The Beauty of Small Moments

I am going to eventually do a more in-depth post about my trip to Malaysia, but there were a few stand-out moments that I wanted to highlight separately. So, here is the first one... 

From the outside, it was a small and rather unassuming restaurant on a corner on a street in Georgetown. However, it was famous for its char kway teow and Penang laksa. There was a crowd of people trying to get a taste of their renowned food, but not as many as I had expected perhaps due to the rain that was steadily falling. 

And it was into this chaotic scene that I walked. Waiters whisked back and forth between tables, delivering food and making change. Tourists, including myself, wandered around, enviously looking at people eating (and photographing) their food while keeping an eye out for an empty seat. The ordering system wasn't very clear, but luckily a native of Penang swooped in and saved me. After awkwardly asking her how she had ordered and received food, she called over one of the men and ordered for me, translating his questions as he asked them: 

"What do you want?"

"Ummm, whatever you are having" as I pointed at her plate. 

"Do you eat eggs?"

"Do you want prawns?"

"Spicy?"

"Yes.

"Yes."

"No changes. I would like it how it normally comes." 

After that, we started talking as I waited for my food and she finished hers. I learned she works in Singapore but had returned to Penang for a visit, a "self-retreat" as she called it. My food came, and we continued to chat as I ate, quickly consuming the delicious noodles and various add-ins.  

 

I mentioned I had been walking past on the way somewhere else when my rumbling stomach and recognition of the restaurant forced me to turn around and walk into the busy shop. She said it must have been fate that we met, because she doesn't normally eat at this restaurant but had stopped after her friends couldn't meet her for lunch. 

She was an absolutely lovely human being, and I agree. It must have been fate that we met, sat at the same table, and shared a tiny bit of time and ourselves with each other. It's the little human-to-human moments that make traveling so amazing. 

Cheers to spontaneous lunches and unexpected meetings. 

Until later, 

Carissa