Mini Balik Pulau Durians Feast

The durian season in Balik Pulau is in full swing. Wuan scheduled her leave especially to coincide with this event. We had for company during the four-day sojourn in Penang our best friends William and Cynthia and their lovely kids Emily and Henry. We drove up from Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and enjoyed the best of Balik Pulau durians, Penang hawker food, crazy traffic jams and mad drivers.

Balik Pulau durian - Ah Wong of Stall 808
Balik Pulau durian – Ah Wong of Stall 808.
Photo by Wuan.

Three days prior to the trip, I had booked four durians from Ah Wong who runs the 808 stall opposite the Balik Pulau bus terminal. While durians are aplenty, the “ho bak” (good quality) durians are usually snapped up as they come in from the plantation. Wuan and I have been patronising Ah Wong for many years as we are related in some ways and are sure to get the best he has. Ah Wong is very deft in opening durians with just a pen knife. A few cuts to the bottom of the thorny fruit and the glory of the yellow flesh is quickly revealed.

Balik Pulau durian - Lin Feng Jiao
Balik Pulau durian – Lin Feng Jiao.

The first durian that Ah Wong opened for us was Lin Feng Jiao, named after the famous Taiwanese actress of the 1970s. Why it was named so, I did not ask. Perhaps, the actress was the first thing that came to mind when this durian was being savoured. I certainly did not have that impression. It was a rather large fruit with firm and sticky flesh, so sticky that one cannot eat too many seeds without having to drink some water in between.

Balik Pulau durian - Cheh Puay
Balik Pulau durian – Cheh Puay.

Cheh Puay (green skin) is one of my favourites. Its flesh is what durian connoisuers call “koh liam” or bitter yet sweet. I never really found out why I always sneezed when I ate “koh liam” durians. Just like eating durians is an acquired taste, eating “koh liam” durians is also an acquired taste. Not everyone who likes durians likes the bitter ones.

Balik Pulau durian - Tiam Teng
Balik Pulau durian – Tiam Teng.

I have forgotten why I was not too fond of Tiam Teng which meant “lighting the lamp”. Wuan liked it very much though. She says the slight bitterness and creaminess was nice. The fruit is roundish. It is difficult to open with bare hands as it has a thick core that the locals call “tua sim”. I have seen people attempting to open such durians with parangs with little success even after mutilating the bottom of the fruit.

As for its name, I can only guess that it was named so because the planters had to wait for it to drop in the thick of the night with an oil lamp to make sure that the fruits do not get stolen. “Ho bak” durians sometimes get stolen as soon as they drop but woe betide the thief who gets caught as the punishment would be ugly and nasty.

Likewise, tourists should not pluck durians from the trees or pick up durians on the roadside along Teluk Bahang, Sungai Pinang and balik Pulau. Plucking the fruit would spoil the tree as it was believed that the fruits would no longer fall even after they are ripe. Picking durians resting on the roaside is considered stealing. Such durians would surely have dropped from someone’s tree waiting to be picked up.

Balik Pulau durian - Ang Heh
Balik Pulau durian – Ang Heh.

Ang Heh is Hokkien for “red prawn.” It has a mild pleasant aroma, not overly sweet and has a smooth texture. Its flesh has hints of pink and resembles a big prawn, hence its name. I am adding this to my list of favourite durians. If there is a durian that I would recommend to the uninitiated, this would be the one. We wished we could savour a few more durians but we were totally stuffed. Some of my other favourites that I have had there previous times were Ganja (cannabis/marijuana), Susu (milk) and Hor Lor (gourd).

Deadly Obstacle Course At Gurney Drive

Casuarina tree outside Restoran Khaleel blocking almost the entire sidewalk at Gurney Drive
Casuarina tree outside Restoran Khaleel blocking almost the entire sidewalk at Gurney Drive.

Continuing from my previous entry regarding the lack of kerb ramps to the seafront promenade at Gurney Drive, there actually are quite a number of them across the road. The first kerb ramp is outside Evergreen Laurel Hotel where the blind man crossing sign is. However, there is no ramp to get off the sidewalk at the other end.

The subsequent kerb ramps outside the Zealand Cafe, Carnation Cafe and Song River Cafe are either poorly constructed or lead to sidewalks blocked by trees, phone booth or lamp posts. Wuan and I encountered a lamp post right in the middle of a sidewalk reminiscent of the one that we maneuvered around at Pandan Perdana and fell off the pavement and onto the road.

Kerb ramp and lamp post blocking sidewalk at Gurney Drive
Lamp post right in the middle of sidewalk at the junction of Persiaran Gurney – Jalan Birch.

When these sidewalks are not blocked by trees or street furniture, we encountered vehicles indiscriminately parked on the driveways and blocking access to the kerb ramps. In the end, I had to go on the road, too, and face oncoming traffic passing by inches away just like what I experienced the day before.

Wuan and I had gallivanted around Gurney Drive several times before this and I wonder how we managed then. We must have had more courage back then. Or perhaps we had faith in drivers in Penang to be careful and considerate. The accessible facilities for disabled people in Gurney Drive are simply built without much thought and consideration, and are a danger not only to disabled people but non-disabled pedestrians as well.

Vehicle blocking access the kerb ramp at Gurney Drive
Indiscriminately parked vehicle blocking access to kerb ramp at Gurney Drive.

Like I have repeated so many times before, building a ramp does not make it wheelchair friendly, handicapped friendly or disabled friendly, whatever we choose to call these facilities. They must be safe to use and barrier free. The ones at Gurney Drive are not. They fall short of even the most basic of requirements.

The people at Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang (MPPP) must take note of these matters seriously. It is a matter of life and death for disabled people when we have to go on the road to move from one point to another. It is not that difficult to make good kerb ramps and sidewalks that are barrier free. But I see the same mistakes being duplicated all over all the time.

Phone booth in sidewalk at Gurney Drive
Helo? There is a phone booth blocking the sidewalk at Gurney Drive.

This issue is not unique only to Gurney Drive, or Penang for that matter. Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ) and Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (MBI), to name a few, all build facilities that are mostly non-usable by disabled people despite of the availability of Malaysian Standard MS 1184: Code of Practice for Access for Disabled Persons to Buildings and Malaysian Standard MS 1331: Code of Practice for Access of Disabled Persons Outside Buildings

The engineers, architects and whoever are in charge of such infrastructure in the local governments are not doing their job properly. Two years after coming into force, the Akta Orang Kurang Upaya (Persons with Disabilities Act) rings hollow for disabled people whose right of equal access to public facilities are still being overlooked and ignored.

Risking Life And Limb At Gurney Drive

Peter Tan at Gurney Drive
Wheelchair user forced to use the road at Gurney Drive.
Photo by Wuan.

Wuan and I were in Penang last week. That was not the first time we played tourists at Gurney Drive. The previous times we were there, we liked to stroll along the Casuarina-lined promenade early in the morning and evening to soak in the beautiful seascape and then adjourn to one of the numerous kopitiams for some local hawker fare afterwards.

Peter Tan at Gurney Drive
The Toyota Unser sped by just mere inches away from a wheelchair user at Gurney Drive.
Photo by Wuan.

We did the same this trip except we realised that kerb ramps to get to the promenade are far and few in between. I had to go on the road for quite a distance from the Gurney Resort Hotel and Residences, where we were staying, before we arrived at the first kerb ramp opposite Evergreen Laurel Hotel. In between that, I had to brave oncoming traffic on the road, hoping and praying that I won’t get hit by a car or a motorcycle speeding by us before I got to the kerb ramp.

Peter Tan at Gurney Drive
Wheelchair user fighting for space on the road at Gurney Drive.
Photo by Wuan.

Gurney Drive is a rather long stretch of road, about 1.9km from end to end. Likewise the seafront promenade, which is a continuous stretch of uninterrupted walkway. There are simply too few kerb ramps for wheelchair users to get onto the promenade or get off to go to the kopitiams across the road. As a popular tourist destination, the lack of accessibility makes it difficult for disabled people to fully enjoy our time there. Most importantly, our safety is severely compromised each time we are forced to use the road with other vehicles while trying to locate a kerb ramp.

Peter Tan at Gurney Drive
Blind pedestrian crossing sign and kerb ramps on both sides of the road at Gurney Drive.
Photo by Wuan.

The Penang state government, the Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang (MPPP) and the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia should make a serious effort in improving the accessible facilities at Gurney Drive in line with the government’s effort to promote tourism in the country as well as to fulfil the obligations as required under the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008, namely the rights of equal access to public facilities, and to recreation and leisure activities.