[He shrugs. Really, is mother had a criminal record she wanted to keep hushed up, and his father was just a very odd species of psychotic or masochistic, Ricki is privately reserving judgement, but he settles on a more benign;]

Expats are their own species. Leaving Penang to move to London would have made as little sense to them as you lifting up and moving off to Penang, that's all.

It's a beautiful city. A little bit of the wild west to it, in a Malaysian sort of way. All lowslung colonial houses between Malay Islamic structures. It's hot and wet, and most of the bars serve something like battery acid, but the food is good and the fruit is sweet. In the right parts of the outskirts the jungle creeps in around the edges of the poor buildings- all of it is just lush.