Heritage Tour

Haha I feel so lazy to update my blog. Pics were uploaded two days ago and now only I try to write something here. So I finally went to Chen Xi's house!! (It's actually called Penang Peranakan Mansion =p)

Going to Penang Peranakan Mansion was like one of my wishes since I watched The Little Nyonya. Haha you know how much I love old buildings and the architectural design of nyonya houses. Didn't get to visit to this Penang Peranakan Mansion last time because I didn't know the address. But this time, I've done some research about the exact location of Penang Peranakan Mansion through Google Map and also listed down some other historical places that I wanted to go.

So here's the list!

First, we went to Mahindarama Buddhist Temple, to get blessing before I leave for US. Then dad brought us to one of the destinations on my list - Clan Jetties. Clan jetties are villages built on silts and can be found along Weld Quay (Pengkalan Weld). Each jetty is named after the last name of the residents. The residents' ancestors were from Fujian, China and they were mostly fishermen or gatherer of oysters.

I was really excited when walking on the wooden plank walkway, and I told my mom, "Omg I'm stepping on historical wooden planks!" Hahahah. There were some houses on the both sides of plank walkway and had people living there. We walked along the plank walkway until we reached the end of the walkway and saw the sea! I could see some ships sailing in the sea and feel the sea breeze ;D Living near the sea is such a wonderful thing!

There were actually eight clan jetties along Weld Quay : Chew Jetty, Kuoy Jetty, Lee Jetty, Lim Jetty, Peng Aun Jetty, Tan Jetty, Yeoh Jetty and Mixed Clan Jetty, but I heard that there are only six jetties left now. We only managed to visit to Lee Jetty and Mixed Clan Jetty because of rain. Yerr I wanted to visit to the Chew Jetty that has the longest walkway and most number of houses! :( Speaking of which, do you know that one of the scene of Ah Niu's movie "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" was filmed at Chew Jetty? =D

Some photos taken at Lee Jetty and Mixed Clan Jetty.

Passed by some historical places along Weld Quay, such as the Church Street Pier which was once a busy spot along the channel. It was neglected after that and now it's redeveloped and incorporated into the Tanjung City Marina.

And Penang Peranakan Mansion was the next destination!

It was built at the end of 19th century by one of local history's famous personalities, the "Hai Kee Chan" (海记栈) or Sea Remembrance Store. It was once served as the residence and office of Kapitan Cina Chung Keng Kwee (郑景贵). Remember the Hai San in our Sejarah text book? Neh, under the title of Perjanjian Pangkor.... the one fighting with Ghee Hin, remember? Hai San was a Chinese Secret Society in British Malaya and Chung Keng Kwee was a leader of Hai San! He was a millionaire philanthropist, an innovator of mining of tin and also involved in many other industries. He was also respected by both Chinese and European communities. There were two streets in Georgetown which were named after him: Keng Kwee Street and Ah Quee Street.

You might think Chung Keng Kwee was a Baba. No, he's not. He chose this style of architecture because of its association with wealth and substance. Chinese carved-wood panels, English floor tiles and Scottish ironworks. It was like a typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago.

Outside the gate.
The display board showed the pics of movies and dramas that were filmed at Penang Peranakan Mansion. Road to Dawn (夜明), The Little Nyonya (小娘惹) and some Malaysian dramas.

To prove that I've been to Penang Peranakan Mansion! =D

Loves the air well!

Me playing cherki, the Nyonya's card game with chinese characters. No lar I was just posing ;D Cherki was the favorite pastime of the Nyonyas. The Nyonyas would have opportunity to catch up on the local gossips as well as become matchmaker for some eligible bachelors.

The antique music player that costed 79000 bucks (according to the tour guide)

O_O

Pics taken at Penang Peranakan Mansion.

So we had a tour around Georgetown after that and I saw many historical tourist attractions as well as old buildings! Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower, War Memorial, City Hall, King Street Temples, Dr. Sun Yat Sen's Penang Base, Islamic Museum, Little India and Sri Mahamariamman Temple. I wanted to visit to St. George Anglican Church, the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia but too bad, it's now closed for renovation :(

Went to Goddess of Mercy Temple a.k.a. Kuan Yin Teng. Its orginal name is Kong Hock Keong which means Temple of Cantonese and Hokkien community. It's the first temple built by Penang's early Chinese settlers dedicated to Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and second virgin Goddess of Mercy, Mar Chor Poh.

I love these street signs.

Do you know this? Most streets in the city have historic English names because those streets were built and named in colonial era. The names generally remain and are still used by most Penangites now although all the street signs were changed to Malay Language since the passage of National Language Act 1967. Malay translation of street names are the primary official versions but now there are also some street signs supplemented with names in English/ Chinese/ Tamil/ Arabic.

Well, many streets in Central Georgetown have mostly an unrelated but interesting road names in Penang Hokkien. For example, Lebuh Acheh is called Acheen Street in English but it's called 拍石街 in Hokkien which means "Stone-breaking Street". Lebuh Armenian is called Armenian Street in English and 拍铜街 (Cooper-beater Street) in Hokkien. Interesting, right? :)

Dad brought us to the famous ice kacang stall at Penang Road. OMG so many people were queuing for ice kacang or cendol! Never knew that ice kacang and cendol can be such attractive to make people willing to queue up in baking sun and eat on the road.

So we came to this place which is located at Komtar Walk. Dad said it's owned by the tauke of the ice kacang stall at Penang Road.

Dad's cendolMy ice kacang! Didn't order ice kacang tak mau kacang because I didn't want to get weird stare from the waiter. Mom helped me to finish the kacangs :p
Mom's fried Chai Tau Kuih.

Walked around in Komtar after that. Glad to see that Komtar is alive! It's surprisingly different with what I saw two years ago. Penang government really did a good job for this.

So that's all for my Georgetown UNESCO Heritage tour. Went to the seaside before heading back to BM.

I could see Penang Bridge from here! =D

Progress Report: 98% of packing DONE!

I'm gonna bring Xiaoma in my handcarry =3=