Visited there in 1968 and stayed for 2 weeks in the Runnymede Hotel. Flew to RAAF Butterworth in a RNZAF Bristol Freighter from RAF Tengah, and returned 'home' to Seletar in a RAF Andover. Happy days.
Last visited in 1996 when operating a Nimrod from Butterworth but staying in the Rasa Sayang hotel on Penang. Huge changes since the 60s; the causeway, the Snake Temple (now surrounded by concrete instead of paddyfields), and the Runnymede is now an army barracks. Some things don't change - while we were there a local newspaper reported that a man went to look for his brother who had been missing for a time and found him half ingested by a python!