Holiday 5

Tattered Wings.

The houseguest's parent's neighbour's sister lives in Penang. She arranged for us to hire her taxi driver, who drove us around Penang and showed us many places we wouldn't otherwise have seen. One of these places was the Butterfly Farm, where I met the butterfly you see here.

This is possibly my favourite photo from my entire holiday; the combination of greens and browns makes me feel very peaceful. The little guy is gorgeous in himself, too, as well as photogenic. I can't help wondering, though, if his wings are meant to look that tattered, or if his summer is almost over.

I, uh, had even more photos than usual to put up today, so there are two new galleries of holiday snaps. You can see the Butterfly Farm and the Tropical Spice Garden by clicking on the photo or here, and the Thai Buddhist temple Wat Chayamangkalaram, along with the Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist temple can both be found here.

Holiday 4

Ruins of Shih Chung Branch School, Georgetown.

There was an old, abandoned Protestant cemetery around the corner from our first guest house, and being me I had to check it out. It was amazingly beautiful; overgrown frangipanis hanging over graves shrouded in moss and lichens, Old Man's Beard draping over all. You can see pictures in today's gallery.

When I peered over the fence of the graveyard, though, I saw this.

As near as I can tell, it was burned down. It was sitting in the middle of its block in grand decay, with the afternoon sun creating dramatic highlights for a fallen beauty. We went a little way inside; but not far. By this stage, I was very, very sore, and the ground was humped with rubble and debris; not the most stable base for crutches.

Poor house; its only students now are trees.

Holiday 3

Trishaw driver taking it easy, Penang.

I like KL a lot, but I adore Penang. It's changed a lot since I was last there, seven years ago. It's bigger, and newer, and a lot more bustling, but in that time they've also started to recognise a lot of their heritage buildings, and start trying to preserve them.

It means there's a lot more to see, and more places to stay. There's still food sellers on every street, and it's still a lot more relaxed than KL, and still friendly and welcoming. We left reluctantly, and are already planning to go back.

As always, click on the photo to go to a gallery of more shots from around Penang. Enjoy!