Penang

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Penang is exactly the sort of place I expect you'd want to end up if you class yourself more as a Traveller than a Tourist, the best thing about it is that although it's clear there are attempts made here to encourage tourists, those attempts manifest in a creative hub with plenty of its own culture. I often find popular tourist attractions tend to reflect the western world in order to attract westerners and make them feel welcome, I hear warning bells whenever I see a MacDonald's or a Starbucks, but that's not something you're going to get here. Instead you'll find an easy to navigate town bustling with flavours and colours, nothing's overly shiny or flashing at you, it's the colours that burst to the forefront, exploding out of flowers, bushes and temples and street food amongst cracked and uneven pavements and crumbling plaster that suggest you're getting something real and they didn't roll out the red carpet for your arrival, I like to see a place with a little wear and tear and a sense of reality to it.

They do try to attract tourists in a few ways, firstly there are the wackiest museums you've ever seen, like museum of giant food, glow in the dark museum, things that don't really have anything to do with the area but are generally good fun. Then there's the actual reason to visit, which is entirely free so long as you're prepared to walk, or you can take one of the many bicycle driven carriages and have a local do the legwork for you although that's not my thing at all. There's plenty to see, the standard of graffiti and street art is high, plenty of unusual murals and then there's iron sculptures dotted all over the town explaining the history of the location they're placed in, ive not seen this kind of thing elsewhere and it's really effective, the black iron sculptures look sketchy and hand drawn, as they are just an outline, and against the traditional looking buildings and rich plant life they frame everything beautifully. Another great thing about this place is that all the paths are covered over so there's plenty of shade,which is a good thing because so far I've never seen it not be hot here. And the third unusual thing that could be a bonus or not depending on how you see it is that all the shops are themed, there's a street that sells saris and wedding jewelry, one for exclusively fabrics, one for stationary and toys, and one for batik items, and one where each shop holds sacks full of spices, i went to “little india“ and a man with a shop there was insistent that I buy something to help me sleep, so I think my schedule is taking it's toll on my face ha.

If you have time to spend wandering then you'll find something of interest here, my favorite street was one that had local crafts, photography and prints, I found a shop that sold upcycled clothing and zines written by locals so I bought one to check it out, this place kind of reminded me of exeter oddly in the sense that all the shops are independent selling one offs.

Something I liked about Penang that other places lack is that people can actually afford to live here, amongst all the shops are houses and it's clear that even the locals shop at some of these places. Price wise it's the cheapest place we go to, to put it into perspective I usually change up 50 USD into money for Thailand where I become pretty well off, then I take the change and turn it into Singapore dollars and I'm rich again, I buy my washing power and body wash here, it's good for basic essentials as currently it's about 1/5th of a pound. They're actually immensely proud of the currency here and it's pretty evident, the money here looks like the new notes we just took on in England and recently I went on a free tour put on by the Malaysian government which took us to the museum of finance which showed a very proud history of banking (not where my interests would usually take me but I must admit they made that as fun as it possibly could be.) Our ship ends up here every few days but we only have a few more visits left before we finish this leg of the cruise, definitely trying to make the most of it before we head over to Spain for 40 days.