We have arrived in Penang, the heart of the World Heritage town of Georgetown. We are staying in the Feng Keng Hotel, a wonderful courtyard Residence which is one of the oldest buildings in the town. It has been renovated this year and upgraded, so it now has all the modern facilities that a traveller would expect today with the feeling and atmosphere of the original building. Yet again we are wonderfully fortunate with our choice of place to stay.
For me, Georgetown has not been the easiest place to be. It has been awarded World Heritage status because there is so much that is original about the town, some of the buildings are truly wonderful and there is something atmospheric about the decay in places. The other side of this is that there is also something rather dirty about it too, and dirt breeds rot and rot attracts vermin and there are those aplenty. The streets all have storm drains on either side, many of which are open. Street vendors use these for swept rubbish and also to throw away scraps and washing up water, just the sort of waste which is food for some. There are also many buildings which have fallen into significant disrepair and boarded up, again a haven for little animals! Enough said about all that, I am sure you have the picture.

The up-side of all of this is that the town is a photographers dream. Because of the damp humid atmosphere for much of the year, it is difficult to keep damp out of the walls of the buildings and the paint used has to be able to breath. So you get these wonderful colours of bright water wash paint which are thick and matt in texture. Our building for example is a bright terracotta colour, others are lapis lazuli blue and yet others green, yellow and peach. When renovated they are just beautiful. The streets are lined with shop-houses with arcade pavements in front. These are called 'Five foot ways' and apparently appear in Singapore and Malacca too. The design is attributed to Sir Stanford Raffles and designed in such a way as to protect the pedestrians from both the heat of the sun and the rain in the monsoon season. There is British influence in many of the buildings but also Chinese, Indian and Arabic too. Eventually I imagine most of the buildings will be renovated and some of the current atmosphere lost - but also some of those little critters. I'm torn which is the better!

While here we have returned to being culture vultures and have enjoyed walking round admiring many of the buildings. Fort Cornwallis, for instance, is a famous landmark. Little is left of the original fort other than a magazine and chapel but the perimeter wall and cannon placements are intact following some significant renovation. There is a clock tower nearby which was dedicated to Queen Victoria's Jubilee and the Government buildings around are all ex-colonial buildings.

It was when we visited the Christian cemetery that we fully realised the hardship that many of the early settlers here experienced. From what we could see, it would seem that if you lived to be 50 you were doing very well. There was a whole family who died of 'jungle fever', probably malaria, within days of each other, lots of women who died in their 20s, probably in childbirth, and inscriptions relating to very young children - all very sad. We did find the tomb of Francis Light who was the first Governor of the Island and credited with many positive works and developments in trade in the country.

Because of the mixture of religions and the many ethnic groups there are temples and churches everywhere. We have visited Chinese Buddhist temples, seen churches dedicated to just about every Christian sect you care to mention and are woken each morning by the call to prayer from the Mosque across the road. There have been inter-racial tensions in the past but now all seem to live together in tolerance and harmony.

The Botanical Gardens on the outskirts of the city are not to be missed. They are beautifully presented and the plants are just incredible. As you walk round you see things we grow at home as pot plants just growing rampant amongst the undergrowth. In the park there is a waterfall, which was first harnessed to provide drinking water by the British when they first colonised the area 200 years ago. At that time the waterfall would not have been in the middle of a well maintained garden but in the middle of the jungle. It was awe inspiring to think of the e

ngineering and imagination of these people to have achieved this. It is still in use today, albeit with equipment updated.

We had decided to have a reasonably early night on Sunday when we heard drumming and noises in the street outside. On investigation it turned out to be a parade in the street outside so we dashed down thinking we were going to miss it. In the event it went on for ages. There were floats with everything Christmassy you can imagine.

There were Chinese dragons dancing around and just opposite the hotel there is a Chinese meeting room so the dragons would do a special prancing dance in front of the building. The most spectacular part was between the floats there were groups of young men with a pole at least 20ft long with a long silk flag attached which denoted their club, work place or organisation. They would toss this pole into the air with the object of catching it on their head and balancing it there while walking along. As you may imagine, they were not always successful in this so it was a bit hairy at times but huge fun. I have no idea how many people took part in this but the parade lasted about an hour and there must have been at least 50 flag waving groups, at least 30 Chinese Dragons and goodness know how many floats, we were so fortunate in being at the right place at the right time, a fabulous experience.

We have taken to using the buses here which are plentiful, easy to access and inexpensive. Yesterday we went on a lovely journey to Teluk Bahang, round the north of the island following the coast much of the way. Many of the beaches are just perfect so there has been some serious development with holiday homes, hotels, and even a Hard Rock Hotel. Once past the developments, the scenery was beautiful and we had a great bus journey. At Teluk Bahang we visited a Batik factory to watch how it is done and were tempted to buy a few mementos.

We then went on to a tropical butterfly farm. I was unsure what to expect, I was amazed by the variety, size and number of tropical species they were breeding in such a closed environment.

Walking through the butterfly house, we were surrounded by all these brightly coloured exotic creatures it was just stunning.

There are two very famous mansions in Georgetown: the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion is now an hotel and you can have guided tours round the reception rooms (and peek into one of the bedrooms) very beautiful but also very expensive. The other is the Penang Peranakan Mansion, smaller but all is open to the public. It is a super way to see inside the homes of the famous Chinese traders of the time and how they lived. All very opulent and interesting to see the British influences, like the cast iron pillars from Glasgow and the floor tiles that were pointed out as being from Stoke on Trent. The Chinese Feng Shui philosophy pervades all the overall design. It is surprising how well the two harmonise.

Tomorrow we are taking a bus across country to the other side of Malaysia. To Kota Bahru, where we are going to spend Christmas. It will be strange to be away from home for the festive period, as this part of Malaysia is very Moslem I doubt we will have much festive cheer so the bottle of Gin in my baggage will have to see us through!! Happy Christmas to you all.