On our final day in Penang, we found our way to the broad avenue of Gurney after a leisurely lunch of char kuay teow at Solok Moulmein. From Pulau Tikus we strolled into a parallel world of marine parades with laidback grounds and names that ring and resound through the straits of two sundered settlements.
Alas, the connections that are being forged anew betwixt the two isles are of a lesser flavour. Overlooking the bay with its egrets and herons is a plaza that would be not be out of place in the boondocks of Jurong West, right down to the swanky boutiques and burnished floors that would seem alien in a typical Malaysian mall such as Komtar.
The cherished waterfront, with its stately mansions and a nocturnal line-up of feasts in stalls, is happily still home for legions of mudskippers and fiddler crabs that creepy about in the late afternoon heat. Further north, much of the coast before the private beaches of Batu Feringghi has been reclaimed on a massive scale for seaward homes and walled communities that form a brick barrier between the hilly driveway and shrinking shore. A cold varnish of mercantile logic now coats this pearl of the orient that yet glows with a life unscrubbed and alleys of serendipity.
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