{"id":82,"date":"2005-12-25T19:00:18","date_gmt":"2005-12-25T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/?p=82"},"modified":"2009-09-28T19:56:42","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T17:56:42","slug":"penang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"Pinang"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The most notable landmark in Penang is the roadbridge joining the main town, Georgetown, to Butterworth on the mainland. <\/em><\/p>\n

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the bridge is 13.5 km long, we had to pass beneath it to get to the Tanjung Marina. It’s by the ferry terminal, which is the other connection between Pinang Island and the mainland<\/p>\n

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The marina only opened a few months ago,<\/p>\n

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and is adjacent to a newly re-furbished old ferry terminal<\/p>\n

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just over from the oldest part of town.<\/p>\n

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The facilities were good, the staff helpful, but there were still unsolved problems. Notably it was subject to swell from the ferries coming and going, in the nearby berths yachts had suffered damage, they could not be used.
\nLess damaging, but also unpleasant was the never-ending flow of rubbish through the berths. With each change of direction of the tide the marina was flooded with all the floating trash of the city. A team of workers were busy every day in an un-ending effort to keep it clear.
\nNeither problem seems easy to fix, both being basic faults of the marina location…<\/p>\n

That didn’t stop our enjoyment of Penang however and those problems are really just a reflection of the way of the whole island, -it’s messy and disorganised, much of it dilapidated, but it’s still a great town to visit.<\/p>\n

Like Melaka, it is one of the old ‘Straits Settlements’ but is the oldest and has a disproportionately large Chinese population among the Malay Muslims; that mixture of both known as Peranakan and the Indians who came as labourers.
\nHowever, whereas, old Melaka has undergone a coordinated restoration programme and has an aggressive tourist drive, in Georgetown the approach is more laid-back,<\/p>\n

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it’s still waiting for it to happen.<\/p>\n

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The central city which is Chinatown and Little India,<\/p>\n

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is old and mostly original shop-houses, many in disrepair.<\/p>\n

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But it’s still beautiful, however, the beauty is in the detail.<\/p>\n

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The shops are full of colourful and fascinating Chinese ‘things’;<\/p>\n

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the houses have nicely decorated upper levels<\/p>\n

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and almost invariably, interesting front entrances<\/p>\n

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where there are the trappings of everyday life in Chinese Penang,<\/p>\n

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and assorted ‘good-luck’ charms, religious symbols, offerings and shrines to the many dieties those superstitious Chinese have in their lives.<\/p>\n

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The doors themselves are typically substantial<\/p>\n

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and often intricately decorated<\/p>\n

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given a level of care and attention far beyond the rest of the house!<\/p>\n

Next page \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

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The streets are narrow and best suited to foot and trishaw traffic but for practical reasons, those trishaws are not just a tourist attraction here.<\/em><\/strong>On the outskirts of the old city centre are the impressive mansions of the wealthy old merchants, such as<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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the Baba (Peranakan) Mansions,<\/p>\n

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and the strikingly blue, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. It was built in the 1880s for a Chinese merchant who had built up a massive fortune from nothing, dealing in many things but including the opium trade.<\/p>\n

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It is in a particularly grandiose style, has been restored ansd is now an exclusive homestay.<\/p>\n

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There’s also the old Christian Cemetery, now in a state of advanced decay, but with many of the city’s founding names buried there. An interesting place to visit but preferably in the full light of day!<\/p>\n

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Right on the waterfront is Fort Cornwallis, (the cannon here is said to be lucky for fertility among the Penang women…say no more… on with the story) where Georgetown was founded originally by the Englishman Captain Light around 1800.
\nInterestingly, he was the brother of Francis Light who designed the very orderly, old, central Adelaide city. The 2 towns couldn’t have possibly ended up much different!
\nBut here even so, there are some grand colonial public buildings,<\/p>\n

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among them the town hall,<\/p>\n

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and the clock-tower donated by a wealthy businessman in honour of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.<\/p>\n

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Nearby is the Eastern and Oriental Hotel, a dinosaur of the grand colonial past, but a dinosaur who’s now been restored to very good health!<\/p>\n

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It was established in the 1880s by the Sarkies brothers who later went on to build the similar, but arguably less grand, Raffles Hotel in Singapore.<\/p>\n

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It was said to be the grandest hotel east of Suez for many years and special because of it’s 842 foot sea-frontage for guest rooms. Many famous people of the time stayed there, but its popularity dwindled during the late 20th century, it closed in about 1990.
\nA huge renovation programme followed however and it has been restored to its former glory, decorated in keeping with and still featuring its grand colonial past.
\n(We can recommend its Christmas puddings and mince pies, but that is the extent of our eating experience there yet)<\/p>\n

Next page \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

It’s no surprise that in Chinatown there are many Chinese temples, but each is different in its own way as there are many different dieties and they are almost invariably, beautifully, intricately decorated….the photos here COULD go on for a very long time!<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Of particular note however,is the Goddess of Mercy Temple, one of the oldest in town,<\/p>\n

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built in 1800 and still busy with a steady stream of devotees burning prayer papers in the furnaces outside, lighting the giant sized ‘oracle’ (incense) sticks in the courtyard, or at one of the several altars inside.<\/p>\n

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Work and religion in this Chinese community are intertwined, even this very ordinary small engineering workshop is well endowed with religious symbols around the entrance…<\/p>\n

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and this temple is that of the Carpenter’s Guild, dedicated to Lo Pan the patron deity of carpenters. Other trades have other deities and other temples in town.<\/p>\n

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Some of the grandest temples are those meeting houses of the ‘clans’, or kongsi.<\/p>\n

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The best known is the Khoo Kongsi, owned by the Khoo family, who are wealthy merchants and traders dating back to the 16th century. No expense or detail is spared and it is said to be now one of the best examples of Chinese temple architecture in SE Asia.
\nNot all the clans are so well off, but they are still held together by their name and their faith, often living in one area.<\/p>\n

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Along the Chinatown waterfront are clan jetties,<\/p>\n

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like this belonging to the clan ‘Chew’, -they all live in houses on stilts built out over the water. It must be a very secure arrangement if needed…<\/p>\n

Next page \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

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Less decorated than the Chinese Temples, but still very impressive, is the Kapitan Keling Mosque, the old main city mosque in the Indian quarter. <\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>It is of typical Indian or Moorish style with domes and a tall minaret,<\/p>\n

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unlike the nearby smaller humble ‘Egyptian’ styled minaret of the Acheen St. Mosque.<\/p>\n

As the centre of town is mainly Chinese, there are fewer mosques, but a little further out there are many more.
\nThe State Mosque is relatively recent, -but seems already dated in design<\/p>\n

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but there is another, much more handsome, just complete and built over the water…<\/p>\n

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The Buddhists are represented in no small way, although as relative latecomers, their temples are also further out of town. On Lorong Burma there are 2 large temples on directly opposite sides of the road.<\/p>\n

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On the one is Wat Chayamangkalaram, a very colourful place<\/p>\n

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with rampant dragons<\/p>\n

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and an enormous reclining Buddha<\/p>\n

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said to be the third biggest in the world…<\/p>\n

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and seated in front of a wall of funereal urns (ashes) are many other Buddhas.<\/p>\n

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Through the gate of this one and over the road is Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple<\/p>\n

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with a grand entrance and 2 white elephants guarding it from the street sellers outside.<\/p>\n

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Maybe they need to, as there is a lot of gold about!<\/p>\n

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Although the street outside is busy with traffic and traders, once inside it is quiet and serene, the people coming for peace and guidance…Probably it’s just a reflection of a society where everybody does it all the time, but the incessant and intrusive click and flash of cameras deters nobody from their devotions.<\/p>\n

There is another Buddhist Temple a little further out of town but worthy of note because of its situation, high on a hill.
\nIn Air Itam is the Kek Lok Si Temple and also as it is said to be the largest in Malaysia…(in this country, it’s more and more obviious, that size really does count!)
\nIt has a gold-capped pagoda and Buddha Statue obvious from a long way off<\/p>\n

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but before getting too close, there is a maze of souvenir and other stall holders to work
\nthrough…
\nHaving done so it is possible to climb the hill on foot, bike or the little railway, to admire the view<\/p>\n

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then visit the temple complex;<\/p>\n

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a statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and<\/p>\n

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the 10,000 Buddhas Pagoda.
\nUnlike its counterparts in town however, this temple experience is not improved by proximity. Commercialism, lack of upkeep in the past and refurbishment going on now mean it’s best just looked at from afar…<\/p>\n

Next page \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

New Georgetown City spreads north along the coast from the old centre in a succession of high-rise buildings,<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>apartments and hotels along the foreshore. The beaches here are not attractive or for tourists however, those are further around the island at Batu Ferringhi, which is the main ‘beach’ resort part of the island.<\/p>\n

To the southwest, Georgetown spreads up onto the hills, which, where they are not covered in houses or apartment blocks, are steep and clad with rain-forest jungle.<\/p>\n

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The town botanical gardens lie in a valley at the bottom of Penang Hill, the highest summit.
\nThere is a small formal garden, but mostly there is open park with streams and walkways,
\nthese interesting ‘cannonball’ trees<\/p>\n

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and ‘un-shy’, almost aggressive Macaque Monkeys.<\/p>\n

From the Gardens it is possible to walk up a well-formed, but steep narrow road to Penang Hill summit. At over 800m altitude it becomes a good work-out for the legs, but not very rewarding if like the day I went up when it was raining heavily and the hill was completely covered in cloud.<\/p>\n

The more usual way of getting to the mountain top now is by cable car from Air Itam, we did that another day.<\/p>\n

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Penang Hill is otherwise known now as Bukit Bendera, but in the early days was “Flagstaff Hill’ or Strawberry Hill’.
\nAs early as the days of Captain Light, the hill was a favourite place to go to get away from the heat at sea-level, -and to grow strawberries.
\nThen the only way of getting there was to walk, (or be carried in Sedan Chair), up the rough track from the gardens.
\nAn alternative was sought, but because of difficulties with the terrain was a long time coming.<\/p>\n

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It was not until 1923 that this Swiss funicular, cable railway was finally opened for business and it’s been busy ever since!<\/p>\n

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Even on normally quiet Monday morning we had to wait an hour after buying tickets before we
\ncould make the trip up, such is the demand.<\/p>\n

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At that altitude, on a clear day the views can’t help but be impressive, although with the constant air-pollution, a truly clear view is rarely seen.<\/p>\n

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But it’s cool and the air seems cleaner.<\/p>\n

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We had lunch on a terrace overlooking downtown Georgetown, beneath a pergola of vines with interestingly exotic blue flowers<\/p>\n

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and among them overhead, venomous Pit Vipers…<\/p>\n

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We didn’t delay, not because of the snakes above, but because of the crush beneath…
\nWe were keen to beat the crowds on the return train ride.
\nWe almost did, we only waited about 15 minutes, but the crush of people to get aboard the little carriage, in spite of being individually counted and numbers limited by the staff was enlightening, like nothing we had experienced before.The crowd was predominantly Muslim and mostly women with children, but there was no holding them back!
\nAlthough here we had an obvious advantage in height and weight and there could never be a problem more than an elbow at a low level, it all became clear how those many fatalities can occur almost annually in crowd crushes in the religious fervour at the Islamic Festivals of the Haaj…<\/p>\n

Next page \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n

Penang (or Pinang) is not a big island, it is smaller than Singapore and with a much lesser population. Although the town centre on the north-eastern corner of the island seems more crowded (and certainly more disorderly) than Singapore, the traffic thins out to the south and the western side is relatively unpopulated.
\nTo bike around the island in a day makes for a comfortable ride of 100 km or so. There are some small hills at the southern end, but the western side is flat and agricultural.<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The West coast is dotted with little fishing villages<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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and anyone of them is a good stop for lunch. The Pinang mint flavoured laksa (without coconut milk) being the speciality for a very cheap and tasty treat, or just the selection of deep-fried banana, sweet potato and bread-fruit for just plain hunger…<\/p>\n

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Although close in distance to Georgetown they’re a long way apart and the western side of Pinang Island is probably as close as you can get to ‘rural, old Malaysia as you can get on most of the peninsula now with many old dwellings in various states of repair.<\/p>\n

At the northwest corner the road steadily climbs over a more significant hill,<\/p>\n

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there’s a popular waterfall stop with the neccessary stalls selling food and souvenirs, then a series of tropical fruit orchards, (the durian are there to smell at the side of the road!) and then descends to tourism area of the north coast.
\nThere’s a National Park with walks,<\/p>\n

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an off the beach, floating fishing village<\/p>\n

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and a big game(?) fishing wharf.Beyond that, towards Batu Ferringhi and Georgetown there are the nice beaches to where the most of the overseas tourists flock.<\/p>\n

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Food is a major attraction to Penang, it is everywhere and irresistable, a mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian in every possible combination, all there on the street-side, at any time of day…there are open-air restaurants and hawker stalls everywhere.
\nBecause there are so many,they’re generally not busy, getting a meal is quick and easy,but sometimes it might turn out to be better than others…We took a particular liking for a seafood restaurant over and along the road from the marina, we were attracted not only by the array of fresh food, but by its busy-ness…it was always full with locals, it must be good!<\/p>\n

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As you walk in, the boxes, bowls and buckets of all the seafood, meat and vegetables are there…<\/p>\n

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You make your selection (in our case it was with pointed finger and our perfect, unbroken English), the food is placed on the serving plates and passed into the queue for the cook,<\/p>\n

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-while we look for seats among the crowd and wait.<\/p>\n

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A woman comes by selling drinks, we buy beers and while we wait, watch the cook!!!
\nHe is an act himself, he does all the wok cooking for the whole restaurant and is frantic! That he keeps track of what he is cooking in each of the 3-4 woks at any one time is amazing.<\/p>\n

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The gas flame is always on high, he dollops in the sauces, some oil or water, noisily stirs it all about with metal ladles, nothing ever takes more than a few seconds to cook. Then it’s onto the plate, someone takes it away, he cleans the wok in a cloud of steam…and he’s he’s tipping in another dish full from the queue…<\/p>\n

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As a result of this day-long frenetic activity not surprisingly he’s as skinny as and is a constantly sweating mess!!!
\nThere are other kitchen hands too, but they do the non-wok cooking and keep the fresh supplies on hand.<\/p>\n

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The first time we went we couldn’t believe that in all that clamour and disorder our meals would ever arrive all at once and in reasonable time, but to our surprise they soon emerged and together, from all the heat and flames… and the food was just the best.
\nHow could it be anything else when it was all cooked so quickly and from so fresh?<\/p>\n

We were never disappointed, we returned several times and hope to again…<\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 The most notable landmark in Penang is the roadbridge joining the main town, Georgetown, to Butterworth on the mainland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malaysia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtquovadis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}