Three days in Penang Island

Fri 17Aug18
Our journey of a hundred miles started with a cat nap. Found this cat napping at the concourse of the Kampar railway station, oblivious to the proximity of my presence. Hehe

Day One Fri 17Aug18

Boarding the ferry at Butterworth.

On board the ferry from Butterworth to Penang island: the safest place for us to be at was to hang around the life jacket deployment lever. Haha

We had arrived at Butterworth station after a pleasant two-hour journey on the electric train. Were surprised that we could no longer walk to the ferry terminal from the railway station like before. Instead, we had to board a free shuttle bus just to take us past the huge Penang Sentral complex, which is under construction, to the jetty where we boarded the 4.10pm ferry just before it set sail

Day One Fri 17Aug18

Crossing over to Penang Island.

On our short voyage to Penang Island, looking south towards the grand old Penang Bridge standing majestically across the waters. It was designed by my classmate's father, the Late Prof Chin Fung Kee

Day One Fri 17Aug18

Evening walkabout

Looking south-east towards our rustic heritage hotel from across Carnarvon Street. We' have just returned from a short walk to Chulia Street nearby for dinner, and we decided to continue walking southward along Carnarvon St all the way to see the bright lights of 1st Avenue and Prangin Mall before returning to the hotel. — at Armenian St Heritage Hotel

Day Two Sat 18Aug18

Breakfast & morning walkabout.

We took a short walk from our hotel to Seng Thor coffee-shop, a stone's throw away at the junction of Carnarvon and Kimberley St for a tasty and satisfying breakfast.

After that we headed north-west along Kimberly St, surprised that so many shops and hawker stalls could be found in such a narrow street. 

Among the oldest buildings we came across was a shop-house with the year 1921 engraved and painted in gold above its main entrance. There was also a block with a very old sign named Picadilly Bazaar. I guessed it must have been there since the British colonial days.

We were surprised again when we crossed Jln Pintal Tali on our left, that Prangin Mall was just a few steps away!

Leaving Kimberley St behind us, we turned right into Jln Kuala Kangsar and carried on walking north-east until the junction with Campbell St. From there we took a loop via Penang Rd, Chulia St and finally Carnarvon St to get back to our hotel.

It was a pleasant Saturday morning walk under sunny blue skies.

Among the oldest buildings we came across was this shop-house with the year 1921 engraved and painted in gold above its main entrance.

There was also this block with a very old sign named Picadilly Bazaar. I guessed it must have been there since the British colonial days.

Day Two Sat 18Aug18
Moving to a new hotel.

After our morning walkabout to Kimberley St and back, we had to check out of Armenian Street Heritage and transfer to Neo+ Hotel to the South.

(This was because we had originally planned to arrive only on Saturday and to stay in Neo+ for just a night. Due to some transport issues, we had to come earlier on Friday instead, thus ending up having to book Armenian St Heritage Hotel too)

Neo+ stands at the junction of Gurdwara Rd and Presgrave St, a couple of blocks south of Komtar-Prangin Malls complex. We decided to make good use of the knowledge that we had gained from our morning breakfast walkabout, and took a short walk (well, it was somewhat long actually) to Gurdwara Rd via Carnarvon- Kimberley - Pintal Tali - Dr Lim Chwee Leong - Komtar-Prangin complex - Magazine Rd. Sounds like a long walk after all, doesn't it?

Checking in to Neo+ was simple and quite straightforward. The room was clean and spacious, but rather gloomy, illuminated by just a few tiny lights. Many thanks to Nicholas Ming for recommending Neo+ to us.

From our "15th floor" , which was actually 13th floor had the hotel management not removed the unlucky 13th and 14th from their floor listing, we caught a good view of the combination of tall buildings dotting the Georgetown skyline, surrounded by old heritage buildings and pre-war shophouses.

Soon it was time to go out for our lunch.

Checking in to Neo+ was simple and quite straightforward. The room was clean and spacious, but rather gloomy, illuminated by just a few tiny lights.

From our "15th floor" , which was actually 13th floor, we caught a good view of the combination of tall buildings dotting the Georgetown skyline, surrounded by old heritage buildings and pre-war shophouses.

A view of the combination of tall buildings dotting the Georgetown skyline, looking northwards, with Gama Departmental Store to the left of Gurdwara Rd.

Day Two 18Aug18
Walking across Georgetown to attend a talk .

We had lunch at a small but busy coffee-shop just across Presgrave St opposite our hotel. Ordered "char koay teow" (fried rice-strip noodles) and were served with probably the smallest serving of this delicacy we've ever had in our lifetime . . . Haha
It was just enough for a light lunch nevertheless.

After lunch I took a walk to Argyll Road to attend a talk by the President of the Malaysian Writers' Society, while my wife went for some shopping at Gama Department Store nearby. The twenty-minute walk saw me crossing the busy and somewhat confusing traffic-light junctions across Magazine Rd, Jln Dato Keramat and Macalister Rd to continue northwards along Penang Road.

Hmm, I thought to myself, oddly enough, there's a Penang Road in Penang but no Ipoh Road in Ipoh nor Kuala Lumpur Road in Kuala Lumpur. Haha again . . .

From Penang Rd I turned left into Burma Rd, crossed over to Transfer Rd, continued northwards to Argyll Rd, made a left turn and voilà, Livingston Tower, the meeting venue, was just down the road before me. It took me 24 minutes, including crossing the busy busy roads, to reach there despite Google map telling me it would take only 12 minutes.

After listening to an informative and insightful talk, I walked back to the hotel by the same way.

Although it was a sunny afternoon, there were some clouds in the sky and I had put on my Australian floppy hat (bought in Melbourne but Made in China), so the walk to Argyll Road and back wasn't too uncomfortable.

It was a good and worthwhile afternoon spent at Livingston Tower.

Crossing the busy and somewhat confusing traffic-light junctions across Magazine Rd, Jln Dato Keramat and Macalister Rd to continue northwards along Penang Road

Heading north on Penang Rd. Hmm, I thought to myself, oddly enough, there's a Penang Road in Penang but no Ipoh Road in Ipoh nor Kuala Lumpur Road in Kuala Lumpur.

From Penang Rd I turned left into Burma Rd, crossed over to Transfer Rd, continued northwards to Argyll Rd, made a left turn and voilà, Livingston Tower, the meeting venue, was just down the road before me

Day Two 18Aug18
On the way back from Argyll Road.

I passed by this heritage building and decided to take a photo of it from the multi-directional pedestrian bridge across Burma Road - Penang Road - Dr Lim Chwee Leong Rd. Don't know much about its history except that it is currently occupied by Loke Thye Kee Restaurant.

Day Two: 18Aug18
The final evening walkabout.

We went out at about 7 o'clock in the evening for dinner. First, walked to Times Square via Trang Rd and Jln Kg Jawa Lama. On the way we stopped by briefly at LUMA*, an old pre-war shop-house painted in rainbow colours, where I joined a write-in session a month ago. I forgot to take a photo of LUMA.

(*Light Up Malaysian Arts)

Times Square is a tall imposing building standing by the southern side of Jln Dato Keramat, a shopping mall with some fine dining restaurants inside.

That evening there were two giant Transformer robots installed just outside Times Square. We took a photo with the yellow one, not knowing this character's name. (Every one of them look like Optimus Prime to me haha)

We also passed an old 19th Century heritage building called Birch House where a McDonald's Drive Thru' operates.

Failing to find any restaurant that fits our taste, and our budget, we decided to walk back to Komtar-Prangin Mall where we found a comfortable Italian restaurant at a basement called Lot 33. There was a live band performing some entertaining songs very skilfully. The patrons were very appreciative of their singing and music.

On the way home we passed by St Giles-Wembley Hotel with its brightly lit facade.

It was a pleasant and memorable final evening of our stay in Georgetown Penang.

Times Square is a tall imposing building by the side of Jln Dato Keramat, a shopping mall with some fine dining restaurants inside.

That evening there were two giant Tranformer robots installed just outside Times Square. We took a photo with the yellow one, not knowing this character's name. (Every one of them look like Optimus Prime to me haha)

Failing to find any restaurant that fits our taste, and our budget, we decided to walk back to Komtar-Prangin Mall where we found a comfortable Italian restaurant at a basement called Lot 33. There was a live band performing some entertaining songs very skilfully. The patrons were very appreciative of their singing and music.

On the way home we passed by St Giles-Wembley Hotel with its brightly lit facade.

Day Three: Sun 19Aug18
Sight-seeing by bus around Georgetown.

It's the last day of our short stay in Georgetown and we had some time on hand after breakfast to go for a little sight-seeing before check-out.

We boarded a free CAT bus at Komtar and went around town until the ferry jetty at Weld Quay. There we had to disembark and wait for another CAT bus to take us back to Komtar. It was a long wait of about half an hour, and we were made all the more impatient seeing that there were three vacant CAT buses lying idle, with a bus driver taking a nap in one of them.

No information was displayed about bus schedules, giving us the impression that the CAT bus drivers would move as and when they like!

At last we got back to Komtar and to our hotel room where we got ready to check out. I took photos of our final glimpse of the Georgetown skyline.

We boarded a free CAT bus at Komtar and went around town until the ferry jetty at Weld Quay. There we had to disembark and wait for another CAT bus to take us back to Komtar.

At the ferry jetty at Weld Quay, it was a long wait of about half an hour, and we were made all the more impatient seeing that there were three vacant CAT buses lying idle, with a bus driver taking a nap in one of them

A final snap-shot of the Georgetown skyline before we checked out of Neo+ Hotel

A final snap-shot of the Georgetown skyline before we checked out of Neo+ Hotel 

Final walkabout: the end of our short stay in Penang, Sun 19Aug18

After checking out, we planned our final walking tour of Georgetown to visit Chowrasta market at Penang Road. After a little shopping at Chowrasta, we walked generally eastwards via Kuala Kangsar Rd - Campbell St - Cintra St - Chulia St (where we stopped to pose for some street art photos in one of the side lanes) before heading on to Carnarvon and finally Armenian Street to visit some heritage sites.

I had wanted to visit the Asian Camera museum but a sign at the entrance says "Admission by Pass Only". Not knowing where to get such a pass from, we gave up the idea of visiting the museum.

Instead we took a drink and bought some handicrafts from an art-studio cum café (with an obscure name) two doors away from the Sun Yat Sen House along Armenian Street. We visited the Sun Yat Sen house several years ago and I thought of dropping by again but it wasn't open for the day yet.

After an unhurried coffee break, we proceeded to walk towards the Weld Quay Ferry Terminal.

A short stop at the recently renovated Chowrasta market.

Street art off Penang Road: I showed Beethoven the right way to play some of his pieces . . . 

Street art: taking Dr Sun Yat Sen for a rick-shaw ride around town

Street art: my wife had a chat with Mona Lisa

Sun 19Aug18
Good-bye Georgetown.
Good-bye Penang Island.

We didn't have to wait long for the ferry Pulau Payar to take us on the short voyage back to Butterworth where we transferred to an electric train for our two hour rail journey home.

A clean and colourful walkway led us to the jetty where the ferry was already waiting

A ferry was berthed in a nearby jetty

We found some vacant seats this time 

A journey into the past

We made a slow drive to old Penang city
A small island a hundred miles to the north
To meet with old friends from our university
Not knowing what the day will bring forth

It was a little more than five years past
Since we last set foot on the island shore
And now we have the chance, at long last
To see what for us it has in store

While driving through each busy crowded street,
Past each rustic shop-house, each transient shadow cast,
The city seemed not to have come forward, for me to greet,
Instead, I felt, I have gone back to its lingering past.

Soon we arrived, somewhat dazed, at the old hotel
A towering twenty-storey resort by the beach
For my wife, this place rings a nostalgic bell
For she had been here twice, for courses to teach

The grand old tower has not changed much
Over the rippling course of flowing time
From old wooden panels that felt rough to the touch
To the wobbly taps and the sound of lifts arriving with a chime

There was but one journey left for us to complete
To which this long awaited trip must pertain
It was a journey not by any road or street
But one to be made on memory lane.

To be continued . . .

I think, therefore I write

Je pense . . .

"Je pense, donc je suis", wrote René Descartes, the French mathematician who invented the Cartesian coordinates system in the 17th century.

Descartes also wrote it in Latin, "Cogito, ergo sum" in another work of his.

In English, it is that well-known saying that many of us have heard of,

"I think, therefore I am".

It tells us that we are what we think in our thoughts. Our character, our personality, and our disposition is composed by our thinking.

This idea did not originate from the 17th century.

A similar statement was written more than two thousand years earlier, around the 6th century B.C. by King Solomon in the ancient kingdom of Israel, in his "Sayings of the wise", the book of Proverbs which subsequently became part of the Old Testament of the Bible.

"For as a man thinketh, so is he . . ." , wrote King Solomon in Proverbs 23:7 KJV

King Solomon's complete statement says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.", telling us that a person's real character comes from what he thinks inwardly, not what he says' to you outwardly.

A similar saying also exists in an ancient Chinese proverb, in the Cantonese dialect, that says,

"You know a person's face, but you do not know his heart"

Again, this statement tells us that a person's thoughts and intents make him the person he is.

As such, we cannot really know a person just by listening to his words, or seeing his deeds. We can only be certain if we know what he is thinking in his heart.

If only we can see what everybody is thinking. If only we know what's in their hearts.

There is, however, one group of people whom we can know very well by their actions.

They are writers.

Writers write what they think. A writer thinks, therefore he writes. If you want to know a writer's heart, read his books.

"Je pense, donc j'écris". I think, therefore I write.

Do manners make a man?

"Manners maketh man", they say.

This well known expression is said to have been coined sometime around the 15th or 16th century by a headmaster of a well-known school in England.

It is often taken to mean that good manners distinguish human beings from animals.

The notion that a person's manners make him man, or woman as the case may be, simply because animals are not capable of such a thing called "manners", led me to ask myself another question, a provoking one:

If good manners make us human, what do bad manners make?

That is, if a person of good manners clearly distinguishes himself from "mannerless" beasts, what about a person of ill-manners? Is that person still human?

In other words, can we point to a rude, uncouth, foul-mouth, ill-mannered person and say,

"Behold, a man, who is clearly not a beast!"

Or should we instead point to a mannerless animal and utter,

"Behold, an animal who is not ill-mannered at all"

I write this today after having recently pondered over a few encounters with some rude, some vulgar and some hostile people, and sadly, some of whom used to be my friends.

One insulted me badly by throwing almost every expletive he could find under the sun at me over a simple disagreement. Another made a maliciously false and slanderous remark at me when I complained, politely, about not being told of an event that I would have liked to take part in.

There was also a friend with whom I have worked together in a group for more than two years, who lashed out with a much hatred and anger at a couple of our group members for merely suggesting that he should stop doing some things that are unhelpful to others.

Of course, I have had my share of impolite colleagues who ignored my "Good morning" and refused to acknowledge my "Thank you" on some occasions. I have also lost count of the rude and and inconsiderate drivers on the road, who cut me off in highly dangerous situations almost causing me to meet with accidents. And the irritating "hand-phone" guy ahead of me at the intersection, who is oblivious of the traffic-lights turning green, causing me to wait for the lights to change another full cycle.

"Such ill-manners, such inconsiderate behaviour, such abusive and unpleasant words, . . . such beasts", I thought to myself.

It makes me realise that "Ill-manners degrade man", that a man of poor manners is worse than a mannerless animal, for as much as an animal by nature knows not how to behave politely nor courteously, the very same animals also know not how to behave rudely nor discourteously.

Animals, by virtue of their inability to use language, do not insult, neither do they slander nor do they curse, nor hurl malicious accusations at others.

Animals have no manners: neither good nor bad.

When man loses his good manners, he has lost to an animal. An ill-mannered man is no longer man, he is not even beast. He has descended to a place lower than the animal kingdom.

Technology is not a good teacher

Yesterday, I read a caption posted by an online news site on facebook quoting our new seventh Prime Minister's comment on drastic changes needed in the way teaching is carried out in our schools.

"OLD SCHOOL: Malaysia's Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad says the country's teaching methods are out of date and wants to place less emphasis on teachers and instead allow students to be taught via "discs or thumb drives" which contain materials from experts for students to learn from.", the report quotes the Prime Minister.

In my opinion this notion that technology can play the role of teachers is alarming.

The best teacher one can afford in life is not technology. It is neither disk nor thumb-drive. It is neither app nor cloud. The best teacher to learn from is, well, a teacher: a trained, educated and human teacher.

An old friend responded to my opinion, asking what I thought about " . . . the idea of a learning facilitator + technology based delivery ? In other words emphasizing the facilitative part of the role of a teacher."

I replied him that this belief in a facilitator of learning rather than a teacher of expertise has been around for a long time. It was actually part of my teacher training back in the early 1980s, in those days being used as one of several approaches in the teaching-learning process.

The issue we had to address in those days was the long time it would take for a child or an adolescent to "discover" knowledge, gain sufficient understanding, and apply themselves to real problem solving situations. And that's not yet going on to analyse, evaluate and synthesize new theories.

In my opinion, a facilitator role needs to work hand-in-hand with a coach role, i.e. the facilitator must himself have sufficient expertise to explain, demonstrate, prescribe drills, correct mistakes and to motivate the learner to achieve objectives.

In other words, the student needs to learn from an experienced person. Perhaps, this is somewhat akin to the "pair programming" that my old friend, a software engineer, talked about some years ago on extreme programming where, simply speaking, computer programmers work together in pairs with one writing the program codes and the other reviewing the code line by line.

Yesterday, while waiting to use the air pump at my neighbourhood petrol service station, I saw the driver of the car in front, a young man, setting the pump pressure to almost twice the normal pressure typically recommended for a sedan. In fact, he had virtually set it to 300 kPa (44 psi), the maximum limit for the tyres on his small car.

As he proceeded to pump up each tyre, I thought to myself, "That is MAX. The tyres are at bursting point. Set it any higher, and they may explode! "

After some hesitation, I decided to get down from my car and alert him about it. By then he had already inflated all four tyres on his car. I told him that it was very dangerous for him to do what he was doing. He could get hurt, even killed if the tyres explode while driving. I urged him to set the tyres to a lower pressure.

He said it was the first time he pumped a car tyre and he didn't know the correct pressure to set. Obviously he didn't even know that the recommended tyre pressure is displayed on the door frame plate inside the driver side door.

Not only that, he didn't know how to read the door frame plate. I had to do it for him and tell him that the recommended pressure for his car is 230 kPa (33 psi). I also had to show him how to set the pump down to 230 kPa and how the pump, a new model, would automatically release excess pressure from the tyre by just "pumping" the tyres all over again at this lowered pressure.

I was relieved that the tyres did not burst and that no one was hurt.

Before saying good-bye, I found out that he is an undergraduate in the university nearby . . .a university student who was completely ignorant about tyre safety.

The young man did not know the safe tyre pressure for his car. He did not know how to find that out. And he did not know about the dangers of driving around with super inflated tyres.

This person needed someone knowledgeable and experienced who could talk to him about the dangers of inflating tyres to their maximum limit. He needed someone to show him how to find out the recommended tyre pressures, to reduce the extreme pressure that had already built up in all four wheels

He needed a teacher.

Whether you call facilitator, guide, coach or mentor, a teacher by any other name must still teach. Without a teacher, the notion of students learning from technology will not work.

No more mujik No more koin

A short poem dedicated to my two-year old grandson whom I visited about ten days ago, fondly recalling a little make-believe game of flying a plane, that he played with me in the bedroom.

The little boy has an endearing way of mispronouncing words. Music becomes mujik. Coins becomes koin. And aeroplane becomes, quite correctly, airplane. At the end of each short flight, he would invariably utter the same words:

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane.

The imaginary plane that he commanded
Had finished its flight for the day.
He got out of the craft that had just landed,
Waving his upturned palms he'd say:

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

He hopped a little hop on the bouncy mattress

And got down on to the floor

But hardly had he taken any rest,

When he would return for more

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

A step onto the mattress he'd take

To climb into his plane

And "whooo" a whirring sound he'd make 

As his flight took off again

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

And off and on the plane he'd get

Over and over again

Until tiredness and boredom beset

He'd fly his fantasy plane.

Nomore mujik, nomore koin
Go down
Bye-bye airplane

Congratulations Malaysia

This morning I woke up to news that the evil administration of Barisan Nasional over our country has come to an end. For the first time in history, a new ruling party forms the next government of Malaysia.

After putting voting day in the middle of the week,
After getting candidates unjustly disqualified on nominations day,
After sending out postal ballot papers very late,
After allowing impostors to vote using fake identity cards,
After slowing down the voting at polling centres,
After turning away, at 5 o'clock, many voters who have waited in queue for hours,
After chasing away an uncle who arrived in bermuda shorts,
After all the blatant gerrymandering and extreme malapportionment,

And a host of other cunning plans and trickery,

The evil one has lost.

The people of Malaysia have won.
Congratulations Malaysia!