Gallery: Malaysia 2002.01

Brother and Sister Shop

While in Penang, I rented a motor scooter. If you have nerves of steel, scooters are the best way to get around Asia. You become one with the swarms of scooters, wear a bandana over your mouth to hold off the choking fumes, and zip around town. While on my scooter, I saw several bad accidents involving motor vehicles, so be careful!

I scootered around the entire island of Penang. On the north side, I stopped by a neighborhood market to take photos. Outside this store was a butcher's store. Swarms of flies and pools of blood in the beating sun.

This store is run by a brother and sister. They are both ethnic Chinese. Chinese have traditionally been the merchant class in Malaysia for many centuries. This has meant that they were wealthier than the surrounding Malays, but it engendered ethnic friction that has become worse in the last three decades. In neighboring Indonesia, this has erupted into serious violence in the form of hate crimes. Malaysia has not yet experienced that, yet it is clear that the atmosphere is tense.

Filename: 020113a-24-Penang.jpg
Equipment: Canon EOS-3, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Fuji Provia 100, SpeedLite 550ex