Row (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

This week's Photo Hunt entry boasts photographs from two different parts of Asia. Picture number one is of a row of picturesque and very well-maintained pre-Second World War row houses on Bangkok Lane over in the Pulau Tikus area of Penang, Malaysia -- the part of the world from where I originally hail.

Fittingly for a place where time seems to move slowly, Penang -- or, if one were to be specific, its capital city, George Town -- has the largest number of pre-Second World War buildings in Southeast Asia; with many of them dating back to the 19th, not just 20th, century. What this means visually is that when I think of rows of buildings with regards to Penang, it's of rows that are horizontal rather than vertical.

In contrast, Hong Kong -- where the second and third photographs were taken -- is a city of buildings that get you thinking more of vertical than horizontal rows. Alternatively put: High-rise buildings predominate here -- and also new structures to the extent that unlike in, say, Penang, mere 30 year-old-buildings are considered to be seriously old in this busy, bustling section of Southeast Asia!

At the same time though, as I hope to have shown with photograph number three (which also includes rows of palm trees in the foreground for good effect!), just because a building is a high-rise and new, it doesn't necessarily mean that its architecture style will lean towards the anonymous and colorless. Indeed, as a friend of mine observed, many a Hong Kong building's painters and/or owners seem to go for colors that are quite a bit brighter and more holiday-minded than one might expect of a land of veritable workaholics! ;b