 |
|
|
 add to Travel Bag (NEW)
From a tourist map, the island of Penang looks somewhat like a mink's pelt. Georgetown, its capital, sits roughly on the right arm of the skin, while the site of the Muka Head Lighthouse on the left signaled its strategic appeal when the British East India Company came calling two centuries ago. Somewhere near the head lies a cluster of good beaches that lends Penang the euphemism of a resort island. Penang Hill sits at the centre, near where the animal's heart might have been, while the figurative legs are hosts to an international airport and the Batu Maung Fishing Village. Across the straits, Seberang Perai (formerly Province Wellesley), the other territorial half of the Penang State, is linked by ferry and the Penang Bridge.
Georgetown—Authentic Replica of the Past
Georgetown remains as ruggedly antique as its kingly name suggests. Indeed, it is rare we find a city that so authentically retraces the colonialists' footsteps, and the trading diaspora that chased the prosperous heels of the British Empire. As noted by the Penang Heritage Trust, "a few" first-generation brick buildings (1790-1830) exist in the old historic core, while "the majority of its 10,000 heritage buildings span the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries".
The rarity starts at Fort Cornwallis, the very spot where Captain Francis Light first set foot on 16 July 1786 and hastily set up a wooden fort. Rebuilt later with convict labor, other modern-day touristy supplements—a history gallery and a souvenir shop--within the fort have become as much its guardians as the Seri Rambai Cannon, hyped for its mystified salvage off Penang's shore. The empire's architectural tastes survive splendidly in the Town Hall, City Hall and the State Legislative Building, further anglicized by the green grass field of (Padang Kota Lama), a trademark of British colonial capitals that now hosts local sports and events, but not cricket. Do sybaritic colonial ghosts still linger in the presence of such a stubborn relic of the imperialistic zenith in the presence of the Diamond Jubilee Clock Tower?
Lebuh Pantai—Central Business District
More colonial legacies line one of Penang's oldest streets, Lebuh Pantai. It holds the centre of a modern business district congested by a milieu of moneylenders and petty traders. The waterfront is the site of Frank Swettenham Pier, a narrow alley, and the ferry terminal where yellow lumbering ferries preserve a lingering and endearing frame of life--crossing the Penang Straits. Close by, Kampung Ayer is a village on stilts, home to several generations of harbor workers and their families.
Chinatown and KOMTAR
The stuff that truly made Penang begins in an amalgam of cramped, narrow, bristling thoroughfares. Godowns and two-storey shop-houses built Penang. Most still stand nonchalantly about as going concerns, a colourful fabric of russet roofs and crusted stuccos viewed from the raised panorama of the KOMTAR, an aesthetic directional marker--and nothing on the island stands as garishly tall. The shop fronts are unmistakably Straits Chinese with lettered colonnades, colourful awnings, treasured delicacies and herbal roots. Chinatown does not lack intricate architectural adornments as exemplified by the Khoo Kongsi clan house and the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion.
Pitt Street--Enclave of Religious Harmony
Within the borders of Georgetown lie several notable religious monuments of diverse faiths. Pitt Street may have been renamed Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, but the town planners' idea of a "street of harmony" won the day. For more than a century, through good and bad times, the Taoist Goddess of Mercy Temple, the Hindu Maha Mariamman Temple, the Muslim Kapitan Keling Mosque and the Acheen Street Mosque have been close neighbors.
Little India, Gurney Drive and the Suburbs
Indian and Chetty moneychangers, Singhalese silverware and lace vendors, and the "Bombay merchants" have their own corner. They present an experience of sights, smells and sounds straddling a few streets around Lebuh Pasar, commonly called Little India, where saris, garlands, trinkets, sculptures, Indian music and curries abound.
West of Jalan Penang hides an enclave of stylish mansions — Millionaire's Row. Gurney Drive, where swimming once provided a pleasant beach pursuit, made way to modern cafes and bars serving the needs of a new age, high-rise condominiums, land reclamation and illegal, night-time bike racing. Pulau Tikus, nonetheless, hosts a lively wine-and-dine scene.
History and culture rule everywhere you turn and there is "always something there to remind us" of "the way we were". St George's Anglican Church, the Penang Museum and the Heritage Centre at Syed Alatas Mansion offer reminders of the past.
Northern Beaches and Batu Ferringhi
Batu Ferringhi three-kilometre beachfront is packed cheek-by-jowl with world-class hotels and eateries along with a nocturnal clutch of trinket stalls, tailors, street hawkers and rowdy bars. Several Other Beaches of North Coast such as Teluk Bahang Beach, Teluk Duyung, Monkey Beach, Pantai Kerachut and Pantai Mas prove progressively better and less crowded when heading west.
Penang Hill and Air Itam--Precious Patches of Green
A series of hills rise up towards the island's centre and the highest of these, Penang Hill, comes in at 821 metres above sea level. At its foothills lie the Botanical Gardens and the Air Itam Dam. The Kek Lok Si Temple provides an imposing spectacle when approaching the Air Itam district from downtown, befitting its name the "Million Buddhas Precious Pagoda".
Seberang Perai—Rapid Urbanisation
Across the Penang Straits lies, Butterworth Town, still the ferry link to Georgetown, where you can visit Penang Bird Park, Snow Land, and the
Bukit Mertajam Recreational Forest. These areas house several mega shopping malls and rumbling industrial parks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Penang Hotels Guide
Company Info | About Wcities | Services | Contact Us | Careers
Copyright © 1999-2008 wcities.com all rights reserved
|
|
| |
|
Travel Bag
Interested in writing content for Wcities?