As I settled down with the idea to go back to Ko Phangan, I got news that the camera would be repaired only the next week. So long the original plan. Of course, one option would be to go to Thailand and try to fix the camera there, but knowing Thai laid-back mentality I think I’ve got better chances to get it fixed here. So in the light of this new information it looks like I am going further south to Singapore via Cameron Highlands and Melaka if time permits. Then back to Penang to get the camera and then hopefully back to Phangan.
Sven Väth @ Zouk Singapore on 28th January, here I come!
Category Archives: Epic Journey 2
On the subject of money
After traveling for three months from a city to a city, I am beginning to lose any idea what money is worth. Money is becoming something abstract of unknown value. When you go on a two week holiday, it is easy to have a point of reference of what money is worth, as you just compare the local price level to of your own country. Furthermore, touristy vacation is all about spending money anyway. For a limited time you get a nicely packaged experience, which you most certainly cannot afford back at home. But when doing a longer tour hopping from one country to another, the baseline price level becomes very vague and having no constant positive money flow makes matters even more complicated. What is cheap and what is not? Can I afford it now? Will I be able to afford in a couple months? Is that fruit shake worth buying? Should I buy clothes here or wait until I get to another place? Is one euro extra for a room really worth spending? I honestly do not know answers to any of these questions. Yes, experience is invaluable, but one extra fruit-shake does not change anything apart from giving you a momentary sugar spike. As for accommodation, you usually get better service and better quality for a higher price, but in the end does it really matter? As long as there are no bedbugs, I get a good night sleep and there are some people to chat with, I am ok with anything. Staying in a nice room does not matter in the long term, but as John Keynes put it “In the longterm we are all dead”.
The price dissonance is especially bad when you go from a cheap place to a more expensive one and keep lamenting all the lost cheap prices you had just last week, even if the actual difference is negligible.
Different currencies make the issue even more complicated. Is 100 baht a lot for a meal? What about 10 ringgit or 25 yuan? In all three cases it is the same amount of 2.5€, but interestingly enough 100 baht felt like a lot of money in Thailand, while 10 ringgit is a small pocket change. China was somewhere in between. My current strategy is to have a daily budget, which is actually somewhat higher that I spend on average. However, having an inflated budget gives a green light to indulging, which does not go well with my original low-budget strategy. Oh well, I guess I shall see if this strategy works out. Another possible strategy would be to spend money and worry later, which I guess would work very well at least in a short term. Then again the longterm effects are another matter…
Any comments on how to handle this mental dissonance are welcome 🙂
If you want to make god laugh…
…tell him about your plans. I fully realized the truth of this statement during my journey. Making any plans is next to useless, as you most likely end up doing something else anyway. Hard deadlines as flight tickets and visa dates provide some sort of guidelines, but even those are not set in stone. The deadline of my second entry to China is on 15th March, but now I am considering staying in South East Asia for a little longer instead and getting a new visa later if I decide to go back to China. Oh well, it is almost two months until then, so who knows what I will end up doing.
I came to Penang for two reasons: a) to do a vipassana retreat and b) figure out what to do next. The third reason was to get my digital camera fixed while I would be sitting in the retreat. Sounded very neat and logical at the time. After spending a couple of days here, it became clear to me that I want to get back to Hat Yuan to rendez-vous with Finnish posse (hello Urkki, Johanna, Noora ja Ilmari). As soon as possible, too. Then I found out about the annual Thaipusam festival happening here on Thursday and it seemed like something really worth seeing. A few days before the festival is too short time to do a retreat and too long time to just bum around the city. Luckily (or not so) the fate of my camera was unknown until today, so I could not just disappear into the world of vipassana, nor leave Penang. Given these two factors, I realized that the retreat is not doable at this point and it is better to stick to the festival and getting the camera back and then head back to Thailand. No regrets about the retreat too.
So far so good. But as life is full of surprises, I just found out that Sven Väth is playing in Zouk, Singapore on 28th January, so now it is really tempting to travel Maleysia for the next ten days and end up in Singapore for quality German techno. I must admit that it sounds almost as good as going back to Hat Yuan. Aaargh, decision making and missed opportunities. Just lovely.
Sugar
Asians do love their sugar. Most Thai food for example contain (not so) little amounts of sugar. Curries, papaya salad and pad thai – all have sugar, which partly explains the delicious taste. Granted sugar can enhance the taste of many meals (take teriyaki sauce for example, which is basically soy sauce and sugar), but Thai seem to go over the top with excessive amounts of sugar. I have never been to India, but apparently it is even worse, considering it leads the world charts with both sugar use and diabetes case per capita. Most Malay drinks are sweet to the point that they are barely drinkable. I had excellent chrysanthemum tea in China, but Malaysian one is ruined with enormous amounts of white powder. Lipton Ice Tea sold in Asia is, for one, much sweater than its European counterpart. Fruit shakes, fresh juices, yogurts and lassis have unholy amounts of sugar as well. Tasty meal and a sweet drink is an excellent combination, though, as long as the sugar contents is reasonable, which is unfortunately not the case in Malaysia or Thailand. And do not get me started on pastries and desserts. Like sugar in everyday meals was not enough, most desserts are sickly sweet. Combined with snow-white dough and you have got a recipe for obesity, diabetes and ruined teeth. Some desserts are not even good at all, just sweet and unhealthy. For example, bakeries in Hong Kong and Shanghai were terrible.
I like sweet stuff as much as the next person, but consuming all this sugar daily made me thinking what the hell I am doing to my body. Another realization I made recently is how addictive sugar is. After having a little bit of sugar (like a single Oreo cookie) makes me immediately crave more, even if I didn’t want it in the first place. It is really hard to stop until there is something left to consume. Sigh. One more thing about sugar is that mosquitos and bedbugs apparently love sweet blood, so consuming all that sugar makes you a desirable target for them. Now it would be fun to stop consuming all the sugar and see if that makes any difference with mosquitos (hopefully no more bedbug encounters). This is one goal worth pursuing.
Penang, the pearl of the orient
Penang reminds me of Malta. Both are islands formerly occupied by the British, which can be clearly seen in architecture, infrastructure and the language. However, whilst Malta is a complete disaster, Penang is rather nice with its excellent food, more than reasonable prices and beautiful nature thanks to hilly terrain (in contrast, there is no nature in Malta). Malta’s national park is a joke in form of a concrete paradise with some planted trees. While Penang’s national park is proper jungle with minimum infrastructure like occasional steps and bridges. Not as wild as the jungle on Ko Phangan, but enjohyable nonetheless. Both Malta and Penang are heavy on traffic and rather pedestrian unfriendly, but unlike Malta Penang does not feel polluted. All in all, Penang wins all over Malta.
After three weeks of isolated life on Hat Yuan, Penang feels like an indulgence paradise, especially when it comes to shopping and food. All Asian cuisines are represented here with an accent on seafood. No more Thai food from a standard menu for a while. As for shopping, got myself a pair of cheap Quicksilver slippers with funky colours, so hopefully these won’t get stolen/rotated as it happened with black flip-flops.
On a less pleasant note, I got bitten by bedbugs on my first night in Penang. The name of the culprit is Love Lane Inn. The manager’s response, when I confronted him about the matter? “We do not have bedbugs here, it is the guests who bring them”. Stupidly enough I paid for two nights and the manager did not want to refund the second night. Anyhow, room change and some DEET made a second night sleep bearable. A note to self, always google for “hostel name bedbugs” before checking in to a hostel.