GeorgeTown

Exploring George Town on foot today and ducking into shops with AC when we were dropping with heat exhaustion, it's humid!

We revisited the street art and discovered some we didn't see on our last visit. 

Street art in Penang really took off in 2012 after Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic created the “Mirror of George Town” series for the George Town Festival and the rest is history.

So many visitors love exploring the back streets and stumbling on the now famous street scenes. The tri-shaw/rickshaw drivers can take you on a tour if you are short on time, it may save your feet, but it looks pretty hot in those things and, in all good conscious,  I couldn't have someone pedal me about.

Along with the murals there are up to 50 iron-rod street scenes in the heritage part of George Town.

I saw some favourites from our last visit still looking good - I wonder if they touch them up to keep them looking good?

No visit to George Town is complete without a visit to the clan jetties. These are the ancestral homes of the immigrant Chinese workers during colonial times and whilst touristy, still worth a visit.

History says that the Clan Jetties — each one called with one of the surnames of migrants from China, such as Tan, Chew, and Lee — were built to avoid paying a land tax imposed by the British colonial rulers. 

The wooden homes are made on stilts over the water and still function as a community today.

There are boats and fishing gear all on hand and what a spot, right on the water.

There's a temple which looked so beautiful and had offerings for the gods with incense burning to ward off the hungry ghosts this week.

We felt sorry for  the rickshaw drivers today in the heat as they pedaled tourists around. Many are old and it's obvious many sleep in their vehicle overnight. 

You can't walk around George Town without bumping into a temple and today was no exception.

The Choo Chay Keong Temple — also called Yap temple is beautiful with an emerald green rooftop.

Just across from Yap Temple is  Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple with incredible roof adornments.

Then a hop, skip and a jump from there is the stunning  Kapitan Keling mosque with magnificent black domes and white walls. It’s the first Islamic mosque built in a  Tamil neighbourhood.

You can't wander about in an empty stomach and there are hakwer food carts/stalls literally everywhere. The challenge is to understand what you are ordering and not to overeat! Just follow the locals as they know the good spots and if it looks fresh and smells good, it usually is good

We remembered this amazing dish we had on our last visit and tracked it down again. Hameediyah is a Muslim Indian institution  in Georgetown and we had the most delicious Motabbaq - stuffed pancake cooked on a red hot iron and filled with spices and ground beef or chicken. Glad we  had this for dinner last night as today is Islamic New Year and  a public holiday so the queues were out the door and down the street.

There is so much to see here and it's all completely different to anything we are used to back home. The old colonial architecture is stunning, even the buildings that are in a bad state.

Every corner has something to stop you in your tracks.

There's street art and fine art, street food and fancy restaurants, design museums, batik museums, heritage walking trails and spices and scents you have probably never experienced before. 

It's gritty and probably not for everyone  (the open drains in places can be challenging) but we are loving it, albeit wilting with the high humidity :)