ONE DAY LAST WEEK, in an effort to keep our visitors from being bored, and also to show them at least something other than Penang (we had talked about going to Langkawi/ KL/ Camerons/ Haadjai etc etc etc but all to no avail ... many things kept us stuck in Penang, not least because there was just so much to see, do and eat .. anyway, I digress) we decided to take them to Taiping.
Now it's not as random as all that - Taiping has got many firsts listed (31 to be exact - check out website http://malaysiabudgethotel.com/destinations/taiping-perak.html) in the country, including the first English newspaper to be published, the first Malay school, the first English girls' school - Treacher, where both my mom and my aunt taught); apart from that its other claim to fame is ... my parents were both born there! So I spent a lot of my childhood there staying with relatives; I love the place, with its (still relatively) quiet streets and sleepy little hollow feel, good food and in fact make a point of returning there every year to see the few members of our family left there, esp during Cheng Beng and Chinese New Year.
It was also an opportunity for them to see the Penang Bridge and a bit of our countryside as it's rather different from UK's gentle rolling dales, and it's near enough to make a day trip out of it. In fact it was a rather quick journey: we got there at about noon and even then the storm clouds were already gathering in the horizon over the hills. We met some relatives for lunch: just in time actually, cos when we were in Prima Kopitiam the heavens opened, and it bucketed down as it has been doing every afternoon there for a while apparently.
Still, it allowed me time to enjoy the chicken rice which this cheerful and friendly young man (forgot his name) has been cooking and serving for the past ... wait for this ... FIFTY ONE YEARS! He is 65, and started at 14 or so helping another Chicken Rice Stallholder, and set out on his own a few years later. He has been at the place for over 40 years.
His Chicken Rice is good - only pak cham kai he maintains, as the more modern roasted version is NOT Hainan Chicken Rice - and the flesh is tender and silky, but I had to tell him that his chilli sauce is not brilliant. He blamed it on the "Thai chilli" which isn't as good. I didn't think that was a very reasonable excuse really, but at least he didn't get upset about it! The really sad thing is although his daughter helps him now, none of his other kids is interested in taking over so once he retires, that's another Malaysian legend gone. He seemed quite prepared to teach others his skill so PLEASE someone - take him up on it, because we will lose our heritage (Malaysian or not) at this rate!
Anyway with the weather still pretty wet we just had a quick spin around the famous beautiful Lake Gardens (another first) and overhanging branches of the gorgeous centuries-old raintrees, past the prison (yet another)then headed back home to Penang ... in time for yet another dinner!
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