Up and about in Balik Pulau
This town in the southwest part of Penang has a lot of hidden delights waiting to be discovered, writes
ASPOONFUL of goat's milk pudding enters my mouth, feeling firm and cold. It releases an aroma that reminds me of powdered milk. This surprises me as I was expecting a strong goaty aroma. Next, I glug down a bottle of goat's milk and find it palatable as well. Also available are goat's milk-passionfruit yogurt, goat's milk coffee and nutmeg yogurt.
Here I am sitting in a thatched-roofed shed in Saanen Goat Dairy Farm, some four kilometres away from Balik Pulau. What I like about this place is that no appointments are necessary to visit.
Snack over, I enter the barn to feed the Saanen goats. The moment I set my gaze on the animals, I am reminded of the Mary Had a Little Lamb nursery rhyme.
From the goat farm, I proceed to Ghee Hup Nutmeg Factory, sprawled in a valley surrounded by hundreds of nutmeg trees. As I stride towards a zinc-roofed shed, a sweetmusky aroma swirls in the air.
Inside, a man is explaining the different parts of the nutmeg and their respective uses to several people gathered around a table on which are placed baskets of the fruit.
In another section, workers are remov- ing the mace from the shell by hand. I head straight to the sales section to browse the different products offered. A sip from a paper sampling cup of nutmeg juice prompts me to buy three bottles.
My next destination is the Lean Seng Bedak Factory, which is a little hard to find as there is no signboard. The front porch of a house displays laminated cards showing the various stages of powder-making.
In the compound, trays of bedak are drying under the sun almost everywhere. According to the owner, Yeoh Siong Huat, his bedak products are even exported to Japan!
Then I head for Chop Kim Hoa Belacan Factory, where globs of belacan (shrimp paste) spread out on wooden stands are drying under the sun, resulting in the smell of rotting fishing permeating the place.
According to a worker, the production process starts by grinding krill in a machine. The resulting pulp is mixed with salt and allowed to ferment. Then the pulp, which has turned brown, is dried under the sun, compacted into slabs and wrapped using a machine. in population when Malay refugees from Kedah settled here after the state was attacked by the Kingdom of Siam under King Rama II.
Next, I visited the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus which was founded in 1845 by Reverend Fr. Docotey.
The present structure was erected in 1854. Displaying Gothic architecture, it has a tower crowned with a transept spire. The tower is adorned with louvred windows on three sides, and a clock is outfitted to the facade of the spire.
At Jalan Balik Pulau, the Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Daerah Barat Daya is another attention-grabber. A front porch abuts from the main four-storey building and they are crowned with domes. The crenellated rooflines of the main building and of the front porch were inspired by Mughal architecture.
Across the road stands the Masjid Daerah Balik Pulau which sports two minarets capped with unusual bullet-shaped domes. A verandah supported by semi-circular arches run along the front of the building. Geometric designs adorn the semi-circular sections of the arches.
Also vying for attention along the main drag are three murals by Russian street artist Julia Volchkova, which adorn the walls of pre-war buildings. Measuring almost six metres high, they add colour and life to the surroundings.
There are The Silat Master which depicts Johari Omar in a fighting stance, Dancing Hakka Girl is Pang Yi Chuen and Old Fisherman is Yeoh Choon Seng.
The famous Kim Laksa is located in Nan Guang Coffee Shop. Bowls of laksa noodles were stacked up in a glass case and they looked tempting. However, having made plans to try assam laksa janggus in Kampung Perlis, I give this assam laksa a miss.