Storyline: Home to home westward
George Town is definitely the most cosmopolitan city in Malaysia from what we have seen. It is the capital of the small province of Penang and is often referred to as Penang itself. It has a rich, multiethnic cultural blend, the harmonious coexistence of various religions, history, and heritage colonial architecture which regrettably is in dire condition with no sign of improvement, even though the city centre is a UNSECO World Heritage Site. It is also regarded as the culinary capital of Malaysia .
We arrived in the late afternoon after a 5-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur. On our way to the hotel the Grab (like Uber) driver Nabil introduced us to many things we should see, and food we should try. “The best food is Nasi Kandar”, he said. He was of Indian origin and later on we’d learn that this is a special food for an ethnic blend of Indian Muslim and Malay, which resulted in a culture of merged traditions. Then he threw names and locations at us as though we knew the town map by heart.
One we remembered (because it was close to the hotel) was Chulia Street. I actually remembered it as Julia street, a name easy for me to remember. And after we got a map at the hotel, we found a street which could easily be pronounced Julia. And it was just around the corner from us, as he had told us. He said he works in a hotel and had gone through a training for guiding tourists to the right locales.
We since have had a few Grab rides and drivers of different cultures and ethnicities would do the same, telling us places to go and food to try. People here are more relaxed, more westernised if you wish. They are friendly and eager to engage in conversation and throw a few ideas around for your stay. They are proud of their peaceful culture. A street we often walked on, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, is also know as Harmony Street for the different religions’ places of worship, such as Muslim, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian…you name it, peacefully coexisting.
Air is much cleaner than in KL, however it is hot. And it is by no means a small city. The heritage buildings are intersected by towering skyscrapers, shiny shopping malls, heavily trafficked highways and clogged small roads. “You are staying in the best part of the town”, Nabil said. After walking around town, we didn’t think so. But the Victoria Garden Hotel is a real diamond in the rough. Sparkling clean through and through.
And the people are proud of their city. “You can take the ferry for free to the mainland and come back for 1 ringgit (Current fare is MR1.20 according to www.travel-penang-malaysia.com).
You only pay when you come here”, he added .
The evening of arrival we tried Chulia Street’s cuisine, as Nabil had recommended. Walking on this street was much worse than walking in the old centre of Malacca, due to a much higher traffic volume.
With cars, one can easily predict the direction they’d come at you, but motorbikes would zoom by you in any direction (even on one-way streets). Somehow, we managed to walk to the second traffic light, as our Nabil had instructed, to find the famous Chinese hawker food spots. For our street food experience, read the next post.
Next day we headed out for our exploration. George Town was established in 1786 and was the first British settlement in Southeast Asia. It formed part of the Straits Settlements together with Singapore and Malacca. Off we went to first find the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower and Fort Cornwallis.
We stumbled upon many temples, administrative buildings, ruins,
shacks, and just ordinary people: life mixed with garbage and sewer smells. And oh, the omnipresent odour of durian!
We both were soaked in sweat 5 minutes after leaving the hotel. From then on, it didn’t really matter.
Many streets have at least something resembling sidewalks. Just inconsistent. You walk a bit and then they disappear and you have to find your way back to and along the road, crossing the open sewer. We returned for refreshments and to change our soaked clothing.
While there we decided to share a lunch in the comfortably air-conditioned hotel restaurant. And then off we went to explore more of the heritage area.
We walked through pedestrian-only streets full of markets and street food. The 9-ringgit (~3CAD) “Birkenshoes” that I bought in Melaka were already breaking so it was time to see what else I could find.
We headed towards the shopping malls, an area time and time again we were told is too far to walk. We reached the mall area and the Komtar, which is a famous entertainment center in Penang with its sky walk on level 68. This was the only place we’ve got a seniors’ discount as foreigners and decided it was time to see the city from high above.
As we reached the entrance to that part of the building the guard checked with the upper levels and we were informed that it was cloudy (it meant it would rain any moment). “But since you have one-time tickets only you can go up and wait in the restaurant” she added.
This information discouraged many others so when we went to level 65, which is indoors, there were not many people obscuring our views. It was interesting to see the wall of rain going through a few blocks away.
We took some photos of it and by the time we went up (level 68) the rain had stopped and they were mopping the glass-floored skybridge and distributing shoe covers.
Views were really fantastic. One could not believe that this shiny city hosts such poverty below in its heart. We had a nice dinner with drinks at the restaurant, took some more night shots and headed home.
There is a lot going on in and around George Town. For artsy souls, for bohemians, for backpackers, nature lovers, and for older folks like us.
There’s something to do for every curious and easy-going person: walk through the busy and steamy hot streets of the town (my glasses often fog after exiting the hotel) and you’ll find many things to experience, be it food,
be it a temple or two, a mosque, a museum or a monument, street art, or just people-watching (well-mixed with traffic). Just remember “Attitude is the difference between an adventure and an ordeal”!
One thing that confounded us for a while (for longer than it should have, actually) was that many streets had a sign on them pointing to “Jalan Sehala”. Before entering Malaysia I had read that “Jalan” means “road”, “Lebuh” is “street” and “Persiaran” is “drive”. Seeing Jalan Sehala Alex kept saying, “No, no this points to Sehala road”.
I searched on my map and could never find this road that all signs were pointing to. What was so special about “Sehala Road”? None of the tourist maps or websites mentioned it, and the signs on different streets pointed in conflicting directions. We had a good laugh when it finally dawned on us (actually, just to confirm Alex used Google translate) that “Jalan Sehala” means “one-way road”.
The last two days were for Penang Hill and the Gurney area. We actually headed to the Gurney area with the idea to hike to two temples in the hills, but heath, rain, high humidity and possibly age, prevented us from visiting the latter.
We could only reach the famous and rich area on and around Gurney Street, to the astonishment of the locals, who thought this area was way too far to walk and we would need to use Grab to and from. Grab is very popular in George Town, but distances are not that big.
That day we walked about 15 km to the area, around and back. There were really nice wide sidewalks by the water, wide streets, nice restaurants, and luxurious malls with high-end stores for the rich.
On our way to Gurney we walked up Jalan Burma, visited Wat Buppharam Buddhist temple, walked by many others and, threatened by the weather, realised that the Waterfall Temple was too far to reach before the impending deluge arrived.
We turned towards the ocean and reached Gurney Plaza. We managed to shelter in Paragon shopping mall just before the rain hit, had lunch at one of the many food courts, took some snaps from high above and I managed to find replacement for my inexpensive broken Birkenshoes: a more reliable pair of Crocs sandals that were on sale but were still at Western prices.
Back we walked on nice wide sidewalks bordering the water. Looked into a street market place but opted for a drink by the water in an upscale restaurant.
Tables out were still wet, but it didn’t matter that much – we couldn’t get much wetter anyway. We had a happy hour drinks while taking in the sunset over the water that looked way too dirty for anyone to want to dip in.
On the far on the rocks I spotted two kids. A little one on the rocks was waving a cloth or something. A bigger one was trying to catch something in the waters. It took a long time for him going in, water to his neck and then out. Not sure if he caught anything, but if he did, perhaps it was their dinner. Then he walked carefully through the water to the rocks where the little kid was, got up, put some sandals on the kid’s feet, cleaned his mesh and they both sat on the rock looking at what could have been their food.
Zooming in on the photos I took from way too far away, I noticed fish similar to eels in the net. I later spotted them outside on the sidewalk, drying under the elements. The little kid looked well dressed. The big one went back in the water. They grabbed my imagination as I was trying to place them in the world. I wish I knew more. Where they related or just buddies? The older one looked old enough to be his father. Where they homeless (but with cell phone), hungry, or just playing in the water? We continue walking to our hotel.
We also walked to the base of Penang Hill the next day and took the funicular to the top. You know how in many places in the world, they count the people and match them to the seats available. It was totally different experience here. They actually fill the cars with standing people. So it was like a cattle cage. We managed to sit both times, because we were in front of the line, but the pushing and bustling of the crowds trying to get on before others and sit, was an experience for sure.
On the hill we visited some of the temples and I visited a mosque while Alex was resting in the shade. Sharing a hiking path with cars, motorbikes and tourist trishaws wasn’t really what we expected to experience on top of the hill. Too many lazy people again running for their selfies and back.
We eventually took one of the hikes off the beaten path (but still paved), using one of their trail maps. It was a nice one in the shade of the forest downhill. However, we knew we had to go uphill to take the funicular again .
After the hill we visited the Kek Lok Si Temple. This is huge! It had 4 levels connected with small funiculars.
Having been on the hill and given the time we had left before it closed, we decided to use them to get both up and down, walking out to explore each level.
The most important structure of the temple, the Pagoda, was on the 3rd level. We climbed the 30 metre Pagoda which its amalgam of Chinese, Thai and Burmese architecture, took many photos from high up, where one could see all the town below, walked through lush gardens, rich ornamental structures and tourist-trap markets.
Well, we needed water, so in a way having so many merchants here helped. The 30+ metre bronze statue of Kuan Yin (goddess of mercy) and the Disneyesque statues dotted around at the summit were just too over the top.
I think here was where I reached my “temple” saturation point. I will probably have a separate post on the subject, but we both are somewhat appalled by the richness of all these temples, churches, cathedrals, wats, mosques, pagodas, or other places of worship,
in countries where poverty so visibly dominates everything, where the rich live in gated and heavily guarded communities .
We took a Grab back to the hotel just in time to shower and head to the clan jetty houses before sunset. The simplicity and basic structures of these homes was in stark contrast to the Kek Lok Si Temple’s grandeur.
All in all, George Town is a nice city, and one can easily spend a few days exploring. It has something for everyone, from temples and museums, street food and street art, to many entertainment venues – Komtar being the major one. And, don’t forget the historic clan jetties!
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