Pulau Pinang (Penang Island) is located off the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula about 400 km north of Kuala Lumpur. It’s not far from the mainland – only 12 km, and is connected by one of the longest traffic bridges in Asia.
Penang is a large island of about 300 square kilometres and as well as the expected palm-fringed beaches, it contains a rural and mountainous interior. Until the late 1700s it was ruled by the Sultan of Kedah but following some fancy sweet-talking and scheming by Captain Francis Light representing himself and the British East India Company, it became in 1786 the first British Settlement on the Malay Peninsula. Light dreamed of transforming the island into a major source of spice for the export market and he wasted no time constructing a fort on the northeastern tip of the island, naming it Fort Cornwallis after the Governor-General in Bengal. Migrants from China and India flocked in seeking better lives, and over the following 40 years Penang rose to become a major commercial and colonial administrative centre. In 1800 alone, spice farmers planted 5,000 nutmeg trees and 15,000 clove trees, soon followed by pepper and mace. In 1826 Penang’s principal city Georgetown was proclaimed the capital of the newly established Straits Settlements (incorporating Penang, Melaka and Singapore). But the rapid rise of Singapore heralded Penang’s decline and it became an economic backwater for the next century.
Today Penang is a vibrant part of the Malaysian Federation and a popular destination for local and overseas tourists who find plenty to like about its climate, beaches, food, sights and activities. On our arrival we checked into a hotel in the centre of Georgetown and struck out to explore the old historical core around Fort Cornwallis, which like Melaka, has recently been added to the World Cultural Heritage Register. We walked for about four hours getting increasingly hot and sweaty, but finding plenty of interest, including:
Fort Cornwallis itself with its rusty cannons still pointing purposefully out to sea;
Clock Tower built to commemorate the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign and donated to the city by Penang millionaire Chea Chen Eok;
City Hall completed in 1903 as the seat of the Penang Government;
Penang Town Hall completed in 1880;
Peranakan Mansion, one of the most ornate private homes in Penang, and once the residence of colourful local identity Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee;
Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple on Penang, built in 1883 for early Indian immigrants;
Kapitan Keling Mosque built in the 1800s by Indian muslim traders.
The old part of Georgetown is not a particularly easy place to walk around. Several streets have no footpaths, requiring walkers to share the road with fast-moving motor bikes, cars and trucks, and many of the footpaths that do exist are more like obstacle courses. Heaven help anyone in a wheelchair.
We could have seen a lot more but we’d had enough after four hours of walking in the heat and humidity, and in any case with sunset approaching the looming prospect of a spicy hot fish-head curry stocked with okra, eggplant, chilies and tomatoes and served with steamed rice, sambal belacun and pappadum made pressing on impossible. So we headed back to the hotel, on the way happening to pass the Odeon picture theatre that was operating when Lee Tuan was a girl and is this week screening Bollywood movies.
The following morning after a breakfast of nasi lemak and fruits we set out on a day’s drive around the island. Down south we passed through the district of Bayan Lepas where Lee Tuan was born and where we would have visited her childhood home had it not been demolished years ago to make way for new developments near the Penang International Airport, which is where we arrived last Tuesday on a short flight from Kuala Lumpur. In the afternoon we drove along the north coast headed for the Penang National Park but a looming tropical downpour put paid to any hopes of hiking in there. So we did a U-turn along the Batu Ferringhi beach resort strip and instead pulled into the Rasa Sayang just in time for afternoon tea while the rain lashed inconsequentially against the wide picture windows overlooking the pool and beach, and we waited until the clouds were spent before motoring slowly back to Georgetown in the early evening.
Lee Tuan has aunties and cousins on Penang and we visited them at the weekend and were welcomed warmly into their homes. On Sunday they took us out to lunch at a great restaurant near the Church Street Pier and then for a drive down south where we ended up again at Bayan Lepas, this time for a sunset dinner at Hai Boey Seafood, an open-air café on the beach overlooking the waters of the Straits of Malacca just a few sandy steps away. A week on Penang passes very quickly.
Penang is a large island of about 300 square kilometres and as well as the expected palm-fringed beaches, it contains a rural and mountainous interior. Until the late 1700s it was ruled by the Sultan of Kedah but following some fancy sweet-talking and scheming by Captain Francis Light representing himself and the British East India Company, it became in 1786 the first British Settlement on the Malay Peninsula. Light dreamed of transforming the island into a major source of spice for the export market and he wasted no time constructing a fort on the northeastern tip of the island, naming it Fort Cornwallis after the Governor-General in Bengal. Migrants from China and India flocked in seeking better lives, and over the following 40 years Penang rose to become a major commercial and colonial administrative centre. In 1800 alone, spice farmers planted 5,000 nutmeg trees and 15,000 clove trees, soon followed by pepper and mace. In 1826 Penang’s principal city Georgetown was proclaimed the capital of the newly established Straits Settlements (incorporating Penang, Melaka and Singapore). But the rapid rise of Singapore heralded Penang’s decline and it became an economic backwater for the next century.
Today Penang is a vibrant part of the Malaysian Federation and a popular destination for local and overseas tourists who find plenty to like about its climate, beaches, food, sights and activities. On our arrival we checked into a hotel in the centre of Georgetown and struck out to explore the old historical core around Fort Cornwallis, which like Melaka, has recently been added to the World Cultural Heritage Register. We walked for about four hours getting increasingly hot and sweaty, but finding plenty of interest, including:
Fort Cornwallis itself with its rusty cannons still pointing purposefully out to sea;
Clock Tower built to commemorate the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign and donated to the city by Penang millionaire Chea Chen Eok;
City Hall completed in 1903 as the seat of the Penang Government;
Penang Town Hall completed in 1880;
Peranakan Mansion, one of the most ornate private homes in Penang, and once the residence of colourful local identity Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee;
Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple on Penang, built in 1883 for early Indian immigrants;
Kapitan Keling Mosque built in the 1800s by Indian muslim traders.
The old part of Georgetown is not a particularly easy place to walk around. Several streets have no footpaths, requiring walkers to share the road with fast-moving motor bikes, cars and trucks, and many of the footpaths that do exist are more like obstacle courses. Heaven help anyone in a wheelchair.
We could have seen a lot more but we’d had enough after four hours of walking in the heat and humidity, and in any case with sunset approaching the looming prospect of a spicy hot fish-head curry stocked with okra, eggplant, chilies and tomatoes and served with steamed rice, sambal belacun and pappadum made pressing on impossible. So we headed back to the hotel, on the way happening to pass the Odeon picture theatre that was operating when Lee Tuan was a girl and is this week screening Bollywood movies.
The following morning after a breakfast of nasi lemak and fruits we set out on a day’s drive around the island. Down south we passed through the district of Bayan Lepas where Lee Tuan was born and where we would have visited her childhood home had it not been demolished years ago to make way for new developments near the Penang International Airport, which is where we arrived last Tuesday on a short flight from Kuala Lumpur. In the afternoon we drove along the north coast headed for the Penang National Park but a looming tropical downpour put paid to any hopes of hiking in there. So we did a U-turn along the Batu Ferringhi beach resort strip and instead pulled into the Rasa Sayang just in time for afternoon tea while the rain lashed inconsequentially against the wide picture windows overlooking the pool and beach, and we waited until the clouds were spent before motoring slowly back to Georgetown in the early evening.
Lee Tuan has aunties and cousins on Penang and we visited them at the weekend and were welcomed warmly into their homes. On Sunday they took us out to lunch at a great restaurant near the Church Street Pier and then for a drive down south where we ended up again at Bayan Lepas, this time for a sunset dinner at Hai Boey Seafood, an open-air café on the beach overlooking the waters of the Straits of Malacca just a few sandy steps away. A week on Penang passes very quickly.
