George Town Explored

MUSINGS ON GEORGE TOWN, PENANG ISLAND
George Town is a mixture of elegant Colonial streets, parks and buildings, typically hectic Asian street life, and an inner city "decayed grittiness" that is in evolution. Nearby Penang Hill was a surprising retreat from the heat, and we would visit here for this alone. We would have liked to have gone to the Tropical Fruit farm, the largest collection of tropical fruits in SE Asia, but it was an hour trip each way. If we had been "stranded here" due to the recent volcanic eruption in East Indonesia, we would have taken in the north of the island. There are beach resorts here, but the water is unfortunately polluted. Much needs to be done to fight the water quality issues and plastic pollution we have seen all over SE Asia on our trip. We've enjoyed our 4* Georgetown Shangri-La Hotel for a North American bargain of $100 per night and have the local Asian news station CNA, wtih programming offering a lot of insights to add to our growing awareness of the challenges facing this part of the world.Read more