Report from Asia--Penang

Penang is a large city in northwestern Malaysia. This former British East Indian Company town has old charm, a decaying but lovely Chinatown, and some cool temples and old buildings. It is also utterly revolting. Lined with open sewers, rats pop in and out all the time. Piles of garbage lie on the street, which doesn't exactly help the rat population. It stinks. Not suprissingly, I felt like hell hte three days I was there.

What's really interesting about Penang though is that it is so much like cities used to be. Not only is it just an old British colonial outpost, it is representative of what cities were like at that time. We think of those cities as disgusting. There is a good reason for that. Cities 100 years ago were unspeakbly gross. Life expectancy was low. Disease rates were through the roof. They smelled. The water was polluted. The air was filled with grit and dirt. It's really great to have had just a touch of that old urban living to remember why we don't want cities like this anymore. This is why we need to invest in our cities. We don't want to live in shitholes. We want to live in cities that not only have character and an active street life but are clean and hygeinic as well. So despite feeling like shit and breathing noxious fumes in for the past 3 days, I am happy I visited Penang. I am also happy I am now in the mountains.