World heritage site of Georgetown

11th & 12th of July
I sleep in on my first day, have a late breakfast in the place next door and then take a wander around the newly appointed world heritage town. With the exception of the main street - which sports a number modern buildings completed before the 2008 status - the place is mostly narrow streets and lanes, packed with low prewar buildings in various states of disrepair and opening out to the occasional main road, temple, church or government building. I gather from street signs and statues that Penang was founded as a British colony in 1786. George Light (incidentally, his son Francis went on to do the same to Adelaide ) named the island “The Prince of Wales Island” but it was nicknamed “White Man’s Grave” due to the large percentage of settlers, including Light, who succumbed to Malaria. I also gather that Love Lane, where the hostels are, is apparently named after all the illicit affairs that took place behind the many doors! I don’t know when the island became Penang but the name now means “areca nut palm” and the nickname is a much more appealing ‘Pearl of the Orient’. Lost in the lanes, it's a quiet town, protected from development and beautiful in its own crumbling way but I only get to about 3pm before it starts raining so I stop in a cafe to wait it out, 2 hours later I’ve given up and get wet, 20 hours later it stops.

The excessive rain comes with advantages and evening is spent sitting around the reception with the other travellers, watching the rain and drinking beer and so the solo trail turns out not to be so solo after all. I get chatting again to French from the day before but he’s actually from Costa Brava, he’s 35 and makes money along the way with his unicycle and juggling skills, and another Spanish guy who is on an extended surfing trip on an island a few hours away (with Aussie pro surfers no less) and in Penang on a visa run. At some point, stomachs take over so we borrow an umbrella and wade off to a local hawker stand (where the juggler is quite a celebrity it seems) for a quick feed before resuming out spots to watch the rain into the wee small hours.

The sky was still heavy the next day but I felt like heading to the coast so after breakfast of chicken and rice (we just sat down and this is what we got) and swapping details and offers of places to stay should we end up in each other’s home towns, Jimmy gave me a hug and made me promise to come back to his hostel and the Canadian with the stories showed me to the bus stop on his way to the Hare Krishna centre for his free Sunday lunch.