Day #1 Georgetown, Penang.

             Delayed 3 hours this morning with a slew of work and family issues that required attention

Street of the TV......

on the computer. What did we ever do in the days before e-mail/internet? Yes, I remember from many business trips to the Far East in the eighties & nineties that it was work all day and send faxes all night (because night in the east, is working time in the west!). Anyway, with a clear conscience upon completion of my tasks, I was able to navigate my way to Penang from industrial Butterworth on the very efficient and cheap Malaysian public bus and ferry system. During the 20 minute ferry sea crossing section, I chatted with an Australian couple who were back visiting Penang for the first time in 36 years and pointed out in the distance to me, a red roofed bungalow on the shore, where they lived back in in 1980. At that time

The Chris W. welcoming committee

the bungalow, had a large garden in a splendid park setting along the sea front. Today, the red roofed bungalow is still there, but now bordered 10 metres away by a Shell refinery on one side and a warehouse on the other. Progress?
          As previously mentioned, the Georgetown area of Penang island is a UNESCO world heritage site, where a serious effort is being made to hold onto the old colonial and Chinatown buildings in a maze of narrow streets from where large road vehicles are banned. I did note several new style structures that seemed incongruously to have sneeked through the 'old town' planning process. Located a hotel room that should suffice for a couple nights to enable me to get to know the place without the inconvenience of the ferry/bus haul in from Butterworth.

Hells Bells.
             It's struck again. My nice hotel in Butterworth is right next door to a very ornate Buddhist, or

Down by the  (Penang) ferry dock.....

is it Hindu temple?? On the other side of the hotel is a big outdoor Indian restaurant (the population of Butterworth seems to be predominantly Indians originally hailing from the Tamil Nadu area of south India. Put these two factors together, plus throw in a Sunday night and it just right to have a jolly old, kick your heels up, Indian wedding, complete with all the music and continual ringing of bells. Can only hope that the racket ceases by my shut eye time of 11.00pm. At least the music is rather more soul uplifting than the Phnom Penh, Cambodia funeral dirges of last month that lasted for 48 non-stop hours just below my bedroom window. They don't warn

Mosque in Penang....

you about noisy weddings and funerals in the glossy travel brochures were everything is warm, sunny and soooo relaxing!

Smoking:
             In the S.E. Asian countries that I have visited on this journey it is a pleasure to note that each one of them seems to fighting the scourge of the cigarette. Hotels, buses, trains and even mini-vans all ban the use of tobacco. They seem to have picked earlier in their development cycle than countries in the west, that smoking is a very dangerous, expensive and dirty habit. I noted a street warning sign today in Penang, Malaysia that said that smoking outside in certain streets was illegal and subject to 500 ringgit's ($125 US) fine. Let's not talk here about the rampant use of the cell phone wile driving--another dangerous habit.