85. THE 'PEARL' OF THE ORIENT

Link:
Post 64 - This Little Red Dot
Post 65 - North of the Border
Post 67 - Malacca Revisited

No idea why 'Pearl' was coined for Penang. There's no pearl industry. It was at one time referred to as a sister city of Adelaide, Australia. You don't come across this description anymore. These would be romantic terms the tourism people came up with for marketing purposes...

 


































These are a few of the nicer rejuvenated old buildings I came across, many others have fallen into disrepair but there are ambitious plans to spruce up Georgetown, a trifle down-at-heels these days.

 

Penang was given to the British East India Co. in 1786 by the Sultan of Kedah in return for protection from Thai and Burmese insurgents.

 A center of the tin-mining industry than (18th C), the region drew a mix of Indians from Sth India, Chinese from mainland China, Thais, Arabs and Europeans to its shores. Many stayed, creating an eclectic port city, pretty much like what took place in Malacca and Singapore.

The 3 collectively formed the Straits Settlements.The island and its sheltered port were Britain's first possessions in SEA. It was declared a free port creating an influx of migrant labourers. Very quickly, Penang became a staging post for the opium trade between China and India, contributing to the coffers of the British East India Co., it's Government and their royal family.

The picturesque narrow street has many tradespeople carrying out old family businesses - joss-stick makers, wooden clogs and shoe makers, embroiderers, coffee-roasters, curry powder mills.....all dying trades, very likely, these are the last generation  

Fort Cornwallis - erected by a sea captain Francis Light when he landed, to keep an eye on the seafront. Talk about us being kiasu and kiasi - it's a colonial hangover.

 
 

More golden monstrosities - one Thai the other Burmese - everybody's getting into the act. These are of the more familiar sites of worship which have now become bigger, grander and fancier since I last saw them. As is the case elsewhere, such places are well supported by donations.

Eclectic Georgetown has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site but the numerous Sino-Portuguese shop-fronts are in dire need of urban renewal and massive reconstruction work.
To carry that out on a large scale requires loads of money and expertise. From what I gather from their newspapers, they are so caught up with local and federal politics it may take a while before anyone can focus on getting that job done well. Would be interesting to see the changes 5 years from now.










 




























'Judgement Day' who goes where......as depicted on the walls of this Taoist temple. I suppose its hard to explain to the masses about esoteric matters so all too often its depicted literally, with more placed on the form rather than the substance - whatever the religion

The courtyards in traditional old Chinese homes have these atriums smack in the middle of the large house. It allows sun and rain in......sun, to light up the interior which can get dark in a large house with many walls and no electricity, and rain to cool the house. 

The floor's granite while the rest of the house was tiled, after the rains the granite absorbs the rainwater and cools the house in the process. The larger traditional old houses in China and Vietnam have always been constructed this way.

In South East Asia, traditional houses were built on stilts to keep the house cool and wild animals and floodwater out. Village, forest peoples sure were a smart lot....creative out of the box thinking came naturally - without higher education.

 




 

When all else fails, Magic Classes might just help to improve grades...

It's not just Singapore and China with the problem of bad English on public signboards. They are quite hilarious.

 
















Ancestor portraits and altars.......the old Chinese are into ancestral worship. In modern westernised societies when the younger lot of people switched to Christianity, the old folks are influenced into switching as well. I suspect many do so due to emotional blackmail.
Asians living in Asia allow a Westernised religion brainwash them into giving up their traditional and cultural practices and beliefs. 

They are told it's 'satanic' to worship a piece of wood....that their practices are superstitious, ignorant and done out of fear. These sanctimonious prigs are out to colonise minds for organised religion is big money and bigger business which even Governments court.  

Where do the independent mega churches in Singapore park their millions? In diversified portfolios such as tobacco and alcohol companies? (why not?) Porn sites? (big money there) Manufacturers of weapons of war? (with Tripticon, the cat's already out of the bag) Money laundering activities? (only God knows)

Batu Feringgi Beach is quite nice. There are a good many highrise condos which have sprung up in and around the waterfront, catering to rich retirees from outside Malaysia.
Very soon, this place would be pretty built up dwarfing several homely, rustic hotels dotted around the coastline.

 










These are bats on the ceiling of a temple. When they're crawling around they can look quite odd, even creepy to some folks, but I think they're cute. It's nice to have Nature come so close.
In Singapore, exterminators would be called in immediately. There's a generation of young Singaporeans who know chickens, ducks, cows, from what they see in the supermarkets' chiller section or on the dining table. They would view bats as blood-sucking vampires to be feared.

 

These are gorgeous framed gold and silver wire-thread embroidery on silk and antique Peranakan shoes with the same sort of embroidery, not beaded. This supposedly Peranakan Museum is privately owned and has a hodge-podge collection of stuff which aren't Peranakan at all. I'm informed that in Penang they are not referred to as Peranakans but as Babas and Nyonyas. When asked why, the guide couldn't tell me

It's good to have a travel companion who's not afraid to eat at roadside stalls or sleep in spartan simple rooms although there've been occasions when we pampered ourselves with a night or two in a luxury resort