Our first overnight – and we have planned to spend the night onshore, in this amazing looking hotel that is one of the heritage buildings here, over 200 years old. It will be a welcome respite from the craziness of this ship. More on that later. Our morning is spent pretty leisurely – gym, breakfast, watching fishing boats sail through our wake from the balcony. Arrival isn’t scheduled until 10:30, but this captain gets everywhere early, so we are docked and actually cleared through the “authorities” around 10am. We’re packed and ready and out the door – even though we know we are really early.
Once out of the port area, we pass the Queen Victoria Memorial clock tower, built to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The tower is 60 feet tall – to the center of the clock – one foot for each year of Queen Victoria’s reign. (Love that little fun fact.) Then we are into George Town proper, walking up Beach Street (so named because the street was originally located right next to the water and followed the course of the beach. In the early 19th Century, the town started reclaiming land to create a new expanse of area for warehouses and trading shops for all the ships docking in George Town) to turn into the part of the city known as Little India.
Arriving at the hotel, the sweet hotel clerk/manager (she was there all the time!) checked us in, took our overnight bag to hold while we wandered about until the room was ready after 2. Ok – we’re off to wander the streets, get our bearings and see what we can see. It is the end of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration and there is a huge festival going on in this part of town – the roads are blocked and there every street is chock full of booths, tons of decorations, maps and stages. The activities don’t start until 4pm – which will make for a fun evening for us!
With nothing but time on our hands, we meander through the streets, stopping at the Tua Pek Kong Temple, one of the many Chinese temples found in this area, for a couple of photos…
…then head over to Light Street, the “Government/Civic” street where all the municipal offices and military installations can be found. We’re heading for the Penang State Art Gallery that we completely missed on our last visit 7 years ago – mostly because we were looking for street art, not “real” art. LOL. We find the complex easily enough, but the museum entrance is a little hidden – at least we thought it was. There is a sign pointing to the museum up 3 flights of stairs, so we head there and find a delightful little exhibit area full of really interesting pieces of international art. Etchings and prints – all relatively modern from artists all around the world. Really interesting, but very small.
The guard/docent/guy at the front desk has us sign the guest book, then makes sure we understand we should also go to the main museum on the ground floor. Aha! So this was just and exhibition space or something. He actually walks us out onto the stair landing and points to where the doors are located. Thank you! Would have completely missed it – as we came in on another level from the street. The main museum is much, much bigger with tons more art – including this great oil painting of the whole of Penang island, as well as the more traditional, more fun, and just strangely intriguing.
A nice way to spend an hour or so out of the heat with interesting things to look at. Back out on the streets, we wind our way through more decorations to our pre-selected lunch spot: Chu Char 1st. In Penang, Chu Char are Chinese restaurants that are more family style, serving a variety of dishes along with steamed white rice. Chu Char 1st have some really good reviews for their seafood, which is why we chose it for our lunch. And they didn’t disappoint. The menu is huge, tons of variety, and of course, super cheap. Ed ordered mixed vegetable soup and we shared two generous plates of Mantis Prawn in Kam Heong sauce and Fried squid with Salted Egg batter. So good and yummy!
We’re ready for the rest of our afternoon – which entails walking out of the old city, encountering a guy on a bike with these little squirrel looking things? Who knows? Then on past the Kapitan Keling Mosque, the first permanent Muslim institution to have been established in Penang in the early 1800s, and on into the more modern skyscraper filled part of Georgetown on our way to The Top – a huge skyscraper building with 360 degree views from top floor observation decks and a whole ton of different activities – mostly geared to kids.
Winding our way through a confusing maze of streets and underground access to the mall next door (thank you GoogleMaps – sigh) we finally make our way to The Top entrance and begin our “theme park” (as they bill themselves) journey. And theme park it truly was. Beginning at the entrance – everything is just over the top, huge, bright and lit up. It was like Las Vegas for children – seriously – you name it, they had it from carnival games to little rides to characters walking around and events. It was crazy – but totally fun!
We decided to buy the combo ticket for the Skywalk viewpoint, Jurassic Research Center and the Aquarium since it was literally only $2 USD additional per ticket than a solo Skywalk ticket – what the heck? We’ll get our money’s worth and the theme park experience, why not? Up we go to the 65th floor to wander around the glassed in observation area with the obligatory – and always scary – glass floor that lets you look down, way down, to the street below. Shivers.
Then up to the very top, the 68th floor for the open-air Rainbow skywalk, a curved glass floor walk way out over the edge of the building 816 feet high. Scary, but fun, just don’t look down! Catch the smile…. At any rate, from up here, you can really see the contrast from the old city, with hardly a tall building (and the ship in the far background) to the more modern area with skyscrapers rising among the traditional older buildings!
With time to burn, we headed inside to the Top View restaurant, where we overpriced drinks – but hey – the view couldn’t be beat and in relative terms, the beer was not that expensive. They did have wine, but the sweet waiter asked if I wanted to taste their wine because many people didn’t like the taste – and yeah, he was right! Ick. So beer it was. Not too shabby – and again – the views!
Now onto the Jurassic Research Center. Down the elevator we go, through the Kiddie Las Vegas arcade and out into the foyer area where characters were interacting (sort of) with screaming kids. Queuing up to get into the Research Center – we were the only adults without children – and once the doors opened (it is capacity controlled), we wandered through displays about dinosaurs and Sue, the famous T. Rex fossil. Then had a little presentation from one of the “scientists” who talked about the hatching process and let us hold an egg. Again – sweet and cute. Ed and I paid more attention to all this stuff than the kids, I think!
The last part of the visit was outside, walking through the collection of Jurassic animals the “research center” had collected. Hokie, but cute. Some of the dinosaurs and raptor moved – not very much, but sort of twitchy-like – and the juxtaposition of the dinosaurs and skyscrapers was kind of nice. Overall, just sweet and fun and way more for the kiddies, but it was something to do.
Our last attraction was the Aquarium downstairs by the exit. It was quite big and wound around in a labyrinth sort of way through the bottom of the complex. There were all sorts of different fish from the region, as well as other areas. Some of the more interesting fish were these really cool florescent fish, scary snowflake moray eels and an American Flag Tail fish – that did look like the stars and stripes on a fish. We’ve never seen anything like that before.
All in all, a very pleasant and fun afternoon. The only negative was that we couldn’t take our water bottle into the aquarium and had to leave it at the front entrance. This was the good Swan Hellenic aluminum bottle, btw, which I really didn’t want to leave – but…rules are rules. Well, you come out of the aquarium at a completely different exit – and the water bottles aren’t relocated there, as they should be! Needless to say, we forgot the damn thing and didn’t realize it until we were ½ a mile away. I was so angry with myself – and the stupid aquarium – had I known, I would have just put the stupid thing inside the backpack and they would have never even known I had it. Sigh. At least we brought both the water bottles; the other one was safe in the cabin, so at least we have one. But still. Aggravating!
Sorry – rant done. So, anyhow, the rest of our walk back to the hotel was peaceful, at least until we hit the craziness that was now the festival! Tons and tons of food stalls and demonstration booths and stages and people. And it was barely 4pm – we know this will be a zoo later – and we’ll be in the heart of it all. Nice.
Back at the hotel, we checked in with our sweet clerk/manager who takes us to our 2nd floor room. All we have to say is amazing! The hotel started life all those years ago as a traditional Chinese home with courtyards and open rooms which have been beautifully converted. The room was huge with the 30 foot ceilings, gorgeous wood fixtures and beams and super comfortable. The entrance to the room was an open balcony overlooking the courtyard below, and equipped with a sofa and chair, plus snacks and coffee and tea we could take and eat/drink all night. No min-fridge, but a full kitchen downstairs for their breakfast service with a full-size refrigerator we could use for our beer and wine – when we got it. Perfect.
Settled in, we are now on a hunt for beer and wine. Found one bottle store with no white wine, then another a few blocks away that was closed, but a helpful guy sitting out front drinking his beer told us the owner just went to the ATM and he’d be back soon. Ok. We’ll wait. We ended up becoming best buds with this guy (whose name we never knew), from Italy, comes to Penang and stays for months, had his mom and dad with him as well. Total card! We talked for probably 30 minutes – because the shop owner still hadn’t come back. Italian guy told us about this great locals bar where they accept everyone and it is so fun, and you can meet the nicest, best people. He gave us basic instructions, as in, down this street, turn left, behind the Temple, you’ll see it. Maybe later, we’ll head there. Finally, the owner shows up and we proceed to buy the most expensive bottle of wine EVER! Australian Chardonnay of all things – thank God it tasted good – but still! I can’t remember the brand now (should have taken a picture) but it was less than the Lindeman he had, so you know it was cheap wine we could buy there for 5 or 6 USD. You do not want to know how much it cost. Should have just brought it from the ship! (Which trust me, I am DEFINITELY doing for our Phuket overnight!). Well, at least we have our supply. Back at the hotel, our sweet clerk/manager girl made ice for me so I could have it with my wine and water. Talk about service.
With time to kill, we hung out at the hotel for a bit before heading out for an early dinner to a restaurant outside the general mass hysteria of the festival. Irama was in a gorgeous old building, upstairs – and we were so lucky we went early because we got a table – every other table was pretty much reservation only. The food was amazing – and HUGE! Beginning with what was called a Starter, we ordered Cucur Jagung, a fried shrimp/bean sprout/corn concoction that reminded us a little of those Trader Joe’s veggie nests – only much more massive! We were thinking maybe they gave us 2 servings, but nope, only one! Yikes! For the main meal, we shared (sort of) Barramundi grilled in banana leaves and a squid curry made with Durian paste – both were excellent – and who would have expected the Durian dish to be that good, the way that fruit smells!
Stuffed now, we hit the festival out in the streets. OMG. Thousands upon thousands of people jammed into these streets listening to music, trying crafts, playing instruments, eating. And ALL Asian. We only saw maybe 4 Bule (which means non-Asian) the entire night!
We bobbed and weaved our way through, stopping to watch a guy balancing this huge bamboo pole on his forehead.
Delving further into the crowds, we actually lucked into seeing the tiger parade and dance. Fantastic! The traditional Chinese tiger outfits with 2 people in them – up on those little platforms doing dances and messing around. We could sort of see – we were way back in the masses of people – but what we could see was great.
At the end of the performance, we made the tactical error of heading toward to the stage to get out – and literally got stuck in a mad crush of masses trying to move one way or another. Front to back, smashed up against each other. I had my hands on Ed’s shoulders the entire time, until somehow, I got in front and he had his on mine. We ended up banding together with another Asian couple and 2 of their friends who, just by proximity became our ‘gang.’ Between the 6 of us, we forged our way through holding on to each other, then smiling and giving the thumbs up when we finally were able to part. Crazy! The mass crush and stampede things in the news definitely flashed through our mind during those 10 or so minutes of madness!
Breaking free, we went looking for the ‘local bar’ the guy at the bottle shop told us about. Turns out it is another bottle shop where people just put plastic chairs out in the street around the shop and hang out. Priceless. And our guy was there! He got us chairs and sat us down and we chatted with a guy from the Netherlands and tried to chat with an expat who has lived here for 25 years, but he basically smiled and ignored us. 2 beers later we were back at the hotel, hanging out in our awesome room relaxing with our Happy Chinese New Year Pineapple tart treats – for “incoming fortune” in Hokkien dialect!
And that was our night. We’re not missing anything on the ship except the Malaysian folkloric show, which, well, we’ve had lots of Malaysian experiences tonight. We’re happy. Plus, even though we are in the heart of Little India, our hotel was not on the main festival route – so our little street was quiet in comparison – a bonus for our sleep since we will need to be up early for our Penang Hill funicular ride in the morning.
Andiamo 