Four days is enough time I feel to enjoy Penang, but it is not enough time to savour the abundance of food that is on offer. I have never been to a place where there are just about every type of food you can think of. I’ve never been to a place where I see queues of people stretching sometimes 100 m down the pavement waiting for their turn to stuff themselves full.

I have had Chinese from Shanxi, Indian food twice and Korean food, which I may add is the cleanest and healthiest on the menu. Everything is fresh and raw, well apart from the meat and the fried egg, but it isn’t saturated in some kind of oil or Ghee or sauce, it’s presented to you with all the ingredients on show.

Last night I had Beef Masala, Garlic Naan, Mango Lassie and Pakora; absolutely delicious but my stomach felt as if it was going to explode as the food and stomach gases began to immediately prepare it for an exit. The Korean food allows you to enjoy, get up from the table and it takes its time to navigate your intestinal track before emerging the next morning without the slightest hint of urgency.

Come here thin , and you’ll go home fat if you do not have discipline, it is as simple as that. And there are a lot of fat people here. My hotel that I am staying at is very posh, one of the more sought after places to stay at. I was lucky enough to find a Junior Suite for about $100 AUD a night, which is well cheap. I am of course talking about the Royale Chulan Penang.

The breakfast is of course a buffet and the selections are too many to name. Again, I think that everything and anything is possible here. But then again you get those individuals that just have to go back again and again, plates piled to the rafters, and we have high ceilings mind.

Last night I went to Batu Ferringhi. I jumped on the bus and it took almost an hour to get there. The bus was hoachin’ and a bit sweaty. Oh yes be prepared to sweat when you come here., that’s Penang I mean, I came here for two reasons, one to see if the old resort that my cousin Ann went to is still here, and it was , and also to see the night market. Don’t come here for the night market, it is shit! And I think most of the tat on sale originally comes from China, so it is a bit ironic trying to sell it back to the Chinese that make up the abundance here.

This what the majority of young Chinese girls do when they travel, getting the perfect picture, the perfect angle and as I have mentioned before that this seems to be more important to them than the reality of the situation. It’s only to show off when they return home, to show that they have the perfect life and that they are not the complete and utter narcissist’ that they are 🙂 Oh that might upset a few readers….

The hotel is vast, it is actually a resort and not the kind of place that I would not stay at and especially due to the many Chinese tourists that were here. In fact this whole area seems to be very popular with them. Mind you they might not all be tourists because there are a lot of Chinese here in Penang. The problem comes when rich tourist meets civilised world and brings their PRC ideas of how to treat people and navigate in a world where there is courtesy and queues. Two things they excel at not doing well. I was thinking of going to China for a few weeks at the end of the year, mainly to go to a few places I haven’t been to and to see a few friends and I might still go, however I will not go for as long as I was thinking because having this short interaction with Chinese tourists brings back a lot of things that I detest about them.

But don’t let that put you off coming here. It’s great place to come to. The history, the cultural diversity, the food of course. It’s cheap to get around, either by Grab Taxi or bus. In fact the Grab I got last night was only about 22 MYR for about a 40 min ride. It’s hot here and I would bring the appropriate clothing, one of those things needs to be a hat. So many westerners that obviously don’t see the sun at home are basking in the midday sun, UV+++++ So many looking nicely cooked. Some don’t even where sunglasses, which is madness. The sun is strong here and I’m used to this kind of weather, the past summer in Australia was really hot.

In Georgetown the buildings and architecture is very colonial of course, because the British were here along with many others. However the good old British plug still is in use which is nice to see. A legacy which says, ” We wus here!”