Penang Revisited

Forty two years and I've finally returned back on the shores of the place I've long yearned. So what pains of time have corrupted my dream, where are the things that my memory has seen. A mixture of people with one common cause to nurture the freedom once lost in the wars. To honour the past, but to live for today and learn from life's struggles as they pass their way. Penang now has altered, it grown with the times, with modern and ancient now both intertwined. Hawkers and Restaurants, Street Stalls and Malls, the old and the new both now trading as pals. I miss the old memories, warped now with time as I now look at skyscrapers all in a line. I long for the time when life passed by so slow and wish it was all like I once used to know. But people deserve all that life has to give and the past only points to the way we should live. With pleasure and comfort for all to enjoy and not simply reserved as a millionaire's toy. Penang has not altered, it's stayed just the same with modernization relieving some pain. It's beaches and gardens still open to all let's hope that it's commerce is not it's downfall. Penang's grown so quickly, compared to the rest that it's old worldly culture is being compressed. Whilst tourism flourishes, hotels take space, let's hope that it's culture's not lost in the race. So what now my feelings some forty years on of this 'Pearl of the Orient' where life was such fun. I still feel the warmth of Penang in my heart, for in who I am now... Penang played the best part. Ivor G Davies