As with most mornings here in KL I was woken by the sound of the Muezzin’s tones as the call to prayer was announced from the local mosque which is literally only a car-park away. I don’t mind this at all, I don’t have to set my alarm-clock and the sounds are far less jarring and almost reassuring. After all, these ages old calls are so familiar to anyone who’s spent much time in Muslim country’s. The place I normally go to for my roti canai breakfast normally has Muslim devotional music playing in the background. It’s similar to Qawwali music made famous in the UK by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Maybe the fact I had a CD of his and I’ve always enjoyed world music has influenced my sensibilities. When I went for breakfast yesterday the younger member of staff had changed the music to techno ‘Hindi Pop’ which was far more intrusive and less easy on the ear!
I didn’t plump for roti this morning, instead I tried Mee Sarawak at a place down the road that I’d spotted the other day. ‘Mee’ means noodles whilst Sarawak is the Malaysian side of the island of Borneo that’s bigger than the peninsular. I must get there one day.
Anyway, Mee Sarawak consists of noodles (obviously) with slices of pork and chicken, accompanied with a fiery chili dip and a broth made from the meat and noodle water with added spring onions. This being Asia nothing is wasted which means the pork hasn’t had the fat removed. Instead you have a fine layer of crackling atop it. It’s delicious but perhaps not the thing if you’re counting calories. As I walk around 17,000 steps and only eat two meals a day I’m not that bothered!
After eating a sizeable chunk of my day was spent getting picture of and exploring the city’s only monorail system from end to end. Looking through my picture archive I’d realised I’d not done this since 2012. In which time the size of the trains has doubled and the stations have increased in size to cope with ’em. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll do a blog dedicated to the network in the future, now I have the updated pictures to do a ‘now and then’.
Another place I visited today was a beautiful clan-house/temple dedicated to the those Chinese with the surname ‘Chan’. It’s a fascinating place as it explains the origins of the name and how the Chans have spread. I have a passing personal interest in this as the first Chinese people ever I met when I was growing up in Southport were a Chan family who moved in next to my maternal Grandmother way back in the 1960s. There’s a story to tell there, but that’s for another day…
Now I’m relaxing back at my hotel whilst editing pictures and watching crap on Netflix. It being Saturday Chinatown’s packed with people, so I’m happy to be out of the way. I much prefer it during the week when it’s not choked with people and cars.
To finish my blog here’s a few pictures from the day.
This wonderful piece of craftwork is displayed above the door of the Chan temple.
Part of the informative displays inside the temple/clan house.
Do the maths. Each one of these 4-car monorail trains can carry up to 430 passengers. How many of the cars below only contain 1 person? Oh, spot the breakdown which has made matters worse!
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I’ve had another slow day back here in KL, catching up on work and dodging the rain showers and thunderstorm that have been growing in frequency and intensity throughout the day. Most of my morning was taken up with planning and booking the last part of my trip. My back’s no longer a concern and I’d loved to have done a side trip to a beach somewhere, but I’ve simply run out of time. Instead I’m going to stay in KL for a few more days in order to visit a few more rail sites to record the changes here, then retrace my steps to Johor Baru for a night. It’s not my favourite place, but the rail scene’s going to change quite a bit over the next 12 months, therefore I want to record some of the changes. The fact a hotel in JB’s a third of the cost of Singapore and I don’t arrive until 19:45 as there’s only one train a day from KL may have helped influence my decision!
Whilst much of my day’s been taken up with picture editing (you can find maritime shots here and Malaysian railways here) I have nipped out several times, firstly for my roti canai breakfast – calorific but delicious, then for something I’d promised myself, which was a couple of hours exploring photo ops on the KL monorail system.
Very few cities have monorails. Mainly because they’re low capacity and pretty inflexible. But KL’s will be 20 years old in August. It’s not long – just 5 miles with 11 station between Kuala Lumpur Sentral station and Titiwangsa where it connects with the MRT and LRT networks. Essentially, it’s an eastern loop line that passes over roads that bisect some big modern shopping and hotel areas like Bukit Bintang. Originally 3 lines were planned but only 1 was ever built. Operated as a 40 year concession by the KL Infrastructure Group it never paid its way so the line was taken over by the government in 2007. They’ve operated it ever since.
It’s fun to take a trip on and photograph, but when you do you start to realise the limitations and complexities of such systems (think escape). For example, steel wheels don’t burst then catch fire! I’ll cover those drawbacks in my next blog as I’ll be having another play tomorrow now I’ve worked out a few good photo locations. In the meantime, here’s a few shots from today.
A monorail train bound for KL Sentral passes along Jalan Sultan Sulaiman.A monorail bound for KL Sentral beats the traffic at Maharajalela station.Two monorail trainsets pass each other just outside Raja Chulan station.
Walking home in time for a well-deserved (and needed) shower I downloaded my pictures and did some more work before heading out for my evening meal. Earlier I’d spotted a place down the road from where I’m staying which was advertising ‘Mee Sarawak’ (Mee being noodles and Sarawak a part of Malaysia), they looked really good but by the time I got there they were closed so I ended up at my old favorite where you can mix and match with the possibility you’ll see something you’ve never tried before. That’s what happened to me tonight. I saw a dark meat dish in a rich sauce and thought – let’s give it a go…
11:00 is cow lung. 13:00 is Tempe. 18:00 is mixed veg. The rest is a bed of rice with a couple of extra curry sauces thrown in. This is self-service. You load your plate and show it to the staff who then decide what to charge you. This was 5 ringitt- less than a quid.
It was chewy but full of flavour and the sauce was divine. Afterwards I asked one of the staff what it was I’d been eating. Cow lung, apparently. Well, there’s always a first!
Now I’m back in the comfort of my hotel typing this before switching off to watch an intriguing Icelandic film noir series I’ve discovered on Netflix. Talk about a small world…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’ve had a busy but easy day here in KL, if you count the fact I’ve only moved from my hotel to get food (delicious Roti Canai and a coffee for breakfast) and ensure I still get my daily quota of 12,500 plus steps uner my belt. That nearly proved to be a challenge as we’ve had another wet day in the city. Nowhere near as bad as yesterday but the morning was filled with showers. The afternoon brightened up with periods of intense sunshine which was rather handy as it allowed me to get my washing dried! The rest of the day was spent editing and captioning pictures to start to clear the hundreds I have in the queue. Now after a determined day both collections from Thailand are up to date. You can find the travel pictures here and the railway ones here. I’ve also finished editing all the Malaysian shots I’ve taken, all they need now are captions.
There’s been other work too. Dealing with picture requests from the UK, chasing up a few work enquiries and also trying the clean up my email inbox which has become ridiculously cluttered now I’ve not been able to log on as much through my phone and the fact the site’s had a redesign which has taken some getting used to. Today I spent several hours browsing and/or deleting a four-figure sum – and there’s still many more to do.
This evening the rain returned. Thankfully, it waited until after I’d nipped out to for a substantial evening meal of rice, curried Jackfruit and Tempe at a local Malaysian street-food establishment I’ve been frequenting for some time. This feed’s cost me 5 ringgit (less than £1). I’d just made it home before we were treated to several hours of thunderstorms and heavy rain with some impressive lightning too. Tomorrow’s forecast isn’t looking great either but we’ll see how much I get done earlier in the day as I might still venture out later.
In the meantime, here’s a taster of the pictures I’ve added today, plus a cute KL cat picture!
At one time, Bangkok MRT’s ‘blue line’ train ran almost its entire length underground. Now extensions at either end which have carried it across the Chao Praya river mean there’s substantial elevated sections, like this one looking West from Tao Poon station. A dozing KL street cat asleep on a pavement without a care in the world…
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Much as I’d liked to have lingered longer in Georgetown it’s time to hit the road and begin my journey south towards Singapore. I’ll miss this place, but I know I’ll be back again sometime. This is such a fascinating multicultural place with rich history I could never tire of it. Add in the fantastic food and the fact it’s a crossroads for so many travellers, what’s not to like?
The weather’s overcast making it a good day to travel. I didn’t want to risk my back (or the wheels on my case) so I got a taxi from Star Lodge to the ferry. terminal – well worth the 12 ringgit (just over £2) it cost me). With the limited capacity ferries only running hourly now I’ve arrived in plenty of time to get to the front of the queue for the 11:30 ferry before catching the 12:45 train from Butterworth.
For once, I’m going to write a rolling blog throughout the trip. I’m travelling ‘Platinum’ class this time, which is the Malaysian version of 1st which should make for a relaxing trip. It takes just over four hours to reach KL Sentral nowadays, a great improvement on the past. The only shame is that services aren’t more frequent with just five ETS trains a day linking the two cities.
There’s more than a dozen other Europeans in the queue for the ferry. I suspect most of them will be doing the same as me as the trains the best way to travel. Plus, Standard class only costs £16!
11:22. The ferry has disgorged the inbound passengers, now it’s our time to board. These ex-Langkawi boats are nowhere near as much fun as the old ferries but at least they get you there (most of the time).
12:45. (Malay time).
We’re off! Platinum class in these new ETS sets is rather good..
Almost as soon as we’d left we were served lunch. It may have been prepared and served in a plastic tray, beut the quality of the chicken, bamboo shoots and green rice was rather good.
These particular ETS sets are from the second batch supplied by CRRC Zhuzhon Locomotive Ltd but assembled in Malaysia in 2018. Like most Chinese rolling stock quality (or rather the lack of it) and attention to detail are the issues. Despite only being only five years old the sets are fraying at the edges. Some of the windows have blown so are full of condensation, paintwork’s flaking and nothing really seems to have been made to last. That said, what did KTM specify in the contracts – and was there a warranty? At least they’re doing a bit better than the SCS Komuter sets.
Build quality aside, they ride well. We’re currently bowling along at 139kph so the PIS screen above the doors tells me. Oh, and they don’t leak – which is just as well as it’s chucking it down outside as we approach Taipeng.
13:55 (Malay time)
We’ve just passed through one of the new tunnels between Taipeng and Padang Rengas that were bored as part of the line’s modernisation back in the 2000s. The old British built single track line used to stagger through these jungle-clad hills – which was great fun if you were a railway enthusiast, but not if you were an ordinary passenger keen to get to their destination.
This part of Malaysia is very attractive because its so hilly. Whilst the lowlands around the railway are cultivated by palm oil and rubber plantations and the occasional fish farm, the high hills with their lush jungle are mostly left untouched.
14:40 (Malay time).
We’ve just left the town of Ipoh. Its an interesting place I’ve visited a couple of times. I was another colonial centre famous for mining so not only does it have an impressive Edwardian station building it also boasts an attractive old town centre. I’ll post a couple of links to pictures later. This area provides the railway with a lot of freight traffic due to the massive rail-served cement plant at Tasek. The size of the rail yards around the town reflect this.
Next stop after Ipoh was Batu Gajah which has become a railway centre nowadays. The new depot and associated sites which include a CRRC plant replaced the old British-built Sentul works which was Malaysia’s Crewe, employing thousands of people. Batu Gajah’s far more up to date, built to maintain diesel and electric fleets – not steam!
As soon as we departed the staff fed us again, this time with a snack box containing peanuts, a kitkat and a carton of apple juice to accompany a hot drink (I plumped for coffee) as well as a Danish pastry and cupcake.
15:40 (Malay time)
We’ve arrived at Tanjung Malim which is the Northernmost extremity of KL’s ‘Komuter’ network. There’s a few stabling roads here, one of which contains two badly damaged cars from set SCS06. They’ve clearly been in a collision, but what with I wonder? No-one appears to be in a hurry to do anything with them as I passed them on my way North over a month ago. I’ve just Googled these class 92s and found out this set was badly damaged at this location way back in October 2018! 6 clearly isn’t a lucky number as this was the 2nd accident the set was involved in, and it was hit by a Class 26…
16:30 (Malay time)
We’ve crawled into Sungai Buloh which is the start of single line working through to KL Sentral whilst the second line’s being re-laid and rebuilt. It plays hell with capacity in the Klang valley and I’m hoping to have a closer look at work whilst I’m here.
21:30.
Time to round up the day from ‘Bigland Towers’ KL branch! My train arrived into KL Sentral spot on time. A one stop hop on the MRT system to Pasir Seni got me back to the City Lodge Hotel on the edge of Chinatown where I stayed earlier. I now have a room next door to my old one!
The rain that’s followed me all the way from Penang had remained over KL all day so I’ve not been tempted to venture out. Instead it been a case of getting my new ‘office’ set up. I like the rooms here as they have good desk space by a window with plenty of power sockets. Looking at the forecast the weather’s going to be the same tomorrow but I’m happy to have a day working, catch up on picture editing and UK stuff whilst having the odd wander for food. Here’s not as sociable a place as Georgetown so there’s no distractions in that way.
My new office…
Thankfully my back problems didn’t cause any problem with travelling. Maybe it’s finally on the mend which will be a relief – especially with the fact in 10 days I’m going to be spending an awful lot of time glued to aircraft seats!
Right, now it’s time to get on with a few others bits. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s rolling blog. One thing I haven’t explored on this trip is KL’s monorail. I intend to put that right before I leave…
To end the day, here’s a couple of pictures from Butterworth. The ‘new’ ferries may be lousy for taking pictures from compared to their counterparts, but the new shopping complex adjacent to the ferry terminal has a multi-story car park above it. Here’s the view from the 8th floor.
Class 25 number 25109 removes empty container flats from the North terminal. Vosco Unity is a Vietnamese bulk carrier. Built in 2004 by Imbari shipbuilding the ships gross tonnage is 29,963. After unloading she sailed to Prai (Malaysia) earlier today.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Today’s my last full day in Georgetown – at least on this trip, although I did nip over to the mainland for several hours to amass some more railway pictures. As is often the case my timing wasn’t brilliant and the fates conspired against me. I was up early but wanted to get a local breakfast so I wandered up to the Komtar bus station to buy some Nasi Lemak. I struggled to find it where I was staying in KL but then the opposite’s true here. I love Roti Canai to start the day with but the place I used to get it for breakfast here’s closed down. Funny old world…
Suitably fed and watered I scanned the skies and thought a trip over to Bukit Tengah, the first station out of Butterworth would be worth doing as I could spend a couple of hours taking pictures before coming home. As the ferries are only hourly now I even had time for a wander and buy some ‘clackers’ for a friend. Remember ‘clackers’? They were a 1970’s child’s toy phenomenon. Two plastic balls on the end of some twine that you bounced up and down until they ricocheted off each other in an endless cycle like a devilish Newton’s cradle (with half the balls). Well that was the idea, most people lost control after a minute or so and got a hefty clout on the wrist. It was a passing fad, but here in Penang they’re back.
My diversions meant the first ferry I could catch was the 11.30 which was fine, I arrived early, found a hard plastic seat next to a fan, logged on the the free wifi and waited. The seat was a bad idea, because as soon as I tried to stand up my back/bum muscle problems returned. I’d been doing so well up to that point too – bugger!
Despite the setback I continued with my trip, catching the ferry to Butterworth before walking up to the station to buy a 2 ringgit return to Bukit Tengah, the first station up the line but which is the location of the new depot which services locomotives, multiple units and wagons. Photographically, it’s far better than Butterworth, but there’s not a lot going on outside the station, so if you were tempted to visit, bring your own snacks. There’s a big petrol station outside if you’re desperate, but the choice of food’s limited, expensive and not very healthy. Anyways here’s a sample of the pictures I took.
‘Dalian’ 29106 powers around the curves at Bukit Tengah en-route to Butterworth.
Right now I’m enjoying my last night in a town I love. I’d planned to have a drink in one of the old bars I photographed in the past but found somewhere far mor interesting. After the rain had come and gone I went for a walk and passed what the Aussies would call a ‘bottle shop’. Only this bottle shop provided seating and gradually took over the road outside. A shout from a chap I’d bumped into earlier led me to sitting with a mixed group. He was from New Zealand, but the woman next to him was from South Korea. Also present was a local Indian guy as well as a bloke from Catalonia, who was keen to emphasise he wasn’t Spanish! It turned out to be a lovely group. We asked a lot of questions of each other and covered a lot of political and social ground.
The ‘secret’ International bar. It springs up some nights apparently and its clients are far more interesting and communicative than the ‘posh’ bars nearby. Here people talk, they don’t sit and stare at their smartphones
Now I’m back at home, packing and preparing to move on tomorrow. I can’t think of a better ending to my time here and I’ll certainly return, one day. Happy places are so rare…
On my way home I passed the Hong Kong bar (est 1920) on Lebuh Chulia which used to be packed. But fashions have really changed and the fleet’s no longer in. Instead there’s one lonely lady left staring at her TV, surrounded by old mementoes of better, busier times.
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I’d thought of a visit to one of the beaches around Batu Ferrenghi on Penang’s North coast today but when I got up this morning the weather was overcast and the threat of rain was very much in the air. So, plan B it was then which meant having a far more chilled time and not subjecting my healing back/bum to the hard plastic seats on the local buses. Instead, I spent much of the morning editing and captioning some of the backlog of travel pictures I have in order to get them onto my picture website. You can find them here.
There’s a lot more to add but I’ve always got to balance the time taking them to the time editing them, especially as the former can only be done in one place and the latter anywhere. Tomorrow’s my last full day in Georgetown before catching the train back South to KL (Kuala Lumpur). I’ve mixed feelings about that as I’m very happy here. I’ve always loved this place, but I know I can’t stay here forever. I’ve spent hours and walked miles exploring the streets which has been fabulous – as have the people because the overwhelming majority (from whatever original nationality) are so friendly. Make eye-contact and smile and you’ll get a smile back – or even a wave and ‘hello mister’. Do that in the UK and many people will think you’re some kind of nutter. It’s the same with photography. Most people on motorcycles will wave and grin if they see you’re taking a photograph. Here’s an example from the food fair I went to a couple of days ago.
This picture was entirely unforced. I just happened to be walking past their stall and they saw my camera pointing towards them so responded positively. That’s one of the things I like about this part of the world.
Tonight I’d nipped out for some local street food. Char Kway Teow (stir-fry noodles) and ended up sharing a table with a young Indian guy. Whilst be waited for our food to arrive we struck up a conversation. It turned out he lives in Mumbai. He’s in his early twenties and works on the Indian oil and gas rigs as an engineer. They do 28 days on, 28 days off and as he’s young, footloose and fancy-free he spends much of his time travelling. He’s in Georgetown for a few days before heading up to Bangkok and then Vietnam. As I’ve done the same route we swapped travel tips and talked about places we both know in India. It’s yet another example of why I really enjoy this cultural melting pot and international crossroads. We were so busy talking that I forgot to take a picture of this signature Malaysian meal, but I’m sure I’ll have it again before I leave.
Now it’s time to have a quiet night in, my penultimate one in Georgetown (on this trip, anyway) before heading South. Still, you can see some more of the pictures I’ve been busy adding to my Zenfolio site by following this link.
There’s so much that I could write about and pictures that I could show you but times limited. It would be so very easy to write a book about this place. In the interim, I’m going to leave you with another bit of street art that references world war 2 but also a cartoon strip in the iconic 1960s ‘Mad’ magazine which I used to read second-hand thanks to my brother, Dave. Plus, it’s about photography, so it scores full points with me.
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This will be a very short blog from me today as most of my day’s been spent at the Georgetown branch of Bigland Towers editing the huge backlog of pictures I have whilst still exploring the town and getting a few steps in. After that I had a long weekend video call with with Dawn which really bridged the miles.
Living in West Yorkshire, the one thing I’ve come to appreciate is how flat Georgetown old town is. Don’t get me wrong, Penang’s famous for its hills but the old town’s a cyclist’s delight. The biggest ‘hill’ I’ve climbed recently is the footbridge near the Komtar centre!
Anyway here’s a few pictures from the day…
There’s so many different food to try here you could spend months chomping your way around the place. Today I found a spare table at this place and tried their Laksa, which was gorgeous!The soup’s more of a broth and you really wouldn’t expect the ingredients to work together, but they do. Despite its fame this restaurant charges 7 ringgit for a bowl – less than £1.30.
Oh, and here’s today’s random cat picture…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Here’s the latest snapshot of life in Georgetown which never fails to fascinate me as every day is different. You can walk down the same street a dozen times but there’ll always something that turns your head.
Whilst my back injury’s been healing it still isn’t perfect which has meant I’ve had to make a go/no-go decision. I’ve less than two weeks left here in Asia before returning to the UK so heading back to Bangkok by rail only to spend another two days retracing my steps to Singapore doesn’t make sense – as much as I’d have liked to. Instead I’m going to stay here in Georgetown until March 1st, then head back down to Kuala Lumpur en-route to Singapore. There might be a side-trip involved yet, but we’ll see.
In the meantime I’m loving being here in Georgetown. I’ve often said how it’s one of my ‘happy places’ and I feel very at home here. It’s not the cheapest place in Malaysia but it is one of the most interesting. I’ve spent most of the day wandering the streets with my camera, so here’s a few of the results.
Tram tracks still embedded in Jalan Penang despite having been abandoned 100 years earlier. Georgetown used to have a fleet of trolleybuses until 1961. Some of the vehicles were ex-London buses.
I’d walked over to the Komtar tower bus station to stretch my legs and pick up a traditional Malaysian breakfast of Nasi Lemak but what I saw on the way back really pissed me off. I passed a young European ‘beggar’ with a sign asking people to give him money so that he could get a ticket to Bangkok. What the fcuk? He was sitting there staring at his smartphone without making eye-contact with anyone or making any interaction other than with his cardboard sign. Now, my head is full of questions as I know how border crossings work. I’d read about these western beggars in the newspapers recently, but never thought it would be a thing and that Europeans could have such a sense of entitlement and lack of understanding of the countries they’re in. More fool me, obviously.
His sign says “Hi, I’m travelling, please help me collect money for the train to Bangkok and food. Thank you”.
Less than 50 metres away I passed this woman. Guess which one got my money?
What really pisses me off about this guy is he’s offering nothing in return, just expecting. For the past few nights there’s been another European who’s set up a stall near where I’m staying who sell bracelets he’s made. I consider him to be in a completely different category.
This incident has led me to dig this old sign that was prominently displayed as Padang Besar station which is the rail crossing between Malaysia and Thailand. This was still here in 2009.
Oh, on a completely different note, here’s today’s random cat picture.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Shit – 12 days already? OK, if it wasn’t for my injury I might not have stayed so long. On the other hand – I’m in no rush to leave. I love it here and it’s the one place where – if I had another life – I’d consider moving to. Funnily enough Charlotte and Adi expressed the same sentiment because you can get everything here – and you’re not too far from the Thai border -hence the daily minibuses. Only now there’s a fly in that ointment. The Thai Government have decided you can only make two stamped at the border crossings a calender year. After that you need to apply for a (free) visa at a Thai embassy – which will take up a whole day of your time and a page in your passport. This doesn’t apply if you fly. It’s purely about land crossings. Let’s not even get into ‘green’ options – although I’m considering mine.
Therefore I’ve decided to stay longer in Malaysia and spend time thinking about where I go next. After all, there’s so much to see and do here and Georgetown’s the perfect place for people -watching. I’ve been taking pictures today which do exactly that. I love wandering the streets so here’s a couple of todays pictures.
I walked through Downing St earlier. Remember when you used to be able to do that in the UK? Admittedly, is wasn’t full of tw*ts in those days…
Having been here for a while I’ve started to get to know some people. Not foreigners – I had a very depressing experience sharing a table in an Indian curry house tonight, when my enforced English companion (no other table was free) started banging on about ‘illegal’ immigrants taking people’s jobs in the UK. I was too mellow to rip him a new arsehole on that one, especially when he admitted he just drifted around Asia. But that’s a lot of Brits for you. Neither history nor immigration laws are their forte. It’s frustrating and the fact these xenophobes can’t put 2 and 2 together makes me want to scream.
It’s late and I won’t start telling the story of the chap in the bechak (tricycle) tonight as he deserves more. Instead, here’s a cuddly cat picture. Malaysians love their pets and also look after strays, You’ll always see pellet food and water being left out in strategic places. But in this case – this pudding thinks it owns the shop-house it lives in by the simple expedient of blocking the narrow doorway.
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
I’d planned to write a long blog about Georgetown today, but there’s been one problem. I’ve spent too much time exploring it and now it’s late. I’ve been wandering the streets since this morning and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It’s such a fascinating place, full of life and with so much to see and experience. I’ve always loved the town and today’s reminded me why. I took off this morning with no particular plan or destination in mind. I was literally getting lost, getting to a crossroads and then suddenly deciding to go left or right, just to see where I ended up. I’ve no guidebook to tell me where I ‘must’ go so I’m unconstrained. Half the fun is not being told where to go and discovering things.
Georgetown in such a vibrant, artistic place I was bound to fund street-art everywhere and the old town’s an UNESCO world heritage site, so there’s plenty of old temples and shrines to find, but I’m fascinated by the everyday architectural styles and the way the old Chinese shophouses developed. There’s such a mish-mash of architecture here it’s brilliant. Then there’s the shantys. Places that have no style as they’re organic, being put together out of whatever the occupant could find. I will do a long blog about the place as I’ve been taking photographs and collecting material all day, but for now, here’s a few pictures to show what I’ve been up to.
One of the classic pieces of street art that appears on T-shirts and bags. This is in Lebuh Ah Quee, only a few minutes walk from where I’m staying. Street-art is everywhere and a lot of it is very inventive.A lot of the buildings here carry their date on which they were built, which is incredibly useful for gauging the age and development of the town. This is a 1940 version of a Chinese shop-house. I wonder if the occupants had any idea what was coming the next year?
. One of the many delights of Malaysia is the way so many people work open to passers-by. This man’s a Chinese calligrapher and carver who was sat outside his shop. Deep in concentration, he didn’t even see me. Believe it or not, this is was passes for parking in Georgetown. This is Lebuh Chulia, one of the main arteries and bus routes, but abandoning your car like this whilst you go to a shop is OK, apparently. To the right you can see one of the many local ‘Wombles’. People who eke out a living by collecting and recycling plastic, cardboard and cans they collect off the streets.Who needs a car when you can fit all this on a scooter? Georgetown’s a photographer’s paradise. All you have to do is stand on a street corner and wait…
I’ve a small favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 