In Penang

We spent the first three weeks of July on the island of Penang in Malaysia. Charlene and I may fly a fair bit, but these three weeks were really the first time in all of 2015 that we traveled somewhere not to go on a business trip to do lots of photography, promotion and website work. This was our time, we got to hang out, to shoot, write, chill, walk around and relax a bit and have some much needed time for ourselves. A little holiday.

We stayed in the world heritage protected Georgetown (the Cintra Heritage House gets my highest recommendation!). Walking around Georgetown is brilliant, the historical houses have been beautifully preserved and turned into great guest houses and cafes where we often ended up spending half a day sipping Tea or Penang White Coffee and writing or reading. The food is spectacular. It is a fascinating melting pot of many different cultures and people, and it is totally safe and you can walk everywhere. Penang gets it perfectly right, I highly recommend it.

I could not shoot a decent street photo to save my life but here is a random collection of images from Penang that I had a lot of fun making.

Like in a lot of Asia, scooters are everywhere and it takes a bit of practice to walk safely amongst them. The temple is the oldest in Southeast Asia. I am the tallest person in the picture.

More scooters. And street art. I rock at writing captions. Oh there are people too.

Very impressive street art next to a cantonese temple. Painted by a really tall person. 16mm wide angle awesomeness.

We found this little dark alley that was just a kaleidoskope of colours at night and I made my favorite picture in Penang. No I am not that tall. Shot with flip out lcd screen magic with arms raised over my head.

Again, I am stalking Charlene at one of the jetties (the Lee jetty I think, really nicely done, outshines the others).

At our favorite cafe, Ren i Tang, tea (yes I do occasionally swap coffee for tea!), books and Fujis. I sneak in a shot while Charlene reads.

Heritage festival early July on Armenian Street (spot Charlene in the crowd)

Be very careful! On the other hand, that is a bloody big mouse!

“Your village called, they are missing their two idiots!”

I really enjoyed shooting Penang at night. The darkness helps conceal my crap street photography skills!

More great street art and I am using my superpowers and flip out lcd screen and shooting from the hip

The food is amazing, truly special! Here, wonderful maggie goreng (fried maggie noodles with chicken)

It did not rain much and mostly at night, shooting in the tropical rain is great though…if you are under cover.

Do not be fooled! This is not some clever fusion of Danish and Indian briyani rice! We asked, the Danish is just a name, not because it was actually Danish. Disappointing! Ok, their briyani was actually really good.