Moving East

One of the big upsides to spending time in Penang is its proximity to other Asian countries, SE and otherwise, that we've never been to. I'm pretty sure that if you drew a circle with Penang as its epicenter that was 3 1/2 hours away, you'd get a pretty large chunk of this part of the world and its population.

The red circle is 3 1/2 hours, the blue circle is 5 1/2 hours with the arrow showing Penang

I met a guy who is a pilot for Boeing, living here but working out of Singapore, who retired from Cathay Pacific and a mainland Chinese airline and he told me the reason he went to work for the Chinese airline after Cathay was (OK money was a biggie) that the region was exploding in terms of the airline industry. 5 hours from Hong Kong were 2/3 of the global population, many of whom had never flown before but with the explosion in economic growth in the region would certainly pretty soon want to. This was the big draw and it turned out that way, except more.

That's a lot of Asia.

It has been the Emirati airlines from the UAE that appear to have made most splash in recent years (along with the Chinese of course) with the impact being a distinct tilt to the East from the previously dominant nations of the West.  Of course these airlines are massively subsidized by the respective emirates so the established airlines that are listed and intent on profitability (mainly in the west) are crying foul play. True of course but the respective nations have made their decision that this is the way they are going.

Etihad's route map from its website

It is one of the (many) things on President Trump's list of complaints about unfair play from overseas to the detriment of the US and I wouldn't be surprised if some form of actions are being taken certainly in the west to curb the global spread. However much that happens though has no bearing what happens in the rest of the world where people don't much care about competitive disadvantage, having been on the receiving end of it for so long. I expect the easternisation to continue.

Besides... and this a big besides... these airlines are way more comfortable, set out and with better service than any number of American airlines that I can mention. Fleets are newer, better seats, nicer flight staff... A great analogy is one of Grace Slick's from Jefferson Airplane who included a line in one of their songs "I don't care if there are preservatives in it so long as my lettuce is crisp". Nicely said Grace!

For us though it opens up a massive new series of opportunities for travel seeing as both Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are major airline hubs for the world.

Looking forward to seeing more!

Do I really look that old?

I know the title of the blog is Grey Nomad and all that but I didn't really think that I was that old. Or looked it. At least until the last few days when I've been playing in the Asia Pacific Masters Games of 2018 which were held in Penang. The tennis which Viv and I entered -- me enthusiastically, Viv a bit less so -- was held at the Penang Sports Club. Our new home club in fact. And it wasn't until the last couple of days that photos were being taken in large quantity that I realized the situation. 

Consider the official web banner. It's a bit small but if you look hard you will see that the competitors shown on this banner are all slim young 20 or 30-somethings but the tennis player is.... well he's an old grey haired guy.

See what I mean?

How is it then that of all the sports, tennis is the one singled out for veneration?

I'd entered the 60+ singles and doubles and the mixed doubles with Viv and certainly I didn't think much of anything as we dutifully practiced for a week before the start of the games. Yes, practice! I know. Who practices? Well we did and funnily enough practice went well and we were feeling pretty good about things.

Fitness was fine, no major aches and pains that ibuprofen cannot cure (at least for a while), getting our rhythm back after our sojourn away. Things were Ok and then we got our credentials saying "Athlete" and I felt pretty good about it even if I didn't look at the picture on the thing that closely at the time. Nobody's ever called me an athlete before, so I thought this was good.

Don't look at the picture!

Then the draw came out and it has to be said that it was pretty thin. Format was round robin for groups of 3-5 and then playoffs for medal places. Singles managed two groups but doubles and mixed was only one group.  And... get this.... and everyone I played in the singles was older than me. Most of the others were too. And not just older than me, but much older than me. And in the mixed the other lady was in her 50's!

What had happened was that the entry was small and there were in some classes only one or two entrants so the organizers decided to combine groups so as to give people a game. As many had come from abroad this was a good notion however what they had not recognized was that some people would only be around for a day or so, others for two or three and that some wouldn't show up at all.

Of my 4 scheduled matches, I played only 1 set and in that one set the other gentleman in question told me that he was 84 and that he couldn't carry on. He also told me that he was the Korean #1 at the over 75 level, so at least I beat a national champion. He was actually really good and I could see that a younger him would have knocked lumps off me.

I hope I'm still playing when I'm 84

But fortunately the younger him was not there... well actually he was. It was his younger brother, aged 82, whom I had played in our doubles round robin. He partnered his brother, my 84 year old singles opponent. And they had both given up after the first set. And he... or rather the younger brother... didn't show up for our singles match at all.

So even though I 'won' all 4 of my round robin matches, I had actually played and finished none of them.

In the doubles, we played our first match on the first day. Our opponents looked pretty aged and they said that they'd been combined in our group as there was nobody in the older age group. One guy was a teaching pro and the other said he was on the ITF Tour in the UK at the over 65 age group level. We managed to win that one and the next against a pair of Swiss volleyball players who were very jolly and soon became everyone's friends (they won the volleyball gold incidentally in their age group) and managed to squeak out a third victory against a pair from Guam who on the count back would be our final opponents too.

As for the mixed, well it rained and our opponents had a team meeting and one of them would be leaving tomorrow morning early and .... bit of a mess really. We had started and were comfortably ahead but well you know. We wanted to play.

And then it was finals time. First singles against a guy who was 6 months younger than me!! Whoopee!! Someone in my right age group. Nice chap. Local guy who happened to live mostly in New Zealand so we had to bring the game forward as he was leaving later that day... Fortunately the rain just about held off... and it was only just about, for everyone else had come off the court as the rain was lashing down at the end. I managed to squeak by again.

Lye Hock in action

Next was doubles and I have to side track a bit here for my partner, a guy 2 years my junior, Lye Hock, would play whatever event was on the day and then have a shower and go out and play again in the regular daily social tennis evening after which would be socializing and dinner. I was pretty tired of all the socializing by this time and I wasn't playing daytime and evening like Lye Hock did. Iron man. And he did carry me too in case you were wondering. Doubles, men's, women's or mixed, is all about choosing the right partner!

The Guam guys in the doubles were a mix. One really tall Korean who'd won a bronze medal at table tennis and a really short guy (Guamese?) who liked to take charge and served from about 6 feet behind the base line. He wouldn't tell me why and for the life of me I cannot understand the point of it. I presume it works for him though otherwise he wouldn't do it. Anyway we again squeaked by these guys.

The guys from Guam

This is where the point of this blog kicks in again as it was only now that the photos started being taken and as we'd been competitors and won some matches, we were in a few of them. It wasn't so bad at the time as ... well let's face it, we never feel like we're the age we are. We think inside that we are like we were at some point in time. Mine is about 25. So it comes as a shock when you look at the outcome and think "just who is that old guy?" And then "lord, it's me!" And finally "Do I really look that old?"

The memory...

The reality. Do I really look that old?

Particularly bad is when you are standing next to someone from the over 40's group and look like their grandfather. Photo definitely suppressed of that!

My favorite though!

Newbies Redux

Having just returned from 3 and a half months away from Penang, I thought I'd note down a few first impressions or should that be re-impressions that I'd missed from before that struck me afresh on our return. You get so used to a place that the oft times slightly odd becomes normal hence the post before I forget.

Traffic is one thing that is tricky to master. The motor cyclists here obey no known rules and according to one tennis player who happens to be a reconstructive surgeon, his business sadly is booming.

I think its the rainy season at the moment. People have told us different times but to me if it rains like this, it must be the rainy season. We had two tennis matches rained off in the one day this week by torrents. So yes, rainy season. This said it deters the bikers not one whit. They still cut in and out all the time, overtake on both sides, head down the road any which way they please, go through red lights, green, you name it. I'm more concerned for them than me as at least I am in a car.

As for the cars though, I do sympathise a little and that is largely down to the road markings or rather the quirkiness of them. You could be driving down a 2 lane highway quite comfortably and come to a bend when the left hand lane simply goes straight on and disappears. But fear not for on the right hand side a new lane appears as if by magic, from nowhere so after that curious bit, you are driving again on a 2 lane highway.

Quite why the lanes cannot go around corners is beyond me but you see it everywhere. Cars therefore or so it seems simply ignore the lanes and just act as though they existed in a rational world. But then again last night there were 5 cars driving abreast in a 3 lane highway so maybe not...

The best advice so far received is to stay on a straight and narrow course as much as possible and let everyone else mill around you as they wish... the subtext of course being and keep your fingers crossed.

Custom is another that is beset with pitfalls. Malaysia is a muslim country but with many ethnic minorities, the largest of which is the Chinese. Penang is largely Chinese so is considered different to the rest of the country and before the general election in May was an opposition territory. Now with the first change of government since Independence, Penang is no longer an opposition state so who knows how things will work out now? Will they now become mainstream and therefore somehow different? I am not up to scratch in this department yet.

At the tennis club where I played recently, there was a weekend tournament that I entered. Started at 9.30 and finished around 3.30 so straight through the torrid heat and humidity of the day. Around 1pm a maintenance crew gathered together and as one marched onto the courts to start brushing them. They are a green felt surface with sand sprinkled over them to aid drying after rain and are really effective so far as that goes. But the sand does occasionally tend to clump so if the ball hits one such clump, it rolls along the ground or bounds off sideways or something. So the courts do need to be brushed. And that takes place at 1pm each day. That is the job of the groundsmen. These guys in fact.

So we had the interesting spectacle of a tournament going on with most courts in use and a crew of groundsmen brushing them... at the same time... to smooth out the sand and take away the leaves. I had visions of Federer playing at Wimbledon against Nadal with some guy wandering out onto Centre Court with a bucket and paintbrush to touch up the lines...

"Don't worry about me, guv. Just play on. I'll go round you."

I made the mistake of mentioning the oddness of this situation and was met with stony faces and "well, it is their job" kind of looks.

And of course they are right and I am wrong. This is just how things work here in Penang. My brief sabbatical overseas had made me forget. I'll remember soon though.

Recapping

We've had three and a half months away from Penang, half in Bermuda, half in Toronto, and it was a great time. Visiting the place where we'd lived for 32 years, seeing friends and hanging out, going to concerts of rock bands from the 1970's who are just about hanging on but still rocking. It has been great.

Here are some highlights.

1. Bermuda Beaches

No words necessary here. I'd forgotten how beautiful they were. Here's a brief reminder.

Warwick Long Bay and one of the many nameless beaches at Coopers Island

Who wouldn't want to swim here?

2. History and Tradition

I don't think people look back enough and consider where they come from and just why what exists today exists today. It all comes from the past and whilst the way history was taught to me when I was at school was largely an exercise in rote learning dates and in a way that tried to parcel up history into chunks -- mine for example was at O Level from 1485-1688 and from 1688 to 1815... we had two exams, written essays both, covering each of these periods. In isolation this means that history did not exist either before or after these dates which is of course ridiculous.

History writers today cover this much better and attempt to contextualise history in that they also explain or rather try to explain the 'why'. Much of this is down to conjecture as nobody alive then (say in Roman times) is alive today.

I really enjoyed Quebec City but one of those history 'why' moments was the best. Napoleon's blockade of Britain during the Napoleonic Wars forced Britain to look elsewhere for timber for the Royal Navy... hence the opening up of Canada.

Trooping the color... all in French!

The St Lawrence Seaway, one of the great sea lanes that opened up the entire continent

3. Tennis

Both of us are tennis players and were able to indulge both playing and watching whilst we were traveling. I still think that our 'home' tennis club in Bermuda is one of the nicest places to play tennis and as hard courts go is up there with the best.

Beers under the trees in between the courts is very nice indeed!

We only planned to watch one day of tennis at the Rogers Cup in Toronto but ended up going 3 or 4 days... ironically the worst day was the one we'd originally chosen and the others ended up being far better. We also had visitors over this time too which made it doubly nice.

How do they manage to hit the ball?

4. Eating

We like to eat. Simple as that. So finding great places to eat and nice things to eat are important. We got really lucky!

Dodge City steak

Milanese from an Italian in Miami during our horrible hiatus

Quebec lobster

Poutine and traditional Quebec meat pie

Amazing French stick from Toronto

5. Music

Given that we went to all of those concerts, this just had to be included. I enjoyed all of the shows but if I were pushed would have to give pole position to Lynyrd Skynyrd, the last show of all. ZZ Top though were the only band to have not changed personnel for whatever reason over the years. They ran close but...

6. Selfies

Selfies are a great notion and do enable you to take interesting pictures but they do tend to be really awful a lot of the time. We tried to do at least one selfie each day and in almost all occasions deleted them immediately. Perhaps my arms aren't long enough or just as likely I am not that great a photo snapper.

See what I mean?

7. Traveling Companion

Of course the best thing of all was to have a wonderful traveling companion and I was lucky enough to have the best!