Spice Island

Penang, the heart of the 'Melaka' Straight and the Chinese, Indian, British spice trade. With a population 59% Chinese, 37% Malay and the remainder Hindu Indian the array of temples, foods, and garments is simply exotic.
We rented a motorbike with which to tour the island and visit a fruit farm on the remote western coast. We sampled a plate of fruits and drank shakes under the canopy.
Most of the island surrounding Georgetown is rife with high-rise resorts and they are still building. As the port declines in importance, tourism, especially medical tourism, is heavily promoted.
The main mosque is astoundingly beautiful, set just between Little India and Chinatown. The Malaysian government strongly asserts the peaceful coexistence of Islam, Hindu, Christian, and Confucian people. Each group seems to retain strong cultural ties with their native countries but they all speak Malaysian.

An example of a Chinese temple.
The most common temple in Georgetown is the Confucian temple and this evening we witnessed their offerings: as dusk falls each house acquires folded joss paper which they pile in the street with fruits and incense and burn to a small pile of ash.
We ate all our meals at the Hindu vegetarian restaurants. They serve a banana leaf lunch with piles of curries and rices but for dinner we indulged in dosas: papery and crisp lentil rice pancakes, dipped in simmered sauces. We also bought ourselves incense and dosa mix at an Indian store to experiment at home.

Tourists appeared to enjoy seeing the city by 'tricycle.' Ubiquitous in the poorer and hectic cities of Java, this old form of transport made its first Malaysian appearance in the narrow and timeless streets of Georgetown. Posh little numbers.
Many of the buildings appear derelict and retain their original fronts complete with wooden shutters. A few have been burned or deserted but we think that the majority are still inhabited.


After scooting around the city, climbing the lighthouse and fort ramparts and zigging our way through alleys, we finally found the house where Sun Yat Sen in 1909-1911 planned his Chinese Revolution.