Exploring George Town
Trip Start
Aug 13, 2011
1
6
18
Trip End
Oct 01, 2011
Penang, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Set off around 5pm with some good hour of daylight, headed into Georgetown through peak hour traffic madness.
First stop, old clan jetties, a small village on stilts in the harbour, remains of many such jetties that were owned by the original Chinese clan settlers who used them for trade and later, during the wars, for black market smuggling. They are still inhabited today and the locals fish for a living. As it is currently the Hungry Ghost Festival for the Chinese community, there are temples, shrines and Chinese opera thwarted set up all over the place as well as huge joss-sticks mounted in the pavement and burning piles or paper money and incense. One old guy took a liking to us and showed us into his jetty where they had a pool of live fish, huge ones, and then he joined his friends to play mahjong.
Moved on to the colonial part of Georgetown, to see the Queen Victoria clock tower, Fort Cornwallis, the English styled Town Hall and City Hall, some war memorials, the Protestant Cemetery where many British generals are buried, and the famous Eastern & Oriental Hotel where among other famous expat authors, Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham enjoyed sojourns.
Next was a tour of Little India and Chinatown, a few blocks in from the colonial waterfront and a completely different works, narrow streets, one way lanes, cobblestones and close built terrace shops selling everything bright and colourful. Saw the big Indian mosque, the Sri Mariamman, and several ornate Chinese temples extravagantly decorated and strangely hidden along backstreets between rundown houses. Found several of the kongsi, Chinese clan houses from way back that doubled as temples and formed the base for clan wars and secret societies. Walked down the street where Anna and the King was filmed and where the leader of the Canton uprising, Dr Sun, lived for several years.
Went into Chinatown for dinner and bought some sesame peanut pancakes from a street vendor. Bought a moon cake from a stacked cart selling every flavor imaginable from charcoal dragon fruit, to tiramisu, to pandan and red bean.
Stumbled across a brightly decorated restaurant full of Chinese and no whities, so we figured it must be good and risked the language barrier. Ordered some random puffs accidentally from a passing yum cha cart, which were delicious, and ended up with an amazing dinner. So good.
Back to the hotel and an early night as we were super tired from walking.
- clan jetties
- colonial Penang
- Little India
- kongsi
- street vendor moon cakes
- chinese yum cha restaurant
