Penang -- for the second time
by prudence on 04-Jun-2012
Our first visit to Penang was in the year 2000. In fact, it was the very first place we visited in Malaysia.
Well, it's still beautiful. We concentrated on Georgetown this time, which is full of history, architecture, and atmosphere -- and food...
This post does the historic sites. The next post will do the food. Photos from both 2000 and 2012 are here and here (and there are also more links below).
We started by visiting the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. Stained glass, mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture, courtyards, lanterns -- it's all elegant and eye-pleasing. There are particularly fine examples of those wall and roof decorations that are like little tableaux, made of individually polished, carefully placed pieces from broken pots (there feels like there ought to be an allegory there)...
This style of house is full of screens, which I very much like. I like the view through screens -- glimpsed, pieced together, imagined.
And, of course, the mansion has a great story. It's about the poor boy made good. More than good, really. He became one of the richest men in the region, the Rockefeller of Southeast Asia. OK, he married the boss's daughter, which must have helped, but still, not everyone can turn a stroke of benign fortune to such good advantage. You can get your kick-start, but then you have to keep your little vehicle going all by yourself.
His Blue Mansion was a paragon of feng shui -- to the extent that he built a row of small houses opposite to prevent anything bigger coming along and blocking off the energy. (One of those houses contained the place where, last time, we used to go for drinks of an evening -- now closed, it seems.)
Close by are several other former homes of Penang's erstwhile millionaires. There's what is now the Cathay Hotel (where we stayed last time). There's the red house that is now the centre of the Red Garden Food Paradise, a night-time hawker centre. And there's the place that houses The Cocoa Boutique. But I mustn't stray on to food quite yet...
In the cool of the morning, we visited the old cemetery, where mossy tombs -- bearing poignant inscriptions and now leaning giddily -- grow slowly ancient beneath the sweet frangipani. (In fact, all Penang was redolent of frangipani -- frangipani and incense.)
After breakfast, we sauntered through Penang's picturesque, eclectic streets, past mosques and shophouses and temples and the relics of colonial officialdom, to the Khoo Kongsi. Fabulously beautiful. Lanterns, carving, more screens... This place oozes tradition, locality, family bonds. It's everything I'm not, as I break bond after bond, for ever moving on, gathering no moss... These people moved, too, but always within the bonds that united them. It was a prison for many, I'm sure. But such a reassurance. Such a safety net. Such an anchor.
One of the weirdest things about this visit was seeing the custodian driving away the owls that had taken up residence in the beams of the terrace roof. I felt sorry for the owls, pushed out (blinking, I'm sure) into the bright sunlight. I'm not sure whether they're a bad omen, or just unreliable in their toilet habits.
Next on our list, after a long, cool drink, was the Pinang Peranakan Museum. Another symphony of flowers and mirrors -- but unfortunately the camera battery died when we were only just beginning our explorations. These peranakan fashions -- the pinks and greens, the beadwork, the tight, lacy kebayas, the porcelain, the kuih carriers -- are all very familiar now. But always worth seeing. They wash the eyes with images of a serene, gracious, sumptuous way of life. I loved the gold embroidery on its blue-grey silk background...
On our last day, we took in the Penang Museum. So many people groups settled in Penang -- Chinese, Indians, Javanese, Minangkabau, Acehnese, Japanese, Armenians, Arabs, and so many more. We photographed the old bike with the Craven A carrier on the back...
Also memorable were the opium beds, superbly inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Not that you would have cared, I guess...
Georgetown has a heritage-listed core, and a "buffer zone". Beyond that there's as much modern development as anywhere else. We spent our last afternoon at Gurney Plaza, an upmarket mall with gorgeous sea views from the front steps.
People say the heritage bit is touristy now. And true, there are lots of establishments catering for Westerners and their needs. But it's still got what it takes, as far as I'm concerned. It's still got that richness that can only come from a cosmopolitan, tolerant heritage, born of a location that was the crossroads of so many monsoons, so many exchanges.
Here's to next time.
Well, it's still beautiful. We concentrated on Georgetown this time, which is full of history, architecture, and atmosphere -- and food...
This post does the historic sites. The next post will do the food. Photos from both 2000 and 2012 are here and here (and there are also more links below).
We started by visiting the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion. Stained glass, mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture, courtyards, lanterns -- it's all elegant and eye-pleasing. There are particularly fine examples of those wall and roof decorations that are like little tableaux, made of individually polished, carefully placed pieces from broken pots (there feels like there ought to be an allegory there)...
This style of house is full of screens, which I very much like. I like the view through screens -- glimpsed, pieced together, imagined.
And, of course, the mansion has a great story. It's about the poor boy made good. More than good, really. He became one of the richest men in the region, the Rockefeller of Southeast Asia. OK, he married the boss's daughter, which must have helped, but still, not everyone can turn a stroke of benign fortune to such good advantage. You can get your kick-start, but then you have to keep your little vehicle going all by yourself.
His Blue Mansion was a paragon of feng shui -- to the extent that he built a row of small houses opposite to prevent anything bigger coming along and blocking off the energy. (One of those houses contained the place where, last time, we used to go for drinks of an evening -- now closed, it seems.)
Close by are several other former homes of Penang's erstwhile millionaires. There's what is now the Cathay Hotel (where we stayed last time). There's the red house that is now the centre of the Red Garden Food Paradise, a night-time hawker centre. And there's the place that houses The Cocoa Boutique. But I mustn't stray on to food quite yet...
In the cool of the morning, we visited the old cemetery, where mossy tombs -- bearing poignant inscriptions and now leaning giddily -- grow slowly ancient beneath the sweet frangipani. (In fact, all Penang was redolent of frangipani -- frangipani and incense.)
After breakfast, we sauntered through Penang's picturesque, eclectic streets, past mosques and shophouses and temples and the relics of colonial officialdom, to the Khoo Kongsi. Fabulously beautiful. Lanterns, carving, more screens... This place oozes tradition, locality, family bonds. It's everything I'm not, as I break bond after bond, for ever moving on, gathering no moss... These people moved, too, but always within the bonds that united them. It was a prison for many, I'm sure. But such a reassurance. Such a safety net. Such an anchor.
One of the weirdest things about this visit was seeing the custodian driving away the owls that had taken up residence in the beams of the terrace roof. I felt sorry for the owls, pushed out (blinking, I'm sure) into the bright sunlight. I'm not sure whether they're a bad omen, or just unreliable in their toilet habits.
Next on our list, after a long, cool drink, was the Pinang Peranakan Museum. Another symphony of flowers and mirrors -- but unfortunately the camera battery died when we were only just beginning our explorations. These peranakan fashions -- the pinks and greens, the beadwork, the tight, lacy kebayas, the porcelain, the kuih carriers -- are all very familiar now. But always worth seeing. They wash the eyes with images of a serene, gracious, sumptuous way of life. I loved the gold embroidery on its blue-grey silk background...
On our last day, we took in the Penang Museum. So many people groups settled in Penang -- Chinese, Indians, Javanese, Minangkabau, Acehnese, Japanese, Armenians, Arabs, and so many more. We photographed the old bike with the Craven A carrier on the back...
Also memorable were the opium beds, superbly inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Not that you would have cared, I guess...
Georgetown has a heritage-listed core, and a "buffer zone". Beyond that there's as much modern development as anywhere else. We spent our last afternoon at Gurney Plaza, an upmarket mall with gorgeous sea views from the front steps.
People say the heritage bit is touristy now. And true, there are lots of establishments catering for Westerners and their needs. But it's still got what it takes, as far as I'm concerned. It's still got that richness that can only come from a cosmopolitan, tolerant heritage, born of a location that was the crossroads of so many monsoons, so many exchanges.
Here's to next time.