all, it’s the plethora of cuisine on offer that made my days. The streetside restaurants offer everything from Hokkien to Teochew to Hainanese to the more popular Cantonese and Sczechuan variety of Chinese meals. We tucked into the Char Koay Teow —rice flat noodles fried with chilly paste, soya sauce and assorted seafood, and the Hokkien Mee (prawn noodle soup), and the mind-boggling variety of satays with a vengeance, (imagine a satay with lobster, crabmeat, squid and prawns all together and you’ll get the drift) but it was the Nyonya cuisine that completely stole my heart. A mix of Malay and Chinese cooking traditions that originated in the early nineteenth century with the inter-marriages that took place, Nyonya involves an elaborate cooking process with a variety of spices and herbs besides the ubiquitous onion, garlic and chillies. Sample the Otak-Otak (spicy fish cake steamed in banana leaf) or the enche kabin (a popular snack, somewhat like a prawn cocktail) and you’ll know what I mean.Penang’s history is young, dating back to 1786 when the Sultan of Kedah acquiesced the island to Sir Francis Light of the East India Company. So more than the visit to the City Hall or a lone standing canon at Fort Cornwallis, it’s the picturesque landscapes that hold our attention. In fact, the air of careless abundance around Penang is hard to miss. And so is the plush greenery. From the blue-green sea soaking up the sun to the lush vegetation leaping out of every available nook and corner unapologetically to create a breath-taking backdrop, the island screams of good times waiting to be embraced. Standing at the edge of the sea, watching the sun dip down into the aquamarine on the eve of our departure, I feel glad I chose to come here over its pacy and more popular counterpart, Kuala Lumpur. It’s good to take a chance and watch it unfold surprises for you.
