15October2025: Penang Island in Malaysia

Travelled on a bus from the Eastern & Oriental Express train to the Butterworth ferry terminal for the twenty-minute trip to Georgetown on Penang Island. Arrived at the Penang Island ferry terminal for a Vespa tour of Georgetown. Met Jimmy my driver and off we went to the “first stop” to a puppet show. One look at all the gringo Ozempic crowd milling about the entrance I surmised a break from the planned itinerary and I said to Jimmy, “Let’s get outta here. Just because I am a tourist I don’t need to hang out with them. Perhaps if I gain 100 pounds, have a white beard and a tight T-Shirt so my gut hangs out this puppet theatre is for me.”

On the back of a Vespa and helmeted we zoomed about. Georgetown might be described as quaint and lightly commercial and far from the sterility and wealth of Singapore. Small shops and restaurants of all sorts so unlike Singapore. Jimmy is an excellent driver helpful and comforting considering all the exculpatory clauses contained our contract with ABC International. I mean if you read the small print there could have been a war breaking out resulting in the cancellation of the tour and there was no obligation to refund your money! Actually, rather interesting as there were skirmishes ongoing between Thailand and Cambodia our next destinations.

First stop was at one of Georgetown’s main marketplaces. I was the only gringo to be seen. Impressive meat and fish stalls, spices, vegetables and loads of cheap Chinese goods.

Next stop the picturesque and shady English Catholic and Protestant Cemetery with the graves of English colonialist most gravestones marking an early death including those of babies and young children. Diseases of the tropics? The oldest deceased was a man of 73. Many of the gravestones indicated the employment of the deceased such as tax collectors.  The grandest mausoleum has no description of its inhabitants. Very touching lines on the gravestones.

The 38-degree heat and 98 % humidity was beginning to take a toll so we stopped at a 7-11 for a Vida drink…Japanese with stevia instead of aspartame. A cool lychee delight. The air conditioning was vicious, so one had to escape outside. From the freezer into the oven. The last stop was City Hall and a provincial administration building both stellar examples of British colonial architecture. War monuments were in a square outside the buildings.

For the last twenty minutes it was simply too oppressive to continue walking about so we sat on a bench with a view across the Penang Strait to Seberang Perai from whence we had departed.

Back to the ferry terminal to yet more brutal air-conditioning to catch a bus to the train and an ill-advised drink I paid the price for. No not Veuve!