I snapped this photo of the barbed wires on the wall of the Penang Prison on one boring afternoon while waiting in the car for my husband to buy Magnum 4D, Sports Toto and 1+3D.
I know this blog is about faces of Penang and being a Penangite, I shouldn’t be showing the ugly side of my island, right? But then, I have many fond memories of the Penjara Pulau Pinang. Wait…no, no, no, I am not an ex-convict!
I merely passed by the Gaol Road (the prison road) every morning when I was working. Sometimes, all traffic had to be stopped to let the prisoners get out of the jail, into their armoured truck on their way to court or some got into the black maria (not you, twinsmom) waiting to be executed. Just joking, those notorious criminals get into the black maria, a much menacing looking truck with lots of prison guards whilst the kutus (fleas) who picked pockets, robbed doctors and leave their MyKads, dirty old men who stole panties, etc get into another truck.
Usually, when my car is stalled there, I would let my imaginations run wild. I visualise scenes from the mafia movies or GTA St Andreas (not born yet at that time), whereby a car load of black suits and black sunglasses men came charging in, with machine guns and held me hostage in exchange for the release of the prisoners. Too bad such thing never happen or else I could have make headlines in all the newspapers or marry a mafia boss.
Our Penang Prison is located in prime property in town in the same location where the Penang General Hospital, morgue and Chemistry Dept. are. I am sure all these buildings will one day make way for development of uglier looking condos and office blocks. In case you are wondering how I know where the morgue and Chemistry Dept. are, let me explain. (long time ago lah) My bunch of friends usually like to tease us girls by driving us to the morgue compound and tell us scary stories. And since my brother works in the Chemistry Department (they analyse body parts and stuffs like CSI but the staffs are a lot less canggih), I am not easily scared as I had heard enough of ‘true’ stories from my own brother.
Let’s have another shot of a fence. This time, a flowers lined fence at the Penang Botanical Gardens. Contrasting fences.
This is my first few attempts and therefore, lousy angle and lighting, ok?
