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Diary 10

Nothing about Star Lodge on Jl Lebuh Muntri had changed in the five months we have been away. The old Chinese men who work there at the front desk were as delightfully eccentric and as charmed by Tehya as they had been on our last visit. Always laughing and watching her with bright eyed amusement as she danced and sang them funny songs - presenting her with little gifts of pots of fruit yogurt or chocolate bars.

Penang is a very strange place - it is hard to give an explanation as to why. We have been there so many times over the years using it as a stop off point whilst travelling from one end of Malaysia to the other (travelling in all directions north, south and eastwards) and as a gate way to Indonesia. Some visits have left us frustrated and saying we hated the place and other times it has felt like a safe heaven in a crazy world.

The city of Penang

When we were here in May we arrived with fresh eyes looking forward to experiencing the delights of the food Penang is so famous for and we indulged ourselves with great enthusiasm. The mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian along with the Muslim Masakan Padang food means that there is an incredible choice of beautifully spiced traditional food to suit all tastes and pallets.

This time we came to Penang with two reasons in mind, to collect the luggage that we had previously separated up and left behind to make our journey to Indonesia lighter and to meet with a Japanese friend Noriko. We committed ourselves to a four night stay - we sorted through our bags and discarded stuff that was too small or worn out and worked out what we needed to continue our journey (baring in mind we would be travelling on to Thailand by train).

We got some very sad news via email from Noriko, she had been contacted by her sister - her father is very sick and she would not be able to meet with us as planned. She immediately left north east Malaysia for Bangkok to arrange an urgent flight home to Japan. It is a shame that we did not meet with Noriko again as she is an lovely part of our fond memories of the Perhentian Islands all those years ago and we have kept in regular contact with her for so many years. Our thoughts are with her and we send her our love.

A Penang stall in Little India

There are many different tourist sites to visit in Penang but we did not feel inspired until the day before we were due to leave. We talked about our lack of enthusiasm for the city and came to the conclusion that it could be due to the fact that we travelled from Kuala Lumpur this time and had loved our visit there - KL in comparison is so clean and fresh and is working hard to compete with Singapore and succeeding well in our opinion.

Penang has a real charm of its own - it is very individual, we love little India but so much of the city seems worn and run down. The shopping area around the Komtar is so badly maintained and the Komtar itself which could be (used to be) a real tourist attraction has been allowed to fall into disrepair.

The old shopping area which ten years ago was a buzzing mall is now 90% empty - much of the shops have moved across into the mall next door but even that seems to be struggling. Then on the way back from Penang Hill on our last day we saw that they are building a new Time Square Mall so now doubt in a short time even the newer part of the Komtar will also find itself falling apart due to lack of use.