When I decided to visit Penang during my mini tour of Malaysia, specifically the historic city-center of George Town, I knew that it was a culturally-interesting city with lots of great food and cool street art, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how much it would worm it’s way into my heart. I do have to say that upon arrival, I remembered what SE Asia is really like – a week in squeaky-clean Singapore had made me forget chaotic and dirty streets that are so often found in that part of the world. That said, after my quick two days here – that’s not what I’ll remember about it. I’ll remember the charmingly-distressed shop houses, the endless amounts of delicious food, and the happy mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay cultures that makes this city such a great place to visit.
Where to Stay: I’ll admit that I may have erred a little in my choice. You see, there is a specific UNESCO protected area right in the North East corner of town, and I elected to stay in a cute little guest house just outside of this area to the south (called Noordin Street House). This meant that I had a bit of walk before I got to the most friendly part of town (nothing far, it’s a small city after all – but why walk 15 minutes if you don’t have to?). There are a few “modern” high rise hotels even in the protected area, and there is of course the “grand dame” of hotels on the water right up at the north end of town – the Eastern & Oriental hotel (or “E&O”). This hotel was started by the same family that started the famous Raffles hotel down in Singapore, along with a few other hotels in the peninsula, and while it is grand in its own way, I didn’t want to splurge & had heard a less than glowing review. You see, Penang is FULL of cute little boutique guesthouse style options that I wanted to try, and I went with one of the less expensive ones. It was charming, but right down & around the corner from the E&O were two awesome-looking choices that I wish I’d booked! There are a handful of rooms INSIDE the “Blue Mansion”, which is a neat restored mansion from a Chinese businessman which is now a museum, but the guest rooms are tucked away around beautiful side courtyards. Also in this same vicinity was “The Edison”, which I didn’t actually get the chance to go into – but it was so lovely from the outside I stole a photo. To me, after wandering the streets, one of those two would be the nicest choices, though there are other even smaller places in restored shop houses right in the heart of old town (like Hotel Reunion, which I grabbed a shot of as an example for you).
What to Eat: Honestly – I spent most of my time eating here. I took not only an awesome cooking class, but also a fabulous walking & eating tour. There are lots of options for both of these – but you may want to plan ahead when booking, just to make sure there’s either room for you or that the activity is running that day (depending on when you’re visiting). For reference, I took my class with Nazlina, who was fun, friendly, and flexible, and then my food tour was with Simply Enak, who was nice enough to take just me for a discounted rate. (I was not visiting in high season, and booked both extremely last minute.) Even if you’re not being guided, you can hardly go wrong. There are open air food halls (hawker centers) dotted all over town, food carts on corners, and yes even restaurants (with air conditioning) that range from trendy to basic & traditional – and every single thing I ate was delicious. The Indian food ranges from southern to northern fare, so you can find everything from dossas to rich & creamy curries. The Indian food I had did tend to be more spicy than others, but you can request less spicy dishes with no problem – and I’m a wimp, so if I could take it – so can you. The Chinese food is nothing like what we in the US call Chinese, other than perhaps certain noodle dishes. The Hokkien Chinese style is very popular here (think noodle soups with shrimp & coconut milk, or steamed chicken & rice for example), but the Peranakan style food was my preference. See – “Peranakan” is a mix of local Malay with either Chinese or Indian influences, so you get sort of the best of both worlds. Nasi Kandar, for example, is a typical local dish that originated with the Muslim Indian immigrants who would sell rice (“Nasi”) from pots at the end of poles (“Kandar”). So it’s an Indian rice curry dish, but with local spices & flavors. The curries I made in my class were sort of like three different versions of this idea, minus the rice: one with fresh local fruit – pineapple in our case; one with beef; and one with only veggies. All had the same base curry powder, but then other spices & ingredients completely changed the flavors – delicious. Another big popular dish in town is “Char Kway Teow”, which is basically just a stir fry of flat noodles, shrimp, Chinese sausage, and veggies – but is another fascinating mix of Chinese and Malay. I could go on & on, but I’m not an expert – so I’ll just leave you with a bunch of photos of some of the dishes I tried (sometimes in mid-eat, sorry!).
What to do: Besides eating (which, honestly, may take up the bulk of your time if you couldn’t tell by the above), there are sort of three main themes for filling your time in Penang: temples, architecture/housing, & street art. Temples can be broken down a few ways – there are lots of various places of worship (from mosques to Buddist/Taoist/Confucian temples, to Hindu temples – and even a Christian church!) but there are also Chinese “clan houses” which often have temples attached. These are basically community centers that grew up as the number of Chinese immigrants grew. If you were new to town, you’d go to the clan house from your region back home, or even to your own cousin/uncle/distantly related family member who had originally immigrated over, and at the clan house you could worship, get a job, hang out with other members of your family, etc. These eventually got really powerful, and were almost akin to a gang, as their influence & activities were maybe not always legal. And rivalries between these clans could get fierce as well – so having the biggest & best clan house was important. I was even shown secret “escape” exits from the one I visited (which actually had a group of men playing a sort of hackey-sack game in the courtyard, so they still function!). Here are a bunch of shots from around town of the different places of worship.
“Housing” is my general bucket for the shophouses, jetty living, and mansions you might want to take the time to visit. First up- the mansions. The aforementioned Blue Mansion is located over by the E&O hotel, and is interesting mostly for it’s personal history. The business magnate who built it (for I think wife #7 – his favorite of course), was quite a bit of a character (involved heavily both with the last Emperor of China AND Chiang Kai-Sheck & the revolution). He also built housing across the street for all of his servants (or a doghouse for wives who were out of favor). Another thing he did was to provide funds for the house to be maintained until his last son died. PROBLEM: He died when his last son was super young, and then that son lived super, super long, and the money ran out, big time (inflation & such). They had tons of squatters living in the building, and it was pretty well trashed and almost lost to developers, but somehow was saved & then meticulously restored to something resembling its former glory. The museum part really only entails the entry hall, the main courtyard, and then a few rooms with a few artifacts, which is why I think staying there would be more interesting than just doing the tour. The other mansion of note in town is the Pinang Peranankan Mansion, which is right in the heart of old town and looks very much like it might have looked in its heyday. Caution – you can wander the house & read the informative placards on your own, but they may make you take a guided tour which will include as well the neighboring ancestor’s temple AND the jewelry & costume “museum”. I stuck with the guide the whole way through, because I thought all the Peranakan handicrafts and traditions were interesting, but the majority of people in my tour bailed once the house tour was done. I will say this tour does a much less thorough job about the history of the ownership – I still am not clear if one family owned it for forever & all the furniture & décor is original, or if was also re-done & restored at some point. In any case- an interesting house to tour, if you need some time to digest your food. If you’re not big on tours or museums, you can also just wander the streets & wonder at all the amazing shop houses around town in various states of refurbishment. You also probably want to explore at least one of the jetties along the eastern coast of town (but go during high tide if you can manage it for prettier pictures!). These are the floating stilt houses that were built up to house a lot of the Chinese immigrants back when the port was thriving. All of the jetties have a little temple out at the end, and the living is basic, but charming. (For example – I ran across a house-sized kenel that housed a bunch of French Bulldogs – AS PETS, I was careful to make sure of.) Whether on the docks or in town, the architecture in this town is just cool, even if some of it may be falling down a bit.
The final thing you can’t miss when you visit Penang is the street art. I am not sure if it is a chicken/egg situation or not, but the Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic was commissioned to create works here in 2012, and now has some particularly famous pieces that have inspired copy cats not only in town, but also around the world. The town really embraced what he’s done, so there are “graffiti” wall-art examples all over – used as signage, advertisement, or of course just for the sake of the art. I particularly appreciated the government funded iron works set up periodically around town that included informative captions about different pieces of George Town’s history – much more visually interesting than a plain old plaque. You can take walking tours to catch all the art, but the most famous pieces were marked on both of the maps I saw, and you can also generally see a small crowd of people gathered on the street taking photos as well. I loved just generally stumbling upon interesting pieces where you least expect them, like one that’s been overtaken by a new air conditioning unit (or dumpster)!!
Hopefully this is a good primer that encourages you to include Penang. It’s really on the way from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur and/or Singapore, or of course an easy hour flight away from most major cities in Southeast Asia. It may be small and a bit messy at first glance, but the many tastes & sights more than make up for it!