A Walk Round George Town

After my Cheong Fatt Tze tour, I venture out into George Tow and start by heading down Lebuh Leith (Leith Street) towards the sea and right in front of me is the Eastern and Oriental Hotel – looking suspiciously similar to Raffles Hotel in Singapore, which is not surprising seeing as it was built in pretty much the same era, and funnily enough is now run by the same company as Raffles. Along Lebuh Farquhar (Farquhar Street) I pass the Supreme Court and the Penang Art Museum and then down this little street called Green Hall, which is quite a contrast to the colonial style of buildings that I have just walked past.

I hear this bloody awful noise coming from one of the houses and I look up to see where the offending sound is coming from, and spy the outline of a man through a louvered window who is staring at me and “singing” to the world. He sounds in distress, and I quickly move on to the end of the street, which opens into a small park area, and sit amongst these local fishermen who find me somewhat intriguing as I take photos of the sea. Turning back on myself, I scurry past the wailing man in the window (who is still staring at me) and down the next road to the Esplanade. 

After a quick snack stop and rest overlooking the sea I head along the sea front, across Padang Kota Lama, Fort Cornwallis and to the Clock Tower (but not before being asked to pose with some locals for a few photos). It’s beginning to get a bit thundery, so I decide that a wander round the Fort would give me some shelter from the impending rain. It’s not actually that inspiring or interesting, with the only noteworthy thing being the Sri Rambai cannon, who’s mystical powers include that of enabling barren women to conceive if they lay flowers on it. 

Amazingly, the clouds just move away and I continue my wander around the George Town streets (where taxis and rickshaws keep slowing down to pick me up) and head down Lebuh Light (Light Street) to St George’s Church – which is covered up with awnings, presumably as it’s undergoing some renovation work. Maybe the Pope is planning to come here too…

I turn into Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling (Pitt Street), which houses three major places of worship: the Hindu Sri Mariamman temple, the Chinese Persatuan Teo Chew temple and the Muslim Masjid Kapitan Kling mosque. There are others here too as this place is one of the town’s major roads – a very religious lot, it seems. Not so religious would be the multitudes of men that are sending me messages on Grindr… It’s amazing that in the day or so that I’ve been here I have got a whole load of messages from various men wanting to get into my pants!

It’s getting a bit darker now, not due to rain clouds, but it’s now getting towards early evening so I head on, and I wanted to go to Khoo Kongsi, a place where the Chinese go to worship their family ancestors and is supposed to be quite a spectacular palace. It was through this alleyway that had a small handwritten “Open 9 5” sign above it and as I tried to enter, this troll appeared and pointed to the sign, so alas, I didn’t get to see it which was a bit disappointing. Anyway, I head down the road and stumble across Lebuh Armenian (Armenian Street) where there were a load of Panangians laying out blankets on the ground and setting up stalls to get rid of what appeared to be all manner of crap which actually looked more like their belongings than anything else. The streets in this part are lovely, and it was a sharp contrast to those in Kuala Lumpur which all seem to have been razed and replaced with towering steel office blocks or glitzy condominiums.

I turn into Lebuh Chulia (Chulia Street), which is the central artery of Chinatown, and all the street food-vendors beginning to set up their stalls in preparation for the evening: it’s an amazingly bustling, dirty, hot place with some lovely smells. I am a bit tired after all my walking about (done the majority of George Town) and I fund a quiet bar, just off Chulia Street, and have a beer before heading back to the mansion for freshen up. This very nearly didn’t happen as only one of either of the entrances to the mansion is open at any time: on one, it said, “Entrance open between 7 am and 7 pm. Now Closed, please use the other entrance after 8 pm”, so I walk round to the other entrance, which is also closed, with a sign on it saying, “Entrance open between 8 pm and 6 am”. It was 7.30 pm, and it looks like neither entrance is open! I spy a guard and beckon him over, and after confirming that I am in the Hakka room, he lets me into one of the closed entrances.

I freshen up and head towards Lebuh Muntri (Muntri Street) as there is a restaurant recommended in the guide book: alas it’s closed, but I find a cool little bar / restaurant that is playing Abba, and have a few beers and some (what I think is) Tom Yam Soup. I get chatting to a guy in there with his kids and (eventually) his wife:  he was nice, extremely bad teeth, and was willing to be my guide for tomorrow. I wasn’t sure about that, not that Tony was weird or anything, but his teeth were very, VERY bad…

I head back to the hotel later and sleep behind my mosquito net