Panang
I met phil in the cameron highlands, he was there for the wedding of his girlfriends work colleague so stayed over in daniels lodge on the wednesday night. Sitting out the front, at dinner and in the jungle bar later on that night we got talking and got on fairly well. He lives in panang so insisted on me staying in his place when I get to that side of the country, sounded like a perfect deal.
I hung around the highlands as you already know longer than planned so didn’t make it up to panang till the wednesday. The bus takes about 5-6 hours to get to the port town of butterworth where you can then hop on a ferry that takes just 20 minutes to get across to the city of georgetown, the capital of panang. Georgetown is massive, totally took me by surprise. I was expecting some out of the way backwater, not some concrete skyscraping jungle. Phil was waiting for me as soon as I got off the pier so on the back of his bike and up to his house to drop off the bags. To say the house is sparse is something of an understatement. The toilet was rank and there was just one tv stand (no tv) and a mattress on the floor in one room. I started to get bad feelings.
We headed off to get some lunch and caught up on the last couple of days. The food was exquisite. When fed and watered we took to the streets of panang on the back of his scooter and took in all that there was to see in panang. Like the rest of the country there is a big hindu and chinese influence. I went into a couple of temples which in someway resembled the ones I have seen before in india and thailand yet retained a certain distinction. The chinese seem to prefer more animated dieties, some of the statues look proper evil.
We headed on out the coast to the main tourist resort called battam ferangui. It is just one massive development after another fronted by a pretty ordinary beach front. There is a food court there to die for though, when you speak to people about panang they continually go on about the food in the place.It is definitely the biggest tourist attraction on this island.
Phil used to work in the tourist industry but now works as a journalist. He comes across as a bit of a hustler, when I arrived I was immediately suspicious of him as he was rushing me from one place to the next and not coming into any of the places with me so instead of treating me like a friend which is the pretence under which I was invited I was been treated like any other tourist that he brings around. The inevitable conversation about money and the discrepancy between what he gets paid and what he has to pay for and worst of all he trys to make me feel bad about it. It came to ahead the next morning over breakfast when he went as far as asking for a contribution – without stating an amount he in one fail swoop trod all over any hope we had of a friendship. I did owe him for one nights accommodation in what was a pretty uncomfortable environment. So I asked him to drop me back to his house immediately so I could collect my stuff, I gave him what I would’ve expected to pay in accommodation and what I would’ve paid in taxi fare and bade my farewell with a pretty bitter taste in my mouth I have to admit. Its horrible that there are people out there like that. I went back into the centre of georgetown and booked a ticket to the perenthian islands off the east coast of malaysia leaving that night. A couple of nights earlier than expected I was glad to get out of there to be honest. Panang will not go down as a highlight in my trip, not by a long way. Whatever charm I’m sure it had years ago is dwindling fast and apart from the culinary circus thats there I would steer people away from there altogether.
So another nighttime bus – I have given up giving them up. Sometimes they are a necessary evil, and thanks to goodness there was the perfect remedy at the end of this nocturnal journey…
thats for another post. All the best,
Phil
Tags: Malaysia, panang
Phil Gill
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