We flew to Penang for a long weekend.

Penang is a big city and the old colonial part, George Town, is very attractive. We stayed at a modest hotel but breakfasted in style one morning at the Eastern and Oriental, the E & O, the next stop on the Grand Tour after Raffles in Singapore. The hotel is housed in a magnificent pile on the waterfront. They do a very good breakfast there. We went to church in the recently refurbished Anglican building set in spacious grounds. The preacher was from Korea, at one time the CEO of what is now the largest steel company in the world. I was keen to know how an indisputably top man of commerce would adapt to different surroundings.  Disappointingly. He was quite good for 20 minutes but then he said it all again, and a third time briefly with greater emphasis.  Still, a beautiful building and an interesting experience.  Also interesting was the great Buddhist temple of Kek Lok Si – a 30m bronze statue of Kuan Yin, the last Buddha’s mother, and the Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas.  The proportion of the whole complex given over to religious knick-knack shops is too high.  We took the funicular railway (founded 1921) up Penang hill where we drank afternoon tea and viewed the city laid out below us.  The climb was steep but the modern Swiss rolling stock is reassuringly well engineered.  The botanical gardens were laid out in the late nineteenth century to provide specimens for Kew.  An attractive setting but, rather like Turkey, Malaysia is a rapidly developing country that has insufficient funds as yet to display its treasures to advantage.  The War Museum is housed in a British fort of the 1930s that by an accident of history remained undisturbed for several decades.  It is in much the same state as when the Japanese left in 1945. There were few artefacts remaining but the military engineers demonstrated much ingenuity in using all the natural features of the hill.  Of course the guns faced out over the Malacca strait and the Japanese soon overran the fort from round the back.  And then we enjoyed the cuisine.  On the last night we went to Chin’s, on the end of the pier alongside the decaying marina.  The decor was original and the Chinese food quite the best we have ever tasted. At the end of the meal Sam Chin came over to ask whether everything had been alright (as they do, these days; oh, as they do!) and recognizing British accents stayed for half an hour discussing the riots in London, the state of the country generally and the challenges of setting up a new restaurant.  Young Mr Chin was born and brought up in London where his father Dave ran a highly regarded restaurant. After obtaining a degree in architecture he learned the family trade in well known British companies before responding to the call to establish a new restaurant in Penang.  He and his father selected two chefs from the leading school of cooking in China and dishes from several provinces. These were areas where the climate is frequently cold and wet and the locals appreciate plenty of salt and fat – anathema to the taste buds of tropically based Malaysians.  The chefs spent three months amending and refining the dishes until they were entirely to the satisfaction of the boss.  All before the restaurant opened.  The Chin family business is serious about food.

There were four of us on the trip; an excellent weekend.