Day 6 - Walking around George Town, Penang

Today we walked around George Town, Penang. It is so named because when Francis Light arrived to colonise Penang, he named the island "Prince of Wales Island" and then had to name something after the king so that he wouldn't get jealous.

We saw some amazing things. Khoo Kongsi (a Chinese clan house), Fort Cornwallis, the Penange State Museum, and a massive reclining Buddha.

First stop was Khoo Kongsi. Kongsi means clan house and this one belonged to the Khoo family. The clans were established to look after people who had come from the same village in China. There are several Kongsi around Penang but this is the most spectactular and

has been expertly refurbished so it is full of bright colours as well as copious amounts of gold leaf and intricate detail.

It is hard to describe how beautiful and colourful it was. Also, it seems incongruous, walking through the narrow, crowded and dirty streets of Penang and suddenly coming across these gorgeous buildings.

There is the main temple and smaller shrines on either sides. The clan would give its members some financial help when they went off to university, and in each shrine, there are plaques to honour all their successful graduands with the person's name and degree.

When we were in one of these shrines, there was a Chinese couple there and I had an (almost) irrestible urge to ask if they belonged to this Kongsi. I resisted by reminding myself that (a) there are a lot of Chinese people and they're not all related and (b) it would be awkward to ask "Are you from the Khoo Clan?"

Anyway, the Chinese man then volunteered that he was, in fact, a Khoo from Kuala Lumpur, and that he was here to check whether they'd put his plaque up. I guess this proves that (a) at least some Chinese people are related, and (b) I save my tact for entirely the wrong situations.

Here are some pictures of us on the front verandah of the temple. The pillars we are standing with are each carved entirely from one piece of stone. Matt was pretty impressed with this.

We left the cool breezes of the temple and Fort Cornwallis was set up by the British in the 1780s when they arrived in Penang. We did a lap of the fort and then got ice creams :)

The displays were quite well done. They had turned the quarters into a series of display rooms setting out the history of the site.

The Penang State Museum sadly (but a little mercifully) did not allow photos, but it did set straight on the history of Penang.

Before the museum, we had tried to work out a basic chronology of the different ethnicities arriving in Penang. While at the museum, we learned that our conversation had included many inaccuracies. Here's an idea of how the conversation went (not naming any names).

"Why did the British colonise Penang when it had already been pretty well colonised by the Indians, Chinese and Malays?" (Turns out it was much more complex than this.)

"They can't have minded the colonisation too much - they put up that clocktower to Queen Elizabeth." (It was for Queen Victoria.)

"That clocktower definitely would have been put up by the colonists, not the locals." (Again untrue; it was paid for by a local Chinese man.)

"It must have been for Elizabeth I because it's too early for Elizabeth II." (See above.)

"When was Elizabeth I around?"

"I think it went Elizabeth I, Victoria, George, Elizabeth II." (It didn't.)

So, the Museum was educative to say the least. Here's a photo from the Minimoto championship that was taking place outside the town hall and a photo of markets.

Next stop was the Reclining Buddha at Wat Chayamangkalaram. It was quite spectacular (and large). The building around it is new and the walls are covered with blue and gold tiles of Buddha. All around the Reclining Buddha are other Buddha statues which you can pray to for certain qualities.

Across the road was this standing Buddha, who is less famous but I think deserves points for going to the effort of standing up. He's also surrounded by some seated Buddhas like the one above. Half points to him.

We had a swim in the hotel pool and then headed down to Nagore Street which has a row of Chinese restaurants. Behind Matt in this photo, young people were gathered around tables where they seemed to be cooking in pans in the middle of the table. It looked like fun.

We were headed to Nyonya Baba Cuisine. Nyonya Babe is the name of Chinese people whose ancestors came to Penang several hundred years ago and who have adopted some Malay customs and intermarried with the Malay people.

Luckily for us, this fusion leads to some great tasting food. I found it to be like Chinese but fresher and fruitier. This restaurant is family-owned and they stick to the traditional recipes. They're also very much into their marinades, includng lime juice and tamarind paste. Mmm.

It was such a big day that I watched HBO instead of finishing the blog, so it's a few days late. I'll try to get up to date tonight.