'ALLO, 'ALLO - PENANG STYLE - 10 years on.

'Allo? 'Allo! What you want pay? I give you very good price! Their voices chase me as I slowly climb the steps towards Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia, and whenever I pause, they shout again, "Allo? Five dollar? OK!

Well, they did, when I last visited Malaysia a few years ago. 

There are hundreds of steps leading to this most ornate of temples combining Chinese, Thai and Burmese architecture. At the end of the climb is the magnificent temple of the 10,000 Buddhas, and a tortoise pond where hundreds of the creatures plod around in a swampy soup, tussling each other for strands of water weed. Crowned by a thirty-metre, seven-tier pagoda – Ban Po Thar – every Penang visitor writes this place on their must-see list.

Yet the approach to the temple is every bit as fascinating as the glittering red and gold and blue edifice at the top. The steps are lined with dozens of trader's stalls selling every possible temptation – copy-watches, fake designer clothes, ersatz French perfume, makeup, shoes, fans, shell jewellery, souvenirs. On that trip I bought all my take-home presents right there and spent little more than A$50.

Now it would cost me just A$32. These are just a couple of the changes I noticed on my visit a month ago.

As you’ve guessed, the Aussie dollar now goes further. In Penang’s New World Hawker’s markets one evening, a meal of murtabak (roti wrapped around a meat filling) freshly made and delicious, which came complete with a dhal dipping sauce, cost us just RM2.50 each or A$1.64 for the two of us. Desserts of ice kachang and a kuih pancake brought our total bill for two to RM10 – just over A$3. That’s right! I’ve had to check my notes to make sure I wasn’t exaggerating.

Then, the haggling. Those steps to the temple were once noisy and almost harrowing due to the endless pestering of stall holders. Someone must have told them that Westerners can’t think straight with a constant sales pitch hammering in the ears. Someone must have got the message through, but you know what? I almost missed the din and confusion.

For the last couple of years I have heard conflicting stories about Penang, that jewel of an island clipped to the lapel of peninsular Malaysia.

“It’s changed,” many said, “there’s too much development.” 

Well, they’re right. It certainly has changed. Huge apartment blocks, mammoth shopping centres, hotels and office blocks are everywhere. It’s apparently a developers paradise, a builder’s lucky draw, but it will never be Manhattan. There is still plenty of room. There’s a good chance of views from hotel rooms, and light and air in the apartments. Nothing seems cramped. Instead there is a prosperous energy now, unlike on my first visit in 1989 when dismal concrete skeletons of planned but never completed buildings stood forlornly along the road to Batu Ferringhi on the north of the island.

Others told us with sad faces that the night markets had gone – gathered safely undercover, sanitised out of existence. Wrong again!

Sure the New World Hawker’s Market is indoors, but Kimberley Street and Lorong Bahru have all the outdoor babble and bustle and smells and endless meal possibilities you could ever hope for. 

The beaches are still the same, though. They haven’t changed, and shouldn’t. Those rocky bays and silky blue waters provide some of the loveliest coastal views in the country.

But perhaps our greatest delight and thrill was to see Old Georgetown, the Chinese shop-house commercial centre of the city of Georgetown, Penang’s capital. Now protected by a heritage laws, these atmospheric old buildings will remain unchanged. One afternoon we wandered through several of the streets, pausing to wonder at the myriad esoteric potions in a Chinese herbalist, then tasting black pepper biscuits in a pastry shop. We loitered at street stalls selling grilled seafood and investigated fruit markets and clothing stores. It’s all here, as it was decades ago, and as it will now remain.

‘Allo, ‘allo! Years ago, the shopkeepers on the approach to the temple called out to me, catching my eye, aiming to make me part with my cash. 

I returned this year to say ‘allo again to Penang and discovered to my surprise that the island has more than my attention now. It’s won my heart.

©Sally Hammond 2008

See for yourself: www.tourismpenang.gov.my