Penang: Amaza-craza-Malaysia
Friday, December 1st, 2006Penang is amaza-crazy. Georgetown, the main town on the island here, is an old colonial town, a place where huge naval ships used to dock and drunken sailors would wander the streets, causing a merry ruckus. You can sense the history and atmosphere that used to be here.
But it’s different now. Rents were raised a couple years ago, so now more than half the stores you see are closed. All the streets in the districts — Little India, Chinatown, Pakistan Avenue — are crowded; not with people, but with cars. What used to be neighborhoods of dusty alleyways alive with bustling commerce, now is filled with the sound of passing motorbikes and car horns. A few pedestrians wander by, passing in front of steel-gated shop shadows. The cars zoom past, on their way to the big Western shopping malls.
ismateo