Monkeys, Butterflies and an Iguana

My wife and I are just back from a lovely six-day holiday in Penang. Penang is a multicultural island off the northwest coast of Malaysia, a popular holiday destination for travellers from all over Asia, including those from the rest of Malaysia, as well as those of us from Hong Kong. It is a perfect place for an eating holiday and, although urbanized in many areas, it has beautiful unspoiled tropical rain forests and some lovely beaches. Malaysia is a Muslim country, but in Penang we see Muslim mosques, Chinese ancestral temples and old clan houses, Hindu shrines and Buddhist temples, all happily co-existing.

The people are very friendly and helpful. The atmosphere is a little bit 1970s-ish and reminds me of the comfort of an innocence no longer found in the West. In fact, much of Asia is like that. The Saturn and early Uranus Enchantments in a lot of Asia are fairly benevolent and, as long as you play by the rules, life is good.

While Penang is very easy—and cheap—to get around by bus, we decided to treat ourselves, as we did last year, to one day with a tour guide and driver (the ever friendly and helpful Simon Sin, http://sspenangtours.webs.com) so that we could see as much as possible in complete comfort and ease, leaving other days of our short break for lolling around the hotel beach, with its resident wild iguana, as well as shorter, more gentle outings by bus into enticing George Town by day and a few evening trips to Batu Ferringhi for sunset beach strolls, night market shopping and mouth-watering food at its many restaurants and the hawker stalls.  (Iguana at 100 metres below...)

Among the varied attractions we took in during our day tour, we visited one of only two remaining handmade batik craft factories; the inland town of Balik Pulau where we ate delicious Penang Assam Laksa, Siam Laksa and the best Char Koay Teow that the island has to offer; and a garishly beautiful and intricate temple and clan house in George Town, the Khoo Kongsi. We also visited the Butterfly Garden, which I love. There is something special about being surrounded by a cloud of butterflies, as I first discovered a couple of years ago in a butterfly sanctuary on an island on the Amazon.

One of our favourite places in Penang is the Tropical Spice Garden (www.tropicalspicegarden.com), well worth a few hours just wandering around absorbing the incredible beauty of the gardens. This year we were blessed to be followed around by a troop of Dusky Leaf Monkeys, who have moved into this eco space of their own accord—they were as interested in us as we were in them, led by one intrepid youngster who took a shine to my wife.

As it is rare for me to ‘go on holiday’, I left my laptop behind and indulged myself at the airport before heading out with some magazines—Vanity Fair, Esquire and Rolling Stone. Vanity Fair is an intelligent read, emotionally anchored in an America long gone. Like a good soap opera, it evokes the life of the affluent, shielded from the awareness of the shadow of capitalism. I find it a good escapist experience as I enter the reality tunnel of Vanity Fair with its sense of glamour-drama. In the September issue, as well as a candid interview with Lady Gaga, there are stories of the old billionaires and their personal lives going back to the Kennedy era.

In summary, all this has reminded me of the goodness, the fun and the safety of the old realities that still coexist within the cacophony of the human global society.

The world is changing on multiple levels, but it is comforting to be able to visit the realms of normality, to take a holiday from focusing on the challenges and complexities of the global changes we are in the midst of. I am reminded of how the world offers us so much on so many levels.

The world will continue to retain all the old theatres, methinks. And best of all, the treasures of nature and contact with animals—and that is wonderful.

What a lovely holiday. We could now really do with another couple of weeks away, perhaps in Thailand, ah, sigh…

I will start promoting the April 2011 Ecuador trip within the next two weeks.