Penang - Recollections

I recently visited Penang for an eating trip. Some observations:

1) Cleanliness - Penang is generally as clean as Singapore. Walking down the streets of Georgetown, one does not get the impression that bits of litter were randomly dotting and marring the landscape. Either the locals were very civic conscious or like Singapore, they have an army of cleaners.

2) Face Masks - Unlike Singapore, where H1N1 is already full blown and here to stay in the community, it is still nascent in Penang and local media were reporting on the increasing numbers of infected cases and precautions. What was different from Singapore was the willingness of the locals to wear face masks which I observed to be aplenty in the streets of Georgetown or in the airport.

3) Taxis without meters - It is unsurprising that the government have been unable to implement charging by meters in taxis. The taxi drivers are earning much more by charging lump sum. Even the grossly inflated charges are now standardised. The taxi driver will pull out a laminated printout with a table of the standardised charges. Internet websites' advice to travellers to negotiate fares have been made redundant.