Eating like a king

---

OK, so lets start with a confession. I'm home. So all the remaining blogs will be written with a wistful air, and might possibly make places sound better than they really were, simply because they aren't England. But I'll try and remain objective. And so lets start with Penang. Which quite frankly, was a little bit rubbish.

I better clarify that, for 2 main reasons. One is that to just give a sweeping statement like that without any supporting information is not a good thing to do. And secondly, my friend Asnida is from Penang, and it'd be a bit rude to bash her home island without good reason. She had promised to show me round, but unfortunately the 2 weekends I spent in Penang, preceeding and following my Sumatran adventures, she was out of town. I have little doubt that if she'd have been around to actually show me the better bits of Penang, my opinion of the place would be very different.

As it was, I ended up spending most of my time in the main city, Georgetown. There was something about the place that I didn't like, but yet I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. And even now, thinking back, its difficult to really put into words my feelings on the place... it was just a little strange.

A big contribution to this is that I did start to feel a big bad slice of travellers malaise while there. So while on my first visit I did go see the "sights" such as the Kongsi clan house, and the Buddhist temples, I went sort of out of duty rather than having any great desire to see them. Much more enjoyable was the day I spent being a lazy bugger on the beach on my second visit. Sadly, after this I had to pack away my swimming shorts for the very last time on this trip. Awww.

One thing that Georgetown does have is excellent food. On a day that would easily become a food highlight of my trip, I breakfasted on some Wonton noodle soup from a chinese place, did a bit of wandering until I was hungry again, then had laksa, a traditional Penang fish soup, for lunch. Some more perambulating and a few hours later I was ready for an Indian chicken curry for my tea. Lovely stuff. Not my words, the words of Shakin Stevens. Aha!

So that was my Penang. Eating well, doing some jobs and getting a little bit bored. The first time I left, it was to Sumatra, which is where you'll be going now. That was a lot better, as you're about to find out.

Stewart

---