Penang, Malaysia

­­I have mixed feelings about my visit to Penang. I had such good memories of Penang from previous visits, starting in 1974 when I lived in Malaysia teaching at University Kebangsaan on a Fulbright Fellowship. It was a quiet small city then with an historic old town, Georgetown, with narrow streets, Buddhist temples filled with incense smoke, rickshaw drivers, and hawker stands everywhere selling wonderful exotic food such as satay, char koey teow, and roti chanai. I stayed in an old Chinese hotel then, with fans and walls that didn’t extend all the way down to the floor. I expected to see Charlie Chan emerge from one of the doorways any minute. With later visits, there was some change to this old town atmosphere, but nothing extreme.

This visit was different. Malaysia has experienced an economic miracle during the last four decades, rising from a third world country to almost a first world nation. From just 2 Malay universities in the early 1970’s, Malaysia now has more than 20 such universities. The average per capita income has quadrupled. Signs of increased prosperity are everywhere, with vast networks of modern highways and high rise buildings abundant throughout the cities. Although downtown Georgetown has been declared an international heritage site, the city has allowed many of its old buildings to decay as its inhabitants fled to the suburbs. Hence downtown Georgetown has in parts gone to seed with decayed and empty buildings everywhere. It saddens me to see such change. But although Malaysia is now a lot less interesting to the foreign tourist, it is doing quite well for the average Malaysian. With the advancement of many developing nations, the world is becoming much more homogenized and a lot less interesting culturally.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy what Penang has to offer, still an old town with much to see, the Indian and Chinese quarters, and the colonial buildings. I visited the butterfly park outside on town and went up the modernized Penang hill tram. I also frequented the newly developed New World Park with its variety of hawker food offerings. I stayed at a Malay hotel, the 1926 Heritage Hotel, and mingled with middle class Malaysian travellers.

Next, I travel by bus across the peninsula to the east coast and take a boat to the Perhentian Islands for two days of diving.