Penang, Chinese New Year 2019

Planning couple of days for a short getaway would be perfect to spend in Penang, especially celebration of Chinese new year was still fresh in those period of time. So, off we went to the pulau Pinang one day after Chinese new year. Arrived around 10 am, we went to kedai mamak and had some breakfast. Roti canai and their ice tea already in my mind for days. Their ice tea is different from Indonesian ice tea which is plain tea with ice can be with sugar or not. Theirs, is served with milk and the tea is a darker and sweet. Just lovely!

Our friend, local Malaysian, recommend an afternoon tea at Suffolk House in Air Itam. I always fond of old / antique building, and was thrilled knowing that Suffolk House was built between 1808 and 1811 with Georgian architecture. So, we went there! The place was very nice, located in a large land that was once a pepper estate. In front of the house, you can see the Suffolk Estate Bridge across the Air Itam river. Air Itam (‘Air Hitam’ means black water) got its name from the murky waters of the Air Itam river.

The entrance was filled with hanging red lantern, a decor for the Chinese New Year celebration.

A more subtle interior. Very elegant.

They were serving a delicious afternoon tea set. The scone, jam and cream, the cookies, those tasty chicken pie. And the coffee is good! We're happy! They're also serving with warm hospitality. If I'm coming back to Penang, an afternoon tea at Suffolk House must be included!

A little historical background, Suffolk House was built on a pepper estate, Suffolk estate. The estate was built and owned by Captain Francis Light (†1794). In 1805, William Edward Phillips, an army administrative officer, bought the Suffolk estate and build the Suffolk House.
I think an afternoon tea at Suffolk House is a lovely way to start your adventure in Penang.

While driving around, in Georgetown and through the Gurney Drive, we make a stop at Gurney Paragon mall. Admiring another colonial building located right in the middle of the commercial area. It is the centerpiece of the mall building. The heritage building is St. Joseph’s Novitiate, a two-storey structure built in 1925. It was a training college (seminaries), so on the upper floor was a chapel with beautiful stained-glass window. In the 1980’s and early of year 2000s had been used for schools. Finally, St. Jo’s building become a centerpiece of Gurney Paragon mall.

The capital city of Penang is George Town and as the first place of British settlement in Southeast Asia, George Town established in 1786 by Francis Light with the British East India Company. The historical site of George Town has been preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. It’s very interesting to walk around George Town, especially during the Chinese new year celebration. There are plenty small temples around the city, and each of them were decor with red lantern. In fact almost every street were decor with hanging lantern. It was very festive. Not mentioning the old well-preserved buildings just added the charm of the city.

Georgetown have a uniqueness, they have street art ; mural paintings and iron work caricatures all over the place. Some of them become tourist's favorites, you can see tourists were lining up, putting a long queue just to have a selfie or picture with the wall art. Local souvenir like fridge magnet also make the replica of the murals. The iron work, using steel rod, is a caricatures of local cartoonists, placed in selected streets in George Town to brought up its history in an easy way for tourist or visitor to grasped.

Whenever I travel, I’ll try to drop by at local bookshop from a fancy one (usually big company located in a mall) until the indie type of bookshop. Indie or independent bookshops are more interesting, especially when they have rare books. First, we visited Book Xcess bookstore in the Gurney Paragon mall. A big store, two-levels with floor-to-ceiling book rack which, apparently, become an impromptu ‘selfie studio’ of so many young visitors. I just learnt that Malaysian government have tax exemption for buying books (print materials). That’s nice.. would help people in education or raise people’s interest in reading.
Then we visited Gerak Budaya and Hikayat bookshop. Gerak Budaya in jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, an indie bookshop and sister company with Hikayat bookshop in Beach street. Both are in George Town. Gerak Budaya sells more fiction and poetry. In Hikayat, I found the rare books. Yaaayy...!

Pinang Peranakan Mansion

A green house with gorgeous iron work of the gate and a small temple on the side of the house on Church street looks stand out from other houses. Rumah Agam Peranakan Pulau Pinang or Pinang Peranakan Mansion is a museum of peranakan heritage. Peranakan means Baba and Nyonya, Baba is a Chinese man from mainland as the husband and married the local Malay, also known as the Nyonya. It is an acculturation from the original Chinese culture that adopted local Malay ways and the British colonial lifestyle. These influenced its rich culture, customs, cuisine, language and lifestyle that are still evident in Penang today. The mansion was built at the end of 19th century, owned by the Kapitan Cina, Chung Keng Kwee.

If you’re passing by Church street and look to the house, you can see a small temple attached on the side of the house. That would be the Chung ancestral temple. Connected with the house through a hidden passage between the two buildings. The temple was built in 1899 for ancestral worship. They let bats nesting there on the ceiling. They believes, bats bring good luck. You can see they carved a bat face on the chair.

The Kitchen. Inside the kitchen, they have their own pharmacy. Due to the old days, as the Kapitan was a very important man ruling business, mafia, many people tried to poison him. So, he have his own pharmacy for his own and family’s health.

The mansion is a typical wealthy Baba house in eclectic style incorporating Chinese carved wooden panels, English floor tiles and Scottish ironworks.

This may look like a glass cabinet but actually a big music box that plays 1 song only. "It's an Mp1", joke the tour guide.

Coffee shop.
As coffee aficionado, of course I’ve got to try the coffee shops. I must say, we had no trouble at all to find good coffees. We visited Gayo coffee just across the street from Hikayat bookshop. Their dessert (cakes and pastry) also delicious. And serves with a smile. I felt their warm hospitality inside the coffee shop balancing the cold raining weather outside that afternoon

Another day, our friend took us to this coffee shop in jalan Gurdwara in George Town. It is a very unique place. The place was once a bus depot, turned it into a coffee shop on the front side. And because the place is very big, the side of coffee shop is a small gallery that are use for a bazaar in the weekend, and if you go further through the coffee shop into the spacious garden on the back, you can see art installation, a skateboard park, mural painting which all of them are amazing, and on the farthest back, there’s another restaurant I think. The place is quite big. Ow.. almost forgot, the name of the coffee shop is Bricklin Bar Cafe. The coffee is good and do try the brownie, don’t bother to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the brownie itself was already super delicious!

Penang Esplanade / Padang Kota Lama.
Is the waterfront area and large green field located in the north-eastern tip of Georgetown. On the side of the field are two grand old buildings of the City Hall (white building) and the Town Hall (yellow building). And the North side of the green field is the waterfront walkway following the coastline from the edge of Fort Cornwallis, to the Esplanade Food Court as you walk away from the Fort.

In the middle of the heat of noon time, we went to the Esplanade Food Court for lunch. When the locals point direction where to eat even its not very touristy, we listen! When you go travel, you need to blend with the locals. Learn their culture, their history, try local delicacies. We ordered kway teow and rice with assortment of side dishes, they all yummy! The bomb was.. this coconut-shake. It’s like a milkshake of vanilla, but using coconut water instead of milk. It is sooooo nice! Cool down the temperature while the heat that noon was causing a bit of a headache. Highly recommended to eat there and drink the coconut-shake. A tip, to avoid a long queue of lunch time, come at early or later hours.

Chew Jetty
If you go along side of the coastline, to the East side and to the South, you will find the fishing village clan jetties of Penang. There were so many jetties, you could pick one to explore. we chose Chew's Jetty. You’ll experiencing walking on a narrow aisle on a wooden board on stilts over sea water, passing by traditional village of rustic houses, some of them are turned into eateries and souvenir shops. At the end of the path is the dock with beautiful view of the sea

Gudang cafe.
Walking around Georgetown cannot be finished in one day. Even I haven’t seen all the places there after several days. So, in one of those exploring days, I passed this abandoned-look building, but people coming in and out through a front door. Out of my curiosity, I followed the last person got in, and.. who would’ve thought to find something like this inside the old building. It was like finding an oasis in the middle of sahara. A cool place to chill avoiding the sun heat for an hour or two. To another of my surprise, they have unaju in their menu. Oh this is a cool place! One thing that I regret is I haven’t try their coffee yet. I was already full with the yummy unaju.

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Nurul Ikan Bakar, Gelugor.

Nurul Ikan Bakar, Gelugor.
Once again, we have to thanked our friend, local Malaysian, who brought us to this seafood heaven. The place is big with many seafood restaurants. You need to know which one is good. And Nurul Ikan Bakar is good! I know I haven’t try other restaurants for comparison, but let me tell you.. when other restaurants are only have few visitors almost empty and only this one is full with customers, what do you think?! Regardless of the number of visitors, all the menu we ordered were delicious no exception; the clam, the crab, fish, shrimp, also the stir-fry vegetable. The area of this seafood is in Gelugor, you go to the South direction after the Jetty. I took the picture (above) after we're done eating, and it was around 9 pm. So there were not as many people around at that time. Not as many as when we arrived.

Always nice to go to the suburb and see more trees. We just try our luck to see some hot air balloon in Padang Polo.

Yes we know the sun is right above our head, and without checking schedules of the event : Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2019, we just went there. Hoping to see some cool hot air balloon and perhaps could ride on it also. But no luck.. The hot air balloon were up at early in the morning and in the afternoon. Of course. Back to Georgetown then..

Edison Hotel, Georgetown.

Across the street of Cheong Fat Tze’s Blue House, you will spot a pretty well-preserved antique house / mansion. I was passing by, Lebuh Leith (the name of a street) in Georgetown, and cannot resist to enter this building. It turn out to be a boutique hotel, called The Edison. The antique building have quite interesting story before it became The Edison. It has been used several times as hotels, but also once turned this beauty into a gambling place, and in between changing usage, it has turned into brothel house. A hotel staff was in charge to bring visitor for a tour around the hotel and explain these exciting historical background of the building. I think it was a nice touch to make people attached with the place. The building was built in 1906 as a residence for a Hakka tycoon named Yeo Wee Gark.

In 2012 we visited Penang and coincidentally took a picture of the building where the Edison Hotel is now. A nice change.

Hardwicke House

When you’re driving from Gurney drive to the East (to Padang Kota Lama direction), you will pass a restaurant with beautiful two storey white heritage building. It’s called Hardwicke House. Located on the junction of Pangkor road and jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, side-by-side with Gleneagle Hospital (famous to many Indonesian people), we went for a lunch. The food and the service was just as nice as the interior of the restored antique building. Managed by Vouk Hotel Suites who located next door on the same area.

Halab. On our last day in Penang, we managed to have lunch here at Halab, Syrian food. A pretty white colonial building with green windows. I love the interior with the brick exposure wall, add some rustic ambiance. A bit spoil, just because they don’t have good simple brew coffee.

I must say, Penang has improved a lot. Comparing my visit to Penang in 2012 and recently, 2019, a lot of historical building been restored and they add to the beauty of the city. And more good coffee shop to find! The food, from street food, simple kedai mamak, until a fancy restaurant, they are all good! No wonder people say that Penang is best for its culinary tour. (Plus if you know local people. If I may add!) The strange thing is.. if you order mineral water in eateries, mostly they don’t have it. But don’t worry, they’ll give you water for free so it’s not a problem. Just not in a bottle packaging.
Always been a lovely experience everytime we visit Penang, only because our dear friend has welcomed us warmly. Thank you for your excellent hospitality, Ms. Khairul. We wish we could extend the vacation but Shraya Residence already calling for some work. Hahaha.. Terima kasih. Sampai jumpa. SK.

Below are more pictures of Penang