George Town: a city packed with culture, history, and good eats. Located in the Malaysian island of Penang, this multicultural city never fails to make tourists from around the world fall under its spell. With its British Colonial buildings, stunning places of worship, views from both the seaside and mountains, Penang takes my breath away every time I visit.
My family and I used to make the four hour journey north every couple of years when I was little. Back then, I didn't know how to appreciate the culture the city offered. We'd always stay by the beach. The only thing I remembered was that the shower was outside, which made that the highlight of every trip.
After several years of not going to Penang, we decided to venture north again in 2016. That trip was one of my most memorable family trips, as the true value of the George Town was finally clear to me. Rather than staying by the beach, we stayed in a boutique hotel run by my mother's friend in Little India.
The streets surrounding the hotel were filled with shops selling vibrant textiles, Hindu temples, Puja flowers were being strung together, Indian cuisine and snacks were sold by street venders, and Tamil music was heard at every block.
Located just a short 10-15 minute walk away was Armenian Street, probably one of the more well known areas of George Town. Armenian Street and its neighboring streets are packed with art galleries, shops selling antiques, temples, and more. However, what I remember the most are its notable street murals. Even in 2019 when we visited Penang once again, my sister and I hunted for the murals. Although we had already found almost all of them in 2016, three years later our camera rolls were quickly filled with photos of the same murals.
The image on the left is the famous Boy on a Chair mural. As you can see, many of the murals are "interactive" and incorporate different objects. This mural has a real chair sticking out of the wall. My sister was remaking the photo we took of her back in 2016 when she had to tip toe to reach the opening in the wall.
As you can imagine, walking around George Town in the scorching sun and not to mention the humidity can be quite exhausting. I was literally sweating buckets (had to carry one around in fact, jokes). My mom brought along both a fan and towel to wipe of sweat (no jokes). Fortunately, a good amount of stores had air conditioning and there were cafes at almost every corner.
Even the cafes were quirky– each one giving off its own vibe. They ambiences ranged from "flash back to the past," where they were filled with traditional Chinese furniture, to "fly into the future," where everything was modern and the water served was exclusively Evian.
The "Evian water cafe," its actual name I unfortunately have forgotten, also specialized in floral arrangement. The image of the right is some of the beautiful flowers the cafe used. I honestly just found the flowers in the cooler to be an artsy sight.
After some intense hopping between cafes and stores, we always found ourselves walking to the Clan Jetties. Built on wooden stilts along the water front, the Clan Jetties are residential villages inhabited by different Chinese clans. The jetties are filled with houses, occasional souvenir stores, and temples at certain jetties. As evident from the image to the left, the jetties were quite narrow, which made two-way traffic virtually impossible.
The Clan jetties always intrigued me because I had never seen anything like them before. Walking down the narrow jetties being surrounded by the homes of locals was something I found really valuable. Rarely did we have the opportunity to see how locals live, but at the Clan jetties, some households made their homes "open," essentially encouraging people to peek in. I quickly observed that many households had the common setup of a Chinese ancestral shrine outside of their homes, which showed the role of divine beliefs.
In 2019, we took my great aunt to Penang with us. My great aunt loves the "king of fruits": the durian. Thus we supported my great aunt on her quest for the infamous Black Thorn durian by taking her to Balik Pulau. Located up in the mountains, Balik Pulau is known to have some of the best durians in Penang, and Penang durians are already known to be some of the best. We drove up the long, windy road in search of the durian farms, which to our dismay were mostly closed.
After driving around in circles for around 45 minutes, we finally found a durian vendor. Unfortunately, they didn't have the black thorn durian but did have the best kampung durian I've ever had. The durian was so smooth; it tasted like custard and melted in your mouth. In all my 19 years of life, I had never seen my grandfather eat so many durians in a single sitting. When he and my great aunt ate them, their faces filled with youth. They were like kids whose biggest concerns were who would eat the last piece. Although I'm not an avid durian eater myself, just seeing my grandfather and great aunt made the trek up to Balik Pulau worth it.
Even though the heat and humidity really felt unbearable at times, Penang will always have a special place in my heart because of the valuable memories I've made there with my family.
*note: there will be a post about the eats in the future :)
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