The city, seen from above

Penang Hill, Bukit Bendera, is the island\'s old escape from itself. A funicular climbs through the trees. At the top the air is several degrees kinder, the bungalows sit in gardens, and George Town is a map: roofs, the channel, the mainland on a clear day. The British came up here for the same reason you will. The lowland afternoon is too much.

The hill has its own small architecture, more hill station than shophouse. Verandas, steep paths, a mosque and a temple and a police station that look slightly surprised to be in the clouds. You can make a day of it. You should not make a life of it unless you like a single steep road and weather that rolls in without asking.

Go up late enough that the worst heat is what you are leaving, early enough to come down before the last crowded car. Eat somewhere simple at the top or wait for the city. The view is the luxury. The lifestyle, again, is knowing when to use it: not every day, and not never. A month in Penang that never goes up the hill is a month that missed the island\'s best ceiling.