After relaxing for the first week, it was time to explore famous George Town.
The Clan Jetties
We took a Grab early in the morning to Lee Jetty, one of the old clan jetties. At the entrance was a small temple, probably the nicest building there. It looked quite modern and well cared for, with fresh paint and decorative carvings.
Beyond it, a narrow alley led to old wooden houses built on stilts over the water.
Most were run down, with the fronts painted but the wooden walls on the sides weathered by time.
They were very close to each other, and we could see the mud of the sea bottom between them.
Looking at these houses, it was easy to imagine that the living conditions had not changed much in a hundred years—except that now there were air-conditioning units attached to the sides.
It was early morning, and we saw a few residents cooking, cleaning, and going about their everyday business. The scene was quiet and ordinary, with slippers left outside some of the houses—small signs of a lived-in community.
A rickety wooden pier stretched far out into the water, and from there we could see similar jetties lining the shore in both directions.
The tide was low, and some boats were sitting on the muddy bottom, with the waterline farther out.
But across the water we noticed a colorful and intricate structure that contrasted sharply with the old houses nearby.
We decided to have a closer look.
We had to leave Lee Jetty and walk a little down the street before finding the entrance. We navigated a few twisted, narrow alleys lined with more old and run-down houses before we found it.
It was the Hean Boo Thean Kuan Yin Temple, often called the Floating Temple. It was more modern, freshly painted, and well looked after than the houses around it. And it was almost deserted at that early hour.
In comparison, the more popular Chew Jetty felt quite different.
It was also lined with old houses on stilts, but most of the ones we saw had been turned into shops and cafés. They were prettier than the houses at Lee Jetty and looked as if they had been renovated to make them more visually attractive.
There were several tourist groups walking through the jetty, while local people were mostly there to run the shops and cafés.
Maybe some of the houses were still residences, but it didn’t feel like a place where people actually lived.
It was prettier than Lee Jetty, but to us it felt more artificial—a place to show off rather than a place to live.
We had our fill of jetties for one day and went to explore more of George Town before it got too hot.
Murals and the Streets of George Town
After the jetties, we went to explore more of George Town before it got too hot.
We followed a mural walk from a map. Some of the murals were pretty good, but not all of them impressed us. Here are the ones we liked the most:
George Town itself was just as interesting as the murals. Narrow streets, old buildings, decorations, cafés, and street art were mixed together, and we kept finding things worth stopping for.
When we reached Armenian Street, the heat and crowds became overwhelming, so we detoured to the Central Market. We hoped it would have a better selection of fruit than our small neighborhood market.
It was really underwhelming, with not much variety.
The most memorable part was the Spice Man, who was selling curry paste.
I decided to buy some local curry for home cooking and expected the vendor to hand me a small bag with curry paste. It wasn’t that simple.
He asked what I would be cooking—chicken, meat, fish, or tofu—how much I wanted to make, and how hot I wanted it.
Then he prepared one small bag with minced garlic, onions, and ginger and another bag with red curry paste, with specific quantities in each.
He handed the bags to me with instructions about how to use them and in which order.
It had never occurred to me before that curry cooking was such a scientific endeavor.
We left the market, and I started to call a Grab when Valery noticed that we were standing at a bus stop. There was a bus that people were boarding, and we asked if it went to Tanjung Tokong.
It did, so we hopped on.
Thus concluded our first foray into George Town.
A Heritage Walk
Valery said he had had enough of mural hunting, so another morning we took a Grab to George Town to do a self-guided heritage tour.
We started at City Hall and walked along the seaside promenade toward Fort Cornwallis. Unfortunately, the fort was under construction, so we could only see it from the outside.
We passed the old warehouse area, which had become a trendy restaurant and shopping area.
Everything was closed in the morning, though, so there wasn’t much to see.
Our next stop was the Pinang Peranakan Mansion.
The bright green building looked quite crowded in the courtyard, but once inside, we could find some pockets of quiet.
This was our first introduction to Baba-Nyonya culture in Malaysia, which developed when Chinese traders married local Malay women. The house had belonged to a very wealthy and prominent family and even had a private temple attached.
What surprised us was the large number of visitors wearing traditional Baba-Nyonya clothing and posing for photos throughout the museum.
There was a shop next to the museum where visitors could rent the clothing and have their hair and makeup done as well. The funny thing was that many of the women’s costumes were pinned at the back to make them fit—clearly intended to be photographed only from the front.
It was amusing and a little distracting, but somehow the costumed visitors fitted into the environment.
Fortunately, there weren’t crowds of them in every room, just a few at a time.
One of the exhibits showed traditional objects such as beaded embroidered slippers.
Another showed a bamboo vest worn by brides and grooms underneath their heavy traditional robes.
We learned that the vest served as a ventilation layer to help keep them cool and also protected the expensive garments from body sweat.
Quite an ingenious device.
We also visited the family temple next to the house and the traditional Baba-Nyonya kitchen.
There was a musical performance in a small theater, which we attended after standing in a fairly long queue to get in.
It was performed in the local language, but there were English subtitles.
For lunch, we stopped at a local hawker center.
Penang is famous for nasi lemak, but we didn’t try it because the main component is white rice.
Instead, we had Hokkien mee—traditional prawn noodle soup, but we asked for it without the noodles—and stir-fried vegetables.
Harmony Street and Beyond
On another morning, we walked along Harmony Street, where a Chinese temple, Hindu temple, mosque, and Christian church share the same street.
We also visited the Penang Teochew Association, located in an old ancestral temple more than 150 years old.
It is the only example of traditional Teochew architecture in George Town, with rich decorations and elaborate wooden carvings.
We continued wandering through the old streets of George Town, finding unexpected treasures along the way.
Some of our favorite murals were away from the main tourist areas.
The old streets also had plenty of simple details — ornate doors, weathered shutters, peeling paint — all showing the age and character of George Town.
Eventually, our wanderings took us to Armenian Street, which was as busy in the morning as it had been later in the day. It was beautiful, but we didn’t feel like lingering there.
Just a few blocks away, it became much quieter, with quaint old townhouses lining the street.
Here we found two small museums.
One was dedicated to Sun Yat Sen, the Chinese revolutionary who founded the Republic of China. He lived in exile in Malaysia and attended meetings in this house.
Next door was a very unusual museum—the Teochew Puppet & Opera House.
There was nobody else there when we arrived, so we had the tour all to ourselves.
We learned about traditional puppetry and got a chance to try our hand at puppeteering.
We were also shown the small theater where live actors perform and train, and we were able to put on theatrical costumes ourselves.
The museum also has a small studio where actors are trained, and performances and workshops are held from time to time.
The current owners come from several generations of actors and other theater-related professions. We were told that they also perform around George Town and elsewhere on Penang Island.
There was actually a performance scheduled that evening at one of the temples on the island. We considered going, but in the end decided not to.
Museums in the Afternoon
After several morning visits, we changed our routine and started visiting George Town’s museums in the afternoon.
The Oriental and Straits Museum was very small. On the second floor was a small collection of pottery, much of it recovered from shipwrecks in the local waters.
The pieces were quite varied, and I liked that visitors could touch some of them to feel their rough texture and the encrustation left by the sea.
After the museum, we decided to visit Tan Jetty in the evening. We wanted to see the jetties when the sea was higher.
Getting there presented an unexpected challenge: we had to cross a main street with no crosswalk, while cars moved in a constant stream. We had to rely on our Vietnam experience to get across.
When we reached the jetty, there was another surprise. It was quite crowded, and we had been hoping for something more like our quiet early-morning visit to Lee Jetty.
Still, the higher water changed the view completely. The sunset was beautiful, and we even spotted a family of otters playing in the water and catching fish.
So the visit was definitely a success.
Another afternoon, we visited the Penang History Gallery, which was much more interactive.
Instead of simply looking at exhibits, you walked through different parts and periods of life in Penang.
You could sit in an old tram while motion and changing scenery created the impression that you were actually moving.
You could ride a mobile bakery cart mounted on a three-wheeled bicycle.
Or you could sit at the counter of a traditional Teochew porridge stall and experience how it was in the past, including sitting on a very short stool on top of a wooden bench.
Every room gave us a chance to look into Penang’s past and experience it.
By the end of our visits, we had seen quite a few different sides of George Town—from old clan jetties where people still lived, to historic mansions and temples, tiny museums, street art, and places where Penang’s past was recreated for visitors to experience.
We didn’t try to see everything.
Instead, we kept returning to George Town, exploring a little more each time.
When our stay came to an end and we moved on to Kuala Lumpur, the memories of quaint George Town and peaceful hikes around Penang Island stayed with us amid the bustle of Malaysia’s capital.
Excellent post.