Oh the people you meet!

Wipe, wash, get drinks from the fridge, sweep, clean and polish tables. I'm wiping a table when I notice him. He's hard to miss. A large man wrapped in enormous folds of traditional monk yellow. He's patting a dog across the street in the sunshine, completely absorbed in his affections, the light glints around them, the dog incredibly happy, the monk smiling. He stands and looks around.

I move to the curb smiling to offer him our bathroom to wash his hands. He says to me in a thick Southern accent.

"what's your name, miss thang?"

I balk.
silence..staring at the multi colored tattoos on neck, hands..feet..then I recover myself,

"tabitha" I say.
"Hmmm, Soul Kitchen, he muses, "ya know viddles and fried chicken, with some black eyed peas would go down a right treat"..." and chitllins!"

I smile.
"we're an Italian trattoria"

Yesterday I met an older lady named Lizzie. In her 70's Lizzie is a tight figure of health. She told me stories about travelling through Afghanistan in the 60's in a converted army truck, she says she was the first to do it when Afghanistan was a big hippie route. She bought a piece of land in Australia in '67 for a 1000 bucks.

She first came to Penang 20 years ago and has been a traveller all her life. I ask her what advice she would give to someone looking to lead an alternative life. She wonders if she should have had children. If only for the love.

I desperately want her to adopt me.

Mario, he's Italian, came in a few days ago. He jumped off his bike and burst through our doors in a blaze of alpha male energy...with hot buns and great calves. He's been riding 60, 000 kilometres from Rome. He says he only stopped because he has back problems and has come to Penang for the acupuncture.

Chong has been living on the streets for 5 years now. His wife died. He has no teeth. The lady down the road lets him help her with the cleaning in the hostel.

Bertrand is a world class photograher. He's addicted to Penang. And the world. He dreams of capturing great beauty.

And me. I have a few stories of my own.