Just when you think you have a place all figured out, bam comes a few other surprises up its sleeves. On my trip to Penang last weekend, the remarkable island dealt a few shockers my way.

Firstly, there’s the Penang National Park. Upon hearing of its existence, I was frankly gobsmacked. Who would have thought the little island would have a national park of its own?

Even most of the locals I spoke to were equally surprised to hear about the chunk of land at the North-West corner of Penang was gazetted as a national park on 10 April 2003. Most notably, it is the smallest national park in the world. And it contain Malaysia’s only meromictic lake - a lake with two separate layers of fresh and sea water. Talk about being a multi-record breaker.

The Eating Traveller

You must forgive me for being such an ignoramus about Penang. I admit that I’m no stranger to this fascinating state as I’ve visited Penang about 5 times over the years. However, the first three times was merely to eat, eat and well, to eat some more. In my defence, I was merely doing what countless other tourists do. Penang is synonymous with good food after all.

Penang’s Char Kuey Teow, Nasi Kandar, Cendol, Tandoori Chicken, Prawn Mee, and excellent sea food amongst others will have you clamouring for more. You’ll be hard-pressed to find mediocre food there. If the food is not up to the local standards, the restaurant will fold within a short time. That’s Penang for ya.

On my fourth and fifth trip there, my friends and I decided to delve a little deeper into Penang’s history and culture. I started noticing the wealth of heritage buildings that distinguishes Penang from say, the ultra modern Kuala Lumpur. Georgetown, Penang is undoubtedly a city, but it is a city with character. I love the quaint street names such as Love Lane, King and Queen Street. Very British.

History Comes Alive

After I firmly put aside thoughts of what I’m going to eat next, taking a walk in Penang is akin to seeing history come alive. You’ll think of Sir Francis Light as you pass Fort Cornwallis

– the place where it all began. As you stare at the embankment near the fort, you can almost see the silver coins tossed by the British soldiers to the beach. It was a successful ruse to trick the locals into clearing the bushes to collect the coins, thus enabling the British to easily land on the shores of Penang and overtake it without bloodshed.

And what juicy stories the Pinang Peranakan Mansion has behind its massive and intricately decorated doors? Plenty, I was told, starting from Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee’s rags to riches story and success in building his dream mansion in the 1890’s to his son Chung Thye Pin, the last Kapitan of Perak.

The present owner, Mr. Peter Soon Seng Moh bought over the mansion from Kapitan Chung’s descendents and filled it with his amazing collection of antiques gathered locally as well as from China and England. Yes, I could spend the day there just staring in awe at each antique, wondering about the stories they hide.

The Choppy Boat Ride

Besides history, I discovered one more thing about Penang that I never knew – you can beach hopalong the Penang National Park and literally have the boat ride of your life. On an extremely choppy day, the boat ride is similar to a thrilling roller coaster ride. My friends and I alternated between screaming our heads off and laughing at each others’ frightened and wet faces.

In between the shrieking and roars of laughter, I still managed to enjoy the beautiful green trees decorating the national park and the White-Bellied eagles soaring effortlessly above. To my delight, I saw one eagle swooping down the waters and emerge victorious with a fish gripped tightly between its talons. In the distant trees, the guide pointed out an eagle’s nest to us. A typical eagle’s nest is reportedly big enough to support an adult human. That’s one really huge nest!

Baby Turtles

Next on the list are turtles. I didn’t know that the endangered/threatened turtle species such as the Green Turtle and Olive Ridley Turtle frequently nest in Penang. There’s also a turtle hatchery and conservation centre at Pantai Kerachut, which is part of the Penang National Park.

Mr. Khairi Ishak, the 21 year old person in charge of the hatchery centre is a walking encyclopaedia on all things turtle. He shared with us how they used the sand’s temperature to control the gender of the baby turtles.

“Females need warmer temperatures between 29.5 and 32 Celsius whereas males are formed in temperatures between 26 and 29.5 Celsius,” he said.

Armed with temperature measuring tools, the turtle egg rescuers will locate the perfect spot to transfer the eggs freshly laid by the mother turtle and start digging about 70cm deep into the earth. The eggs will hatch in due time (45 days for females and 2 months for males) and the babies will take 3 days to crawl out to the surface. They are then transferred to a big blue container filled with some water.

It was a surreal moment looking at the day old Green Turtle babies swimming energetically in a big blue container. They were to be released in a few days’ time and left to fend for themselves in the harsh sea world out there. Only one out of 1,000 baby turtles survive to return to the same shores that they were born in to lay eggs. Pretty slim odds, eh? I took a last look at the little dark green tykes and wished them all the best in their future struggle to survive.

So Much More to Discover

After last weekend, I learned not to underestimate the supposedly familiar and small state. There is more to Penang than meets the eye. Or in the words of its tourism tagline, Penang truly has it all.