The Thorlitzer's Grand Adventures: How to Rock a Wedding in Penang, Malaysia

The main reason we were in Southeast Asia again was for a wedding of our friends. We did have three days of work prior to the wedding (Charles in Singapore and Carrie in Penang) leading up to the wedding but I won’t elaborate on what we did during those days, needless to say we worked (enjoyable for us but probably not for our readers).

The wedding weekend was a blast with tons of events, friendly reunions, all capped off by an amazing wedding dinner party on Sunday night.

On Saturday we woke up early and had our first breakfast of the day (multiple breakfasts, and lunches were a theme in Penang and Singapore) at the E&O Hotel where we stayed for one night. It was a basic buffet breakfast and uneventful but good.

We were then reunited with Carrie’s Singaporean colleagues who promptly took us to our second breakfast at Kafe Kheng Pin where we had some Char Kway Teow, Prawn Noddles, and a few other goodies. This was followed by a city tour of some fun wall art throughout Georgetown (Old Town Penang) and then capped off by me favorite meal in Penang – the Chendol at the Chendol cart.

Prawn Noodles

Char Kway Teow

Wall Art in Old Town Penang

Wall Art in Old Town Penang

Temple in Penang

Temple Tapestry in Penang

Chendol at The Cart

We saw a few other sights in Penang and then enjoyed a beautiful seafood dinner at Hai Boey while watching the sunset. The food was fantastic and the urinal in the men’s room was extremely unique.

Urinal (illusion of urinating onto the fish)

Sunset in Penang

After dinner we headed back to the hotel (some people stayed out for a second dinner) before our early Sunday morning wedding activities.

Sunday morning started off very early with a 6am pick up at the hotel and shuttle to the groom’s parent’s house to gear up for the day. The bride was at her parent’s house – a one hour drive away.
The activities for the day centered around the gate crashing of the wedding and the tea ceremony.

For those unversed in Malaysian weddings, a wedding gatecrash is a Singapore/Malaysia tradition where the groom and his groomsmen aka “Brothers” goes to the bride's house to fetch the bride during the traditional Chinese ceremony. The bridesmaids aka "Sisters" test the groom and his brothers through a series of games and challenges. Mainly these games include eating something sour/spicy, singing songs, dressing up in goofy outfits and of course the obligatory red packet (hong bao).

I was generously included as one of the brothers for the day, which did mean of course that I had to partake in the games and help my friend overcome the sisters to obtain his bride. It was a very fun way to start the day with the most challenging part being having everyone tie their ties before we even left for the bride’s house (luckily this was easy for me since I wear a tie so often).

Other tests included eating some chili bread (not that spicy), making animal sounds, singing Chinese love songs and well let’s just say we finally crashed the gate after some embarrassingly fun trials. See photos and videos below.

The cars dressed up for the gate crash

Groom and Brothers getting ready to crash the gate

If only we could spell with our goofy headbands on

Writing the vows (such as: I pay, she spends)

We must eat everything before we are allowed in

After the gate crash, we became purely spectators as the couple partook in traditional wedding customs and the traditional Chinese tea ceremony. This tea ceremony is a traditional ritual to introduce the newlyweds to each other's extended family, and a way for newlyweds to show respect and appreciation to their parents. The newlyweds kneel in front of their parents, serving tea to them as well as other elder relatives. Parents give their words of blessing and gifts to the newlyweds. The ceremony was touching and inspirational to us and something that we were very glad to experience.

The tea ceremony at the bride’s parent’s house was followed by similar ceremonies at the groom’s parent’s house and then a couple hour break for the afternoon before the wedding dinner.

Morning Wedding Activities

Carrie and I managed to sneak in a 30 minute nap before the wedding dinner and despite three meals already got geared up for the 8 course sumptuous dinner.

Dinner included a wonderful Gangham Style performance by the brothers, fake cake cutting, a great live band, touching toasts and a song by the bride as well as high quality food and company.

Wedding Dinner Menu

After the exhilarating day we were off to bed before our next adventure…Scuba Diving in Sipadan (Borneo, Malaysia).

Things I would recommend in Penang: