Older Travellers, sterile leaders

The backpacker scene in Penang is dominated by the 40+ age group.  Not to say there are not younger back packers, but perhaps they are all on the beach in Thailand.  Wondering why this is and listening to their talk, some of it is memories, some of it is early but not well off retirement, but some of it is the search for a less hermetically sealed and more abrasive holiday.

Coming to Penang after Sinapore, especially to the budget end of the holiday market, the differences are very noticeable.  I enjoy the dirt, noise and confusion, the sense that there is something more raw and less sterile here.  Perhaps I and others sense fewer barriers between our selves and others – the difference between seeing through a window, and standing in the scene yourself.  One contrast is the malls – Penang has them (see picture of a huge one) but they are more like market stalls and small shops moved inside than swish department stores.

Perhaps the difference between Penang and Singapore is about intensity of experience. We enjoyed the street food, but also enjoyed high tea at the Eastern and Orient hotel (the Penang version of Raffles).  Both things we would not normally do.  But then my partner and I are both people who enjoy change and variation, and do not have much problem with rats and cockroaches.

The other point of view is the bland shopping mall land that Singapore has become.  I’ll give you two quotes about it:

Lee Kuan Yew (former Prime Minister): “when you are hungry, when you lack basic services, freedom, human rights and democracy do not add up to much”.

A 65 year old taxi driver we asked about how life had changed: “people were happier then….now too stressed, too materialistic”

I’m with the taxi driver, but then I have the luxury of a full belly, health-care and public services.  As to the shopping mall, as Fiona says in Shrek 2, “I really don’t need all of this…”.  Perhaps that’s why there are few backpackers, let alone older ones, in Singapore (or could it be the cost of living in Utopia?).

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• Back from Penang
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