Carnivorous plants on Penang Hill

Nepenthes albomarginata, native of Penang

The Penang Botanic Garden is nothing spectacular. It's more or less a public park that offers nice picnic spots and photo opportunities for wedding parties. But there are real botanical marvels nearby, they're just very well hidden. Reaching them involves two hours of hiking up Penang Hill and a 15 minute walk further along the ridge. There lies the Monkey Cup Garden that specializes in carnivorous plants, specifically those from the genus Nepenthes, also called monkey cups. For the less hiking obsessed, the garden can also be reached via funicular railway and a short ride on a golf cart.

View from Penang Hill

The enthusiastic guide at the garden showed me all the different species of these fascinating plants, gathered from all over the world, many of them from southeast Asia, and some from as far away as South America. Some are small and some are large, in fact, according to the guide, the largest ones can trap small mammals such as rats. Some have lids that close after they trap their prey and some remain open, for the rain to dilute the enzymes. Some grow on the ground and some form vines that twine their way up high. Common to all is that they employ various mechanisms to trap insects and other small animals so that they eventually digest them.

Here is a photo gallery of a few of the many varieties of these plants.

I will never eat rojak again

Food stalls in Penang

They say that Penang is the street food capital of the world. There really are food stalls everywhere and so many dishes to try, I don't even know where to begin.

I decided to skip the soups because I don't like soup in general and because a hot soup just isn't what I want to eat in hot weather. I also eliminated anything resembling fried rice because I had so much fried rice in Laos and Cambodia that the thought of another fried rice meal makes me shudder.

But that still leaves lots of options. I like the noodle or mee dishes. Yellow noodles are served with various meats and vegetables in a spicy sauce, such as this curried chicken version.

Curried chicken mee

Then there's the roti canai and murtabak that could easily become my favorites. They are very similar dishes, made using a very large thin piece of dough that is fried, stuffed with various fillings, such as egg, vegetable or meat, and folded into a rectangle, served with dipping sauces.

I was feeling adventurous among all the food options and so I risked trying one of the desserts as well. Deciding between cendol and rojak I chose the latter for the fresh fruits and vegetables. The term that immediately came to mind when I tried it is bizarre. If they ever give out a reward for the most bizarre food combination, this gets my vote. And if they ever give out a reward to the bravest tourist who ate it, it should be me. This is what it looks like:

Rojak

It's pieces of fruit and vegetables (I recognized pineapple, Malay apple and cucumber, among other stuff I wasn't able to identify), smothered in a thick sweet sauce that could be caramel except it isn't. The stuff on top is ground peanuts. What I don't understand is why do they make it taste fishy by adding fried squid and shrimp paste? Since I ordered it I ate it. But I will definitely never eat this again, it's just too many flavors that don't go together. I had an unpleasant aftertaste when I finished it.

I'm now toying with the idea to try cendol tomorrow. It's made of ice, green noodles (the green color comes from pea flour), beans, coconut milk and is supposed to be very sweet. Should I risk it? Perhaps if it doesn't contain any fishy ingredients, I might think about it.