This is a tourist hot spot island just opposite the Butterworth Air Base where the British Australians and New Zealand air forces and troops were based during the Malaya emergency of the 50’s and 60’s as the Malay people sought their independence from the British but we were all told it was the ‘yellow peril’ of communism.
I’ve been here once before in 1999 and was pretty impressed with the big advances the Malay people have made in all fields. Its very modern and clean and the people are still very polite. The only thing that grated with me a bit was the increase in hard line muslim with a big increase of women wearing full burkas and the loud broadcasting of prayer time. We had a good value trip around the island with a batik factory,nice meal at a great seafood restaurant, waterfall, nutmeg factory,Kek Lok Si temple and Penang Hill and the next day did Georgetown's sights and shopping. Got a really good walk on bag for travel for $35 dollars from a department store with 70% sale on and organised a minibus trip to get us to our next stop at Krabi in Thailand
