George Town, Penang, Malaysia, Nov 4-7 2011

We spend three days in Penang Island in northern Malaysia on the extended Hari Raya Haji weekend. We plan to do some hiking, not just explore the historic sites and trendy coffee shops of George Town, but because of the constant and occasionally heavy rain on days two and three, we end up doing the latter.

We stay in a lovely bed & breakfast Mango Tree Place located in a 75 years old shophouse. We have the upper floor of the apartment No. 33 pretty much to ourselves.

The lower level of the apartment exhibits Yang Liu's hilarious pillow cover art contrasting western and eastern cultures, featuring...

opinions,

transportation,

queueing,

leadership, and

travel.

The B&B is in a quiet neighborhood on (No. 29) Jalan Phuah Hin Leong.

The shophouses in the area are well kept. Overall, George Town is a tidy town.

Penang also recycles.

A newspaper stall.

A row of old shophouses with new businesses.

Another row of shophouses with new businesses.

siTigun, a coffee shop recently opened by a coffee and bicycle enthusiast.

Efficient air-conditioning.

An alley from Jalan Burma.

A row of shophouses dating back to 1926.

Singapura Budget Hotel. George Town has many businesses named "Singapore this and that", such as medical clinics and child care centers. We are not sure if they are marketed and targeted to Singaporean expats, or just to give an impression that the quality is on Singapore level.

Jalan Burma.

Jalan Penang.

A narrow alley from Lebuh Chulia.

An old bar on Lebuh Chulia.

City Hall, built in 1903.

A seafront promenade "The Esplanade", and the northern coast of Penang.

Fort Cornwallis.

Inland Revenue Department building and a metal sculpture with the shape of a betel nut, 'buah pinang' in Malay, from which the Penang got its name.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, "The Blue Mansion".

Strait of Malacca.

A view from The Esplanade to the northern coast of Penang.

An abandoned school.

Citibank has sponsored this pedestrian bridge over Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah that directly leads to its local branch.

Banana leaf set lunch in Passions of Kerala.

Penang Times Square shopping mall.

Paris Hotel in downtown George Town.

A hydrant with lopping arms we find so funny.

On our second morning we head out to Penang Botanic Gardens. It rained heavily in the morning, so we skip the long run that we also planned for this weekend.

Gurney Drive, a 2-kilometer coastal road, is lined by upmarket highrise condos, local restaurants and cafeterias, and Gurney Plaza shopping mall.

The tide is low. The beach by Gurney Drive is not sandy, but either rocky or muddy.

Penang Botanic Gardens (better known as Waterfall Gardens), is very lush. It is muggy there, and it starts raining again when we get there.

There are a bunch of long-tail macaques at the park entrance. People feed them with salty and fatty snacks, even if there are clear signs asking them not to and reminding that they would be subject to a fine (apparently no one enforces this)

We climb to the waterfall.

Even if it is crowded at the park entrance, it is quiet and peaceful up the hill by the falls.

We drop the plan to climb up to the Penang Hill, since the rain gets heavier.

We seek for shelter from the torrential downpour that lasts quite some time.

The nearby stream is already up to its limits.

The rain does not stop but lessens a bit, so we continue walking, hoping we can catch a bus or a taxi.

Soon we need to find another cover.

The clouds are hanging really low; we are happy we abandoned the plan to trek to Penang Hill.

The fancy steel sculpture sponsored by IJM Bhd in the center of a roundabout marks the west end of Gurney Drive.

We are back on Gurney Drive and we stop at OverTime for some local Starker beer and a light lunch.

It is raining again.

The lounge chairs in OverTime are super comfy.

Human milk?

Our third day in Penang also starts with heavy rain, so we skip the morning run again. We are offered a ride to the historic/downtown district so we visit Pinang Peranakan Mansion, "The Peppermint Green Mansion". The mansion is quite eclectic.

Floor tiles from Europe.

Family portraits and a television.

A bit more run down mansion.

After visiting the mansion we head to Tanjong City Marina, but don't find anything interesting there. Later we realize that the fisherman jetties are located more south.

We end up at the bus interchange, and plan to take a bus up to Bukit Bendera (Penang Hill) funicular station. For 30 minutes we wait for the bus 204 that is supposed to run every 15 minutes. Then we give up and take a taxi. The taxi costs us RM25, whereas the bus would have been just RM4 for two of us.

We spend quite a while among the local holiday crowd queueing for tickets, and then the second time for the train, but all of it is not worth it. Even if it i relatively clear, although steamy, down at the bottom of the hill, it is foggy at the top. It also starts raining. We don't stay long.

Just long enough to snap a couple of black and white pictures.

Hindu temple on Penang Hill.

A children playground color coordinated with the temple.

The only glimpse we got of the city when coming down from the hill.