Penang's Beaches

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hi,

When I last visited Penang a few months ago I drove past Batu Ferringhi and pulled over to the seafront towards the fishing jetties. It all looked cleanish.

I've always thought that Malaysia was more of a general rubbish bin than neighbouring Thailand, and of course Singapore is squeaky clean although it's getting more and more litter with it's new population not benefiting from 30 years worth of ad campaigns. But then when Singaporean drivers arrive in Malaysia it's "when in JB" and open the windows and throw it out. I spent quite some time in JB and it was a matter of fact.

The well known long weekend drive from JB to Kota Kinggi to Desaru has many Singaporean registered cars and stuff gets thrown out of the window just like any good Malaysian registered car. And the Kota Tinggi to Desaru section is a great drive. But either side, it's a rubbish dump.

Here's an article on Penang's beaches. Is it true?

January 3, 2010 : Beaches look more like a Garbage Dump
GEORGE TOWN: A public health scientist from Sweden who is on holiday here has joined tourists calling for a clean-up of the state’s dirty beaches. Alan Dilani, 52, rapped the authorities for “completely ignoring” the value of maintaining beautiful beaches. Dilani, who has been staying at a beach hotel for two weeks with his family, said ignorance would not only jeopardise the state’s tourism but also its economy in the long run.

“Penang is an island and the first thing that comes to tourists’ mind when visiting the place is its beaches. “We are here to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery but it has turned out to be a great disappointment. The rubbish is not only an eyesore but it also affects the health and well-being of tourists,” he told The Star after reading a reader’s complaint letter in the newspaper yesterday.

Dilani said his profession has taken him to many places including Langkawi and Thailand where there are green sea water and beautiful beaches. “But in Penang, I just don’t know how to describe it.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/3/nation/5405444&sec=nation

Last year, when in Portugal, I visited several beaches. All of them were rubbishless. Of course there were many dog owners taking their pets for a stroll and then shuffling the sand over it.

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 The rubbish is real I can assure you. I like to see it as an opportunity and say to myself how much better things will be when Malaysia accepts a "no litter ethos." Cast your mind back twenty years or so ago in the west and rubbish was the norm. The real difference between the west then and Malaysia now is that today you have the disposable culture as well as the litter culture. The rubbish problem is magnified six or more fold.

What worries me more about Penang beaches is what I cannot see. On one of my previous trips I had  to wade shin deep across where the creek in BF joins the sea. My white pants turned yellow!! In Oz they publish ecoli readings for the beaches. Even there after heavy rains many metropolitan beaches should be avoided. I dread to think what the ecoli readings are for Penang beaches.

I have been swimming each day and am still alive but boy there was a big jellyfish yesterday.

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The big jelly fish saw good meat yeaterday different from the hawkers left over that gushed out from the drains 

Part of the decoration in Pg is the colorful plastic bags and drinking straws tangled in the weeds and if the wind is strong enough they get blown to your front gate. Still better than the garbage that rained down our previous garden in that condo in Tg Tokong

Walked along the promenade this morning and the beach at low tide is not bad in our stretch in Tg Tokong. At least did not detect any stinky odour from it unlike over at Gurney Drive.

BB

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Hi BB,

It's always good to read your humourous slant on things.

Lat year the beaches around Batu Ferringhi seemed to be quite clean and I thought "now we are making progress". Unfortunately the cleaning effort has yet again gone into reverse with the cleaners doing more sleeping than cleaning.

One source of foul waste that could be cleaned up quite cheaply is the effluent and rubbish discharge from ships in the straits. If you take a ferry trip to Butterworth you can see rafts of floating waste. Heavy fines could stop the practice of dumping rubbish overboard. I presume there is a Malaysian equivalent of the Port Health Authority we have in the UK, these bodies usually have great powers to penalise wayward mariners, even to the extent of nailing a black flag to the mast (not literally, or very bent nails).
Ship operators are working on fine margins and it costs a fortune to keep a ship in port.

Result of a black flag could be the masters dismissal, that would smarten their ideas up.

Bob

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This one was okay just west of B Ferringhi.

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Last week I took a long stroll along BF beach and apart from the stretch just across the rock at the far west side of the beach it wasn't to bad.
Yesterday I walked over to Pentai Kerachut. Apart from a great walk I enjoyed a very nice beach. Unfortunately the water was more murky than at Monkey beach so I didn't dare to swim. What I also noticed was that most people took their garbage back to Teluk Behang so there seems to be a growing conscience. Teluk Behang looked like garbage dump though.

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Good to hear that BF is not too bad, have not been up to the far end for a while. Last time I was at Tanjong Bungah it was pretty dire but strangely Pantai Miami was not too bad. Of course we have just finished six week school holiday so it will take the cleaners a while to catch up (on cleaning and sleeping).

I think the reason that they took their garbage back was that Pantai Kerachut is in a national park. Dumping rubbish is frowned upon by the guards.

I believe the biggest problem is wha floats or is in suspension in the water, origins unknown.

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hi,

I believe the biggest problem is wha floats or is in suspension in the water, origins unknown.

Very true. I wouldn't go swimming in the sea, anywhere.   

The Malaysian marinas that I have visited don't have pump out facilities. Of course, boat users can use the marina toilets onshore if they want to, and if they are open late at night. Otherwise it's the porta pottie (chemikarzi) and dump overboard, or the pump-out fixed toilet.

But it was the same with the marinas in Portugal. Those dead-end corners of the marina without any direct ebb & flow were always brownish and lumpy, and best avoided.    

And where the tide did it's job (this is untreated sewage direct to the sea) it flowed out onto the nearby beaches. Of course, it all looks beautiful at first glance but it's very toxic for those crazy enough to have a dip.



PS : The affluent yacht-owning effluent problem isn't specific to Malaysia. As a student in London in the 60's ("if you can remember the 60's you weren't there") I lived on a houseboat in the Thames. It was in the Thames because the bottom had rotted away years ago so it was no longer floating, and I remember the boat being a bit damp.

The elsan had dropped out of the bottom so a nice wooden toilet seat had been hand-crafted over the hole and it was direct access . . . but only on the outgoing tide.

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hi,

Back to Penang. This article in today's The Star seems to have been a result of the previous article on the beaches. Penang Global Tourism Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the Penang Development Corporation has been asked to come up with a cleanliness strategy for Penang.


January 4, 2010 : Masterplan to clean up dirty spots in Penang
"GEORGE TOWN: A roundtable discussion will be held soon among the powerhouses in Penang to come out with an effective cleanliness masterplan to bring back the shine to the Pearl of The Orient. Penang Global Tourism Sdn Bhd managing director Ooi Geok Ling has been asked to come up with a cleanliness strategy. Her mission — to clean up Penang’s beaches, tourist spots, toilets and hawker sites. “We will hold discussions with the state authorities, Penang Municipal Council, government and non-governmental organisations and volunteers to come up with an effective plan,” she said.

Ooi was commenting on The Star’s article headlined, “Beaches look more like a garbage dump” which was published yesterday. In the article, Swedish public health scientist Alan Dilani, 52, rapped the authorities for “completely ignoring” the value of maintaining beautiful beaches . . . "
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/4/nation/5406142&sec=nation

A cleanliness campaign is a great step. But what about any ecoli. IMO, just don't swim in it.   

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I drove past BF on Boxing Day. Beaches along BF were full of people flocking all the away from other states as one could see both sides of the roads lined with cars bearing plate numbers start with K, A, B and W.   So, expect more rubbish at this time of the year and so for the rest of the places in Malaysia.   Bad habit of these ugly locals.  But, other than this time of the year, the beaches are in fact quite OK.  One thing that puzzles me is why Penang always receives attention from local press whenever something goes wrong while the same situation could also happen elsewhere in Malaysia.  But, one thing for sure is blowing up one issue by local media sometimes can be a good news for Penang because the local authority will then be under pressure to do more to improve the state.  Don't forget that Penang is also the stronghold of many prominent NGOs in Malaysia. 

Photos 1 and 2 taken at a beach opposite Tropical Spice Garden while 3 and 4 at Casuarina Hotel (now HardRock).  All were taken in March 2009 - non festive season.

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Photos 5 and 6 taken at Miami Beach.  Water gets murky during low tide in the morning and late afternoon but improves during high tide in the noon.   Water in Photo 5 is clear where boulder and sand bed can be seen beneath the water.

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hi,

Nice photos. 

I think that the media attention about Penang is because it gets loads of tourists. More so than Langkawi, Port Dickson, Mallaca, or Tioman. It's along the lines of, "what's good, or bad, for General Motors is good, or bad, for the USA."

Also, The Star newspaper is heavily biased towards the ruling BN, and currently Penang is controlled by the DAP. I guess a few knocks at the place is par for the political course. I don't remember much about Penang's dirty anything published in The Star when Gerakan was in charge. It always seemed to be gripes about the taxi drivers.

Coincidentally both The Star and The Sun (which seems to politically fair minded) published similar letters from a Raman Nair, Klang. The Sun headlined, "Arrest the Decline in Penang." And the Star, "Holidaying Family swears not to visit Penang again." Both letters were getting at the State government. Penang is not only the "Pearl of the Orient" but it is (or was) the mainstay of Gerakan, and as big a loss to BN as Selangor.

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hi,

Nice photos. 

I think that the media attention about Penang is because it gets loads of tourists. More so than Langkawi, Port Dickson, Mallaca, or Tioman. It's along the lines of, "what's good, or bad, for General Motors is good, or bad, for the USA."

Also, The Star newspaper is heavily biased towards the ruling BN, and currently Penang is controlled by the DAP. I guess a few knocks at the place is par for the political course. I don't remember much about Penang's dirty anything published in The Star when Gerakan was in charge. It always seemed to be gripes about the taxi drivers.

Coincidentally both The Star and The Sun (which seems to politically fair minded) published similar letters from a Raman Nair, Klang. The Sun headlined, "Arrest the Decline in Penang." And the Star, "Holidaying Family swears not to visit Penang again." Both letters were getting at the State government. Penang is not only the "Pearl of the Orient" but it is (or was) the mainstay of Gerakan, and as big a loss to BN as Selangor.

I agree with you, Scott.   

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Ferringhi I've known for 10 -12 + years used to be quiet fairly clean ok for swimming relaxing, but has really gone down hill fast in past year, seems to be little tidal movement in Ferringhi Bay so all the garbage just seems to move about the beech, sea dirty grey/green colour not helped by the jetski's running 20 - 30 mets off shore easy to see the trail of grey/green sediment  after their pass by.

   Scary to see the jetski's mix with swimmers and power boats towing parasails and as for the smell of petrol/two stroke fumes left about the beach especially unpleasant if you are in the water trying to swim but keeping a watch out for the idiots in the power boats and on jet ski's.

  4 wheel motorcycles on the beach clearly very poorly maintained front wheels running at strange angle due to lack of maintains of front suspension joints, hate to see one of the wheels fail easily take out any other beach users near by, also they race about the near by streets little regard for pedestrians and again the sight of front wheels awaiting to fall off!

   Needs to be some rules enforced for both beach and water use, safe areas for swimming, an exclusion zone of 2 to 300 metres from the beach for all  powerboat/jetski use with clearly defined approach lanes for access to the beach. should help clean up the sea colour, 4 wheel motorcycles should be confined to an area away from normal beach use that is where folks can safely enjoy swimming and for children playing.

    I don't understand the local culture of bringing a heap of food to the beach then leaving all the wrappings rubbish disposable nappies inc, but then you see the same along the road side. Perhaps this is a result of " Self Regulation " the Malaysian way?

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Beachwise, IMO the centre of B Ferringhi is just awful with all those jet-skis, etc and tacky with it.  But Costa del Sol's pics is proof of the pudding - go west towards Hard Rock Hotel and there's some really nice beaches, go east to Miama Bay and some nice little spots there too.