Penang Surprise

Thursday saw me traveling by bus to Penang, the tropical island resort in the north-western tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Penang, a part of my beloved Malaysia is very near my hometown. It was therefore not surprising that this was not my first trip to this pearl of the orient. In fact, I had lost count of the number of times I had been there. My first memory of Penang was so long ago and I could remember but vaguely having our bags scrutinized by the custom officers at the ferry terminal. That must be eons ago when Penang was a tax free port. Things there were cheap then and visitors from the mainland simply loved to shop there although the things bought were taxable. Then later, there were many other trips to visit a God sister who used to live in Rifle Range. The North-South Highway had not been built then and while it took a longer than the present one and a half hour ride to reach the ferry terminal, waiting in a vehicle to get into the ferry was a hot and the real nerve breaking experience. Nowadays, I still visit Penang especially to visit a dear friend whom I had met and made in campus. It was on his invitation that I went there again on Thursday and boy, was I surprised! The yellow ferries plying Butterworth and Penang had had a make over! There were white,blue and green ferries and the one I was traveling in was red! The yellow of the new make-over ferries seemed to be of a different yellow too! Splashes of colours do really make the world go round!

Traveling tip: You don't have to travel out of the country to enjoy.

Log in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang