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Published: March 15th 2007
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Penang - A Melting Pot
The culture of the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Europeans, and the predominant Muslim religion are evident around every corner in Georgetown. This place is a perfect example of a multi-cultural society working in harmony. Day 285, 12th March
Georgetown
It felt great to spend the night actually sleeping and not having to think about wild animals and gunmen attacking me in my tent. So, I got a lie in…. Today was the inevitable ‘Lazy Day’ doing virtually nothing apart from wandering around town, buying food, getting stamps, eating food, writing letters, eating more food…and so on. All that weight I’d lost cycling over the last weeks, I piled back on in a few short hours!
There were a lot of interesting travelers back at the hostel, most of which had interesting stories about Indonesia which made me want to go in a way. Lake Toba in Sumatra sounds a great place to chill-out for a while. Maybe from Singapore I could carry on through the Indonesian islands by bike and ferry to Timor, then hitch a boat ride to OZ, and then who knows, possibly NZ? That would be wild!!
In the street I bumped into a guy I’d met earlier, Tim, and we went off to the ‘Secret Garden’ café to watch a movie and sup a beer. The film was called “A Wonderful Mind”, and was about John Nash,
Past Times...
Old British post boxes from the Colonial era still abound in Penang. a famous mathematician, and was really excellent. Afterwards, I wandered the streets alone back to the hostel feeling very safe as I did so.
Day 286, 13th March
Around Penang Island
Had a lazy lie-in and after breakfast at ten, went off to explore the island on my bike. The first part of the trip, getting out of the city, was busy along the touristy north east coast where most of the beaches are. I found one such beach, deserted, and did a bit of skinny-dipping. You know when you do this and are in the water, then people appear and you’re stuck! Well, this happened. A group of people came to sunbathe where my bike was standing, but, I couldn’t be bothered that I was naked and when the time came to get out of the water I just waded out and up to my bike. I heard them speaking German together, muttering something, and when I’d got dressed, the Germans had got un-dressed and were off into the sea. Probably I gave them the impression it was a naturist beach!
I carried on along the northern coast, past what looked like the Spanish
Malaysian Stamps
Souvenier Time... stamps franked in Penang. ‘Costas’. Row after row of empty high-rise hotels, and virtually empty beaches. It looked as if the hey-day of package-tourism had passed for this part of the world and that it had left this ugly blot on the landscape as a legacy.
After the last tourist resort the road headed south and up-hill through wonderful natural forest. The traffic had disappeared and I had the road to myself, and was zipping along at a phenomenal pace. You see, I had no luggage. No cooker, tent, sleeping bag, food - I’d shed about 30 kilos at the hostel and was only carrying one pannier with a repair-kit and my camera in it. It felt like I was flying….
It was a big uphill culminating in a great view of the east coast. There was a butterfly farm at the top, seemed interesting but I didn’t fancy seeing captive butterflies. The downhill was for miles, miles of gradual gradient with hair-pin bends winding through forest until I reached a village at the bottom which looked traditionally Malaysian. Heading back to Georgetown were two more big steep uphill sections and an amazing downhill where I reached exactly 50 mph (that’s nearly
Shop Sign
I enjoyed photographing the nice names on the shop fronts in Penang. 90 kmph)! Just as exhilarating as my 56 mph, fully-loaded, downhill two years ago in Andorra!
It was hazy today, probably from the forest-burning in Sumatra which I believe has plagued peninsula Malaysia in the past few years. It was an easy ride into the centre of Georgetown and back to the hostel. I left my bike in my room and decided to check my email. There were mails from the other guys who are still north of me: Toby is in Trang, Rory is in Ko Lanta, Stephane and Scott…. No word. I don’t know where they are. I wrote a group mail suggesting we all meet in Melaka in a week if possible. We need to arrive at our destination as a group…. To end the evening I went back to the Secret Garden to watch a boot-legged movie again, this time - Harry (bloody) Potter!
Total Miles: 13077.39 Todays Miles: 43.08 Average speed: 12.0 Time on bike: 3:34
Day 287, 14th March
Georgetown
The dorm had filled up in the night and emptied early in the morning because of all the folks who want to catch the early ferry to Medan
Love Lane...
...but not 'Lovely' lane... in Sumatra. I had a lazy start again, why not? And headed for the post office to post some letters and to get some stamps for my journal. The guy with the fry-up stand outside the PO made some lovely corn and peanut-filled thinghies for 50 Sen. Afterwards, I headed off to the British Council to have a nosy, but the main dude in charge was away on some important business. Next time…
I decided, after I’d withdrawn another R200, to get a couple of cheap rubber stamps made, just for fun. One with my name and email address on and the other like a passport stamp for “THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ABSURDISTAN”. The Indian guy was a bit suspicious even though I guaranteed that Absurdistan wasn’t actually a country. He said that both stamps would be ready at 4pm!
Meanwhile, I wandered around the town photographing interesting things like shop fronts, people, and remnants of the British Empire. The day was hot and hazy again, but it didn’t stop me. It was soon 4pm, and my stamps were ready. At the hostel I waited at the phone for a pre-arranged call from Kathryn in LA. She
Street scene
Penang - so many interesting sights to see... rang on time. It was good to hear from her again and we managed to sort a few things out that were bothering us about our imenent meeting in Hawaii. After the call, I went to the internet café to continue my conversation with her, even though it was a very slow connection. I also got an email from my best mate’s ex-girlfriend who’s now living in the US, and an email from a Kiwi friend, Lynley, who’s now living in Singapore - she says it’s okay to crash at hers. She’ll be happy to hear all my travel stories. She works for a travel company and it looks as if she can fix me up with a cheap flight too! My other Kiwi friend, Steve, will also be on holiday in Singapore with his wife, Fleur, when I arrive - how strange will that be!
On the way back to the hostel I stopped at an Indian café to get my curry-fix, and later, Gandhi’s Revenge! I chatted to two Icelanders back in my dorm and they had me stamping their passports with the Absurdistani Entry Stamp. I wonder if they’ll get problems cos they don’t have the
Absurdistani Stamp
The stamp I got made - just for fun! exit stamp too…?
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jaxw17
jackie waring
Jackie
The stamps are such a cool idea. I like the one with your email address it would save a lot of time. I am also looking for the address of the guy that signed your passport stamp ! LOL That burning and causing smog is happening round ChangMai at the moment. As usual brilliant and a good read.