15.12.29

This will be my last journal entry of the year.  I’m on a beach of Penang Island with Rod.  The only other
occupant is a man cleaning the beach.  We arrived in Penang on the evening of December 29th.  We took
a taxi to a Chinese-owned guesthouse (called E.T.), in the district of Batu Ferlinghi, which is simple but has
a large clean room.  The neighbouring mosque blasts its morning prayer at 5:50am. Penang is such that most
of the development (5 star hotels, condominiums) has been done along the coast.  We checked out the night
market on the evening of our arrival.  The following morning we strolled along the beach, crossing through
the lobby of the Shangri-La hotel.  In the afternoon, we hired a tour to see some of the island’s principal sites.
Our guide was a Chinese man named Lim.  Our first stop was a Batik factory, then to a tropical fruit farm
(including cocoa and nutmeg trees), and finally to a monkey park.  Lim was born in Penang of parents
from Hokkien.  He’s never been to his parents’ hometown but has been to Beijing on a sightseeing holiday. 
The total population of Penang Island is 1.3 million and the main city is Georgetown.

Tomorrow we head for the cleaner beaches of Langkawi Island, a 2.5 hour ferry ride north of Penang. 
We are quite close to the West coast of Thailand.  If only we had more time…
 I had my nails done at the Chinese Shopping Centre yesterday in preparation for New Year’s. 
It took 2.5 hours for a manicure and pedicure!!!  While I was in the salon, a girl from mainland China
came in with her boyfriend and thrust her foot onto the manicure table (where I was sitting) demanding
a refund, demonstrating where her long fake nails had broken and fallen off.  Her shorts left half her
ass exposed.  Quite a show.  “Elizabeth” was playing on DVD.
 

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