Penang

A free hotel voucher and cheap budget airline tickets find me and my husband on a cab from Penang airport to a beach hotel. We were told it had been raining for a week as dark clouds loomed. In the distance, mist and clouds hung over the hills in the horizon. It didn't strike me that Penang was this hilly during my last trip maybe close to 2 decades ago. Penang is really more scenic than I thought. As the hills provide a continuous backdrop and as the cab passed some old Chinese schools with the old school buildings still intact,  I begin to understand why some Singaporeans from Penang are still so attached to their homeland and alma mater. I recalled how before my own alma mater in KL made room for the Paragon shopping centre, I would visit the school every time I visited KL. Even after the Paragon was up I would still pace the road, telling myself this back entrance to the shopping mall must be where the gate of Primary school was and this cafe inside the mall must be where the canteen  was.  Perhaps this is what they called "roots" and strangely enough as a person matures the roots can take on more significance just as the roots of plants grew thicker and deeper.

Though the hills are now dotted with highrise condos and the esplanades have taken a modern touristy polish with restored buildings beside highrise ones, the island does not lose being rustic. Georgetown is still dotted with narrow streets lined with shop houses, old colonial mansions and clan associations. There are plenty old coffee shops and street stalls with very very good hawker food. I particularly enjoy having meals under zinc roofed joints with a huge tree right in the middle where the zinc roof was cut to accommodate its trunk. I like the idea that the tree whilst providing the shade watches how humans indulge in simple pleasures.

I guess it must be heart warming for people of Penang origin to be able to go back to their hometown once in awhile and find those places edged in their memories remained little changed. In fact I read in the papers about the intention to build a Hakka tulou 土楼.  Such cultural focus is amazing. And even if some places are no longer there, there will still be the looming hills and its landmark temple that tie the heartstrings of its people.

Does the MBS sky-park tie ours? Maybe the manicured Botanical Gardens will be the last straw!