Amazing Georgetown City - A Gem of it's Own

Journal Entry 224

Another delay post from your's truly again. With a trip last month and with some holiday breaks in btw,  the momentum just slowed down. 

Well, it is Georgetown Festival again !! The whole month of August is now being dedicated to a full month of art festivals. This festival was initiated 4 yrs back to mark Georgetown's listing as a Unesco World heritage site. Indeed, I am glad to see that the city is slowly evolving into an old colonial city within a modern urbanscape. Very very PROUD of my beautiful state - no doubt a small island but it is definitely beautiful & unique in it's own way.  

Having said that, being a Penangite - we get the luxury of doing a little Penang tour as and when needed. With the mixed of both continental, local hawker food and fusion cafes opening up like nobody's business, we would try to go for heritage walks whenever we can. Well, my 1st heritage walk - sad to say only started this yr when we decided to show one of hub's colleague to my lovely city. 

So, off we went on a beautiful Saturday morning, picked the guest up & went straight to Beach street. Decided to park our car there so that we can start our journey around the heritage area. 1st stop : Nasi lemak at Sri Weld Food Court . The climax is it's best chili gravy and hot nasi kukus. Yummy !! Sorry, no photo :(. Done with that, we went down south (I think) to Bishop Street and reached Goh Kaki. Unfortunately, it was closed at that time but we managed to visit it during our visit to Bon Odori. Went there for supper instead. We called the rice ball and milk nutmeg for a try. Verdict : Something rare & unusual :)

Milk Nutmeg

Rice Ball - Japanese Salmon and etc etc

We continued our journey under the scorching sun and walked our way thru to Little India Penang which was located at Market Street, King and Queen Street. Well, once you are in Little India, you can hear traditional Indian music playing. Apart from interesting fashion Indian stores, there are multiple shops selling delicious Indian culinary. Roti Canai, Thosai and Vadai - among my fav !!  We passed thru it and proceed to Kuan Yin Teng Temple where our guest had a tour around the place. Well, they have closed up the area leading to the altar, so it was not so authentic as it used to be :(.

A temple along our walk to Little India

Welded Iron Wall Caricatures 

Done with that, we met up with another friend at the Cathedral of the Assumption which is also one of the oldest Church in Penang. Hub's colleagues went in the church whereas we stayed outside. We continued to walk and and in no time reached the Penang State Museum and Art Gallery which we skipped as time was a factor. We were then at Farquhar Street. Since, it was still early for the Cheong Fatt Tze tour, we changed our route to Love Lane. I still remember making my concert dress when I was a little girl at one of the shops.

The ladies bought some souvenirs from one of the shops and as Behind 50 was also closed at that time, we then decided to move to Chulia Street, one of the oldest streets in Georgetown. Today, it is now the center of budget hotels for tourist alike. Also, many nice cafes are also growing and one of it will be The Mugshot where they served bagel sandwiches and freshly brewed coffee. Pretty packed when we passed by the place.

At the Mugshot

One of the Street Art Soo Hong Lane

With that done, we turned back to Soo Hong lane and pass thru it to get to Armenian Street where the famous artwork of Ernest Zacharevic's Two Children on a bicycle was located. Well, it was really hot when we reached there so, we took some quick snapshots of the place and proceed to China House for lunch. Ordered the Bento set with carrot cake  ( I think).

With lunch taken, we walked back to the Blue Mansion which was located at Leith Street. The tour started just in time we walked in. In fact,  we visited the place seven yrs back and surprisingly, the place still looks the same ~ just that more of the rooms had been converted to hotel rooms. Such a pity.  

We ended our tour around 4pm as hubby's colleague had to catch a flight at around 6pm. No doubt it was a tiring day but we enjoyed the sightseeing we did in beautiful Georgetown. The city of Georgetown definitely lives up to it's name - as how UNESCO describes George Town  - A unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia. 


A city worth a glimpse - an opportunity not to be missed whenever you are in Penang !!