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!