Penang, Malaysia

A typical streetscape in Georgetown, Penag  - arcaded 'five foot ways" connecting shophouses along the street. They are great when it rains! And, like everywhere else in South East Asia, there is no consideration given to pedestrian traffic.

Penang was one of those destinations to which we headed with a great deal of anticipation. We had eaten and loved Penang style curries all over South East Asia, and that spicy blend of flavours promised a cultural stew that we knew we would enjoy on the island. We were not disappointed.

Georgetown, the main city on the island of Penang, is a well preserved colonial town that mixes the influences of the Malay, Chinese, Indian and British people that have built it. Much like Melaka, Georgetown's architecture is primarily Chinese shophouses with the occasional British administrative building thrown in. There is a healthy smattering of Chinese Taoist and Buddhist temples with a few mosques and Hindu temple mixed in. All the various cuisines are easily and cheaply available, with a vibrant street food scene once the sun goes down. As you can imagine, our days were structured primarily around food!

Like the Mini Cooper, other car companies (this is a Daihatsu) are recalling older styles in new models. This one really fits in in this town!

Just up the street from our digs in the old town.

The shophouse properties go waaaaay back from the street. Some have been newly renovated, like this funky restaurant , while others (like our guesthouse) retain older lines. They all look the same from the street, so you never know what you are going to get inside.

You can do a self-guided tour around the old town, and the various stops along the way are denoted by these wire sculptures mounted to the walls that tell a story about the neighbourhood they are in or an historical figure. They are illuminated at night, which looks cool. This one is probably explaining about a laundry that was located in the area at one time, as shown by the dhobiwallah wearing a lungi and carrying a basket of clothes on his head.

Typical shophouse facade. It makes for efficient use of land in an urban environment, with ground level retail space and living space upstairs. This is what Inglewood is striving for!

Much like Melaka, Georgetown is a city of street art on many scales. This, obviously, is the large scale.

The funky, modern shophouse restaurant where we celebrated Mother's Day for Liz.

This is the interior common area of the guest house where we stayed. We would have breakfast (included) here every morning.

Some more mural art at the Camera Museum.

A mural dedicated to the Indian population of Georgetown. It is an easy and beautiful way to humanize the urban landscape - we need to do more of this at home!

We couldn't resist having Liz' fortune told by the soothsayer set  up on the street. Apparently her hands tell us that she will live to 93 years of age, will be happily married and successful.

The fortune-telling begins with the trained parrot being let out of its cage to pick a card from an array, so it must totally be true. Parrots don't lie.

One of the many interactive art pieces one can find around Georgetown that have been created by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic. It is a fun way to discover the town!

Getting into the spirit, Remy creates his own interactive art piece using a found object.

There is a thriving trishaw business around touring people to the various art murals. Here grandma elects to stay in the vehicle while the kids explore the art.

Many of the early Chinese immigrants settled in stilt houses along the waterfront, probably as a means of avoiding property taxes. Soon whole neighbourhoods were built out over the water, with each one belonging to a particular clan that built its own temple and governed itself. This way of life is dying out now, with the clan villages being maintained now more as a cultural artifact. One welcome modern addition is the installation of a sewage system, which is scheduled to be installed in the next year or two. Currently, everything drains directly onto the sea below, which is only too obvious when one stands downwind.

Homebuilt rattan child carrier on a bicycle. This sort of inventiveness appealed greatly to Remy.

Make love, not war. And keep pets.

At the top of Penang Hill, which is attained by riding a very steep but modern funicular to the top. Great views of the whole island and the two record-breaking bridges that connect it to the mainland.

Still life of a crazy tropical bloom. A great selection for the screensaver program on our computer.

The view down the funicular tracks from the top. It still takes about five minutes at fairly high speed to climb the mountain. At one time, British officers used to be carried up the hill in sedan chairs by teams of four porters, and the trip took three or four hours. Ah, the good old days.

There is a massive Chinese Buddhist temple dedicated to Guanyin, an avatar of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhi who attained enlightenment and thus had a ticket out of the endless cycle of rebirth, but elected to continue being reincarnated in order to help others attain enlightenment. She is big here.

Bowen getting angular on the grounds of the Buddhist temple.

Our second funicular of the day! You'd think we would be too sore after the first one...

Now this is our kind of art installation! Beautiful symmetry and flavour, and one of the reasons we like to eat at the hawker centres. Often there is live music, too!

Food, food, as far as the eye can see! That's why we love this town.

And there is something for every taste!

The Penangites know how to run a food court. Live music, beer girls, weekly ladyboy shows, lots of cheap, tasty food - now that is fun!

Hawker centre beer tubs. You get charged for what you drink, so no, you don't have to drink it all.

You can go to the hawker centre to eat, or you can go to drink. The fellow with the big head on the right just finished throwing up and is ready to down some more.

And this is what you can enjoy with your bowl of noodles on the weekends!

This is Remy's super-power weakness - cendol, which consists of a pile of shaved ice soaked in coconut milk and palm sugar, with pandan-flavoured rice noodles, red beans and corn. Mix it all together and slurp it down!

Of course, there is always a wide array of seafood available. Pick what you want and they grill or fry it up for you!

An innovative piece of environmental engineering on what is an otherwise drab building. Probably helps keep  it cool and cleans the air at the same time. Who knows, maybe it's edible, too.

One of our favourite street dishes: mee noodles with sliced BBQ pork, served in a sweet soy sauce. The large bowl, shown, costs about $1.75 and is ready in a couple of minutes. The atmosphere is provided by passing traffic.

This is the other local sweet dessert, air batu campur or ABC ("mixed ice" in Bahasa). Not as much a favourite for Remy as the cendol because it is a little too sweet, but still with a lively assortment of slimy goodness.

Bowen expresses his opinion on the local ices while Remy feverishly digs out his money at the street stand known for providing the best cendol in Georgetown. This little stall appears to be lined up all day, and the proprietor can produce them at an amazing rate. That was probably his Mercedes parked behind us out of frame.

The guest houses in the old town all look very inviting.

It was slightly kitschy but we had to try it! That is our photo, transposed onto the milk foam on top of a cappuccino. The "ink" is some sort of sugar product so it is edible. You pay a premium for the service but it was fun to do. You'd make a fortune selling these at a narcissist's convention! Actually, it is surprising Starbucks hasn't cottoned on to this one yet. You could upload your special coffee order to their database along with your photo, send the order in ahead of time using your smart phone, and when you showed up there would be your coffee with your face on it. No more mistaken orders!

With our visit to Penang, we really felt like we had finished our tour of peninsular Malaysia. We had even consulted Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" program, and actually managed to hit most of the same food locations as him, so we felt like we had conducted a comprehensive gastronomic survey of this great town. Well fed and feeling quite cosmopolitan, we are now ready to tackle the wilds of Borneo, which is our next destination!

~Remy