Calypso's Journal: Palau Penang

Georgetown from the 'Junk' anchorage

As we arrived at the island of Penang, we learned of the passing of Nelson Mandela. Although this was inevitable, it's still sad news and we can only hope that the nation honours his memory with a peaceful mourning. He was a great man who proved greater by openly admitting that he made mistakes. He wasn't a saint but a man with a moral compass who showed that it was possible to forgive and move forward. The world is a sadder place without him and, as former president F.W. de Klerk said :”the greatest legacy the nation can give him is to uphold the constitution”. Let's hope so.

Back to our travels: Penang surprised us. We arrived at the southern tip just as the sun was setting so dropped anchor at a little island named Palau Rimau; it was too late to get up to our proposed anchorage. From there we could see dozens of skyscrapers nestling among a hilly background. As we were still a long way from the main city of Georgetown, we hadn't expected to see anything but a rural setting.

In the morning, we moved further up the island passing under the new bridge (not yet open) and what a marvel of engineering this is. It crosses from the southern end of Penang right over to the mainland and is so long that it disappeared over the horizon. We were told that it is some 27 kilometres long – amazing. There is a second bridge, the original Penang Bridge and it is 13 kilometres long; we sailed under that one too a few days later. It's always a bit unnerving passing under these bridges – one's convinced that they aren't high enough to allow us to get through so we go under waiting for the crunch of the mast tumbling down. Of course that doesn't happen but, for a minute or two, we hold our breath.

Our mission the first day was to apply for our Thai visas so we hopped on a bus that took us into Georgetown passing huge new apartment blocks, hotels and shopping centres en route. Georgetown itself is a much older area with many old Colonial buildings giving evidence of its past British occupancy and history with an incredible mix of the Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures that make up the majority of Malaysia's population. History has seen Georgetown ruled by the Dutch, the Portuguese and more recently, by the British making it a very fascinating mix of cultures and architecture.

After a few days at the lower anchorage, we moved on up to what is referred to as the 'junk' anchorage right outside the city harbour among the big ships. Something quite amusing that we heard is that this anchorage is well known for the garlic smuggling that takes place between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Indonesia only produces 14,000 tons of garlic a year but the national demand is around 400,000 tons. In their wisdom, the ministries of agricultural and trade banned the import of certain horticultural commodities, garlic included, to protect local production, but failed to anticipate the consequences of such a policy and the serious shortfall caused prices to rise significantly hence the advent of garlic smuggling from neighbouring Malaysia.

Georgetown has dozens upon dozens of samples of wall art. Some are paintings but many are wrought iron caricatures with anecdotal descriptions of the streets that they adorn. Below are a few examples.

There are interesting examples of fine Colonial architecture, a few which have been beautifully restored but some....... I think beyond redemption.

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel was built by the same firm as the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore but is even older. It has been beautifully restored. Some other structures leave a little to be desired.

We spent a day wandering the streets of the old town with our Irish friends, Myra & Paraic off Saol Eile, and finished off with the usual sampling of street food. A great day in a very interesting piece of history.

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