Penang Island
January 13, 2024
On Saturday morning, we left Cameron Highlands, driving north and then west through more farms until we descended through an area with marble quarries, reaching the highway near the town of Ipoh. We continued our drive over a large highway bridge to Penang Island and to our colonial hotel in the city of George Town. The drive took a little more than three and a half hours. Our hotel had a view of a small strait connected to the large Strait of Malacca.
After a quick lunch at our hotel, we took a Grab car (a local service similar to Uber) to the beautiful Pinang Peranakan Mansion. There we were given a tour in English by a Peranakan man of the 129 year old mansion. It is sumptuously furnished and ornately decorated. The mansion was originally built and owned by Chung Keng Quee, also known as Kapitan China, one of the wealthiest men in Penang in the late 19th Century. It has more than one thousand antiques on display which we perused after the end of the tour. This was certainly one of the highlights of our trip. We then took a Grab car back to our hotel; we didn’t want to walk even short distances, because it was quite hot (90F) and humid. Here are some photos from the mansion.
Below is a street scene near where we had dinner, showing lots of food stands.
January 14, 2024
We took a Grab car to the Chowrasta Morning Market, which consisted of some food stalls in a building, and even more in the nearby streets and alley. We watched cooking at a small hawker center before taking another Grab car to George Town’s bustling Chinatown.
The first thing we saw there was Khoo Kongsi Clan House, which had some very nice 19th century row houses and one of the most elaborate Chinese temples in Penang. The temple is shown below along with a shot of the decoration detail.
From there, we strolled around on Armenian Street and other streets and saw some of the street art for which Penang is famous. Cats are featured prominently, but here are some other photos.
A street scene with mosque and lanterns, in which you can see the mural on the right. Many of the murals featured physical features such as the chair.
This was a favorite for tourist taking photograms to make Instagram posts.
A different kind of art installation above, and below is an example of
the wire sculptures all throughout the city explaining various tidbits of history.
We then visited another clan house with temple and a nice mural (Cheah Kongsi) plus two more Buddhist temples, Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple and the Goddess of Mercy Temple. The later was the most active with the faithful burning incense sticks and making offerings.
Typical street scene in Chinatown, all festive for the lunar
new year coming
in a few weeks.
The Cheah Kongsi (Clan House), above, and its nearby mural, below.
The Goddess of Mercy Temple.
We walked by the Kapitan Keling Mosque way on the way to the Hindu Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, which had a ceremony taking place. We had lunch on the edge of Chinatown in a traditional tea shop that served dim sum.
Clockwise from top left, durian were everywhere; the Capital Keling Mosque; tasty colorful dim sum; and the Hindu temple.
Next, we returned to our hotel, and from there walked to the Cheong Fatt Tze Temple, also known as The Blue Mansion. We took a 45 minute tour and learned about the man who built the structure, and who was once the wealthiest man in China. In subsequent decades, the building fell into disrepair. Its restoration in the early part of this century led to Penang’s inclusion on the UNESCO list and its current effort to preserve its historic structures. Here are photos of the outside and inside.
After the tour, we traveled to the Chew Jetty on the waterfront, built in 1888 and now one of several wooden clan jetties in George Town, which features buildings currently inhabited by members of the immigrant community. People still live in the wooden houses on stilts over the water. We noticed most of the buildings had air conditioning units, since electricity was brought to the jetty along with running water in 1957. There was a lovely Taoist temple at the entrance to the jetty.
A typical jetty house on the left, and a mural at the end of the jetty, right.
January 15, 2024
On Monday, we took a twenty minute drive to the base of the Penang Hill Funicular, where we rode up to an elevation of 712 meters. After admiring the view back down to George Town from several observation decks, we walked to “The Habitat,” a UNESCO biosphere at the edge of the rainforest. We walked on elevated platforms, including one above tree tops as well as on the floor of the forest. We saw birds and monkeys and beautiful native plants.
The view from the top of Penang Hill.
One of two elevated walkways at the Habitat on Penang Hill.
We then took a buggy ride back to Penang Hill Station, where we visited the nearby Hindu Temple before descending on the funicular to the lower station. After lunch of the local specialty chicken rice, we visited two Buddhist Temples. First we visited an early nineteenth century ornate Burmese temple, Dhammikarama. It has a large standing Buddha image standing in one temple, many shiny gold stupas, and ponds with fish and turtles. Very impressive.
Four photos from the very impressive Burmese Temple.
The buddha statue is really something.
Next, we went across the street to the colorful Thai Buddhist Temple, Chayamangkalaram, which has a large reclining Buddha, similar to Wat Po in Bangkok. Again, we were impressed with the colorful mosaic decoration of the outside and the gold stupas.
Above three photos from the Thai temple.
We then returned to the hotel to cool off a bit and then ventured back out to Little India and Chinatown to look for more street art. We found a few of the famous pieces, but couldn’t find all of them despite having a map. After a bit, we cut our visit short, because it started to rain. When we arrived at the hotel, it wasn’t raining there. We could still see rain in the distance, however.
Little
India,
right
This is the mural that
started Penang’s
street art movement,
made by artist
an artist originally
from Lithuania.
One final work of street art.
We really enjoyed our visit to Penang with its wonderful street art, interesting historical buildings and temples and bustling streets. Grab made it really easy to get around in the heat.
Tomorrow we head to Langkawi Island for some R&R at the beach.
