penang 21st and 22nd nov

Georgetown.

The taxi driver dropped me off a few dimly lit streets from the location of my dimly lit hostel, I walked past it 3 times before I caught it on my final flyby, about to abandon my search. Inside was large and spacious, the receptionist pretty and gracious, I was going to rhyme, but I can't find the time, to write something with wit or salacious.

The beds were comfy enough but the dorm room itself had no widows. This has become my pet hate when staying in shared rooms as its easy to leave something behind when trying to get your things together by torchlight any time as some lazy bastard lies in bed as the day soldiers on regardless. In my experience it's been mostly Americans who harbour this habit, although not exclusively. It is however almost always that it will be American that happens to spout off if you happen to make a little noise when getting dressed in their room, the tendency to shoot from the hip before calculating possible reprisals is a trait I have seen too many times now when travelling. By no means all Americans, just a percentage tarring the rest of the nation with their brain out of gear mentality. This is my observation from my limited travel over the last 8 weeks through 4 different countries and should not be taken as scientific fact.

A single room was booked for my second night.

After dumping everything off time had crept to nearly 11 so I ventured to a busy street food  hall located around the corner, sat at small table and was served tea with a couple of dumplings. One contained spiced pork and the other a traditional sausage, both came from a raised stainless steel cooking contraption and I sat down and ate off the plastic plate they were served on. The flavours were so magnificent that even the rat that ran across he floor did little to dissuade me from finishing up. No one else seemed to care, so I didn't either. The whole meal cost less than a pound.

In the morning I packed my bag by torchlight making as much noise as possible and switched from the dorm to the single room that had been prepared early l by the mad as a hatter cleaner. I then took a stroll around Georgetown, a mix of old 2 story simple houses that are pretty but often run down, adorned with broken shutters and crooked doors, and the modern buildings that include hotels and offices with the spaces in between filled with temples mosques and churches. I stumbled upon a museum dedicated to coffee and chocolate, but the photography one that I tried to find eluded me. Everything here feels more western. The bike is no where near as prominent as the car, vehicles stop at lights and traffic jams occur. Could they possible be linked?

After a few hours as the heat took hold again I retreated back to the shopping mall located near to the hostel and got lost. This has so far happened in every mall I have visited in south east Asia, but its a cool way to spend the afternoon away from the humidity and swelter. Most have great Food places inside and after on 3 hours trying to eat my noodles with chopsticks I picked up some more replacement clothes in preparation of my arrival in New Zealand which is now only a couple of weeks away. My other rags have now become disposaware (tm ja if not used already ;)

I finished the day with a KFC, whilst this felt wrong on many levels, it was nice to eat somewhere that was rat free, at least on the surface.

I Just wish that somewhere would do a drink here that wasn't loaded with sugar, everything bar the water is. It's little wonder really that this region is suffering from an explosion in type 2 diabetes. The question really is how are they going to change the taste buds of an entire continent.

http://www.who.int/diabetes/facts/world_figures/en/index5.html