October 1,

We awoke to bright sunshine! Considering the sun rise is at 0700, we slept in!! Yeah for us. We had our morning Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurts. Then we decided to do a self-guided walking & food tour. Self-guided because the guided walking & food tours are expensive! We reserved a Grab to start though. The taxi arrived – it was a lady driver, first one we've had here in Malaysia. Anyway…

Our walking tour now commenced. We are at The Fort Cornwallis and The Fort Cornwallis Lighthouse. (Yes, this is the same General Cornwallis affliated with the 13 colonies that become the USA. His surrender marked the end and victory of the War of Independence.) The fort was built in 1786 and named after the then “Governor-Genreal of British India (Bengal), Charles Earl Cornwallis II,” quoted from placards at the fort. Also, “It is the oldest and largest standing fort in Malaysia… . The star shaped fort was supposed to better repel attack from enemies.” Thankfully, this was never necessary as the fort never came under attack. There have been numerous renovations and it was currently under some more – mostly on the moat. The fort and the lighthouse are no longer at the water's edge, due to reclamation of land to extend George Town and Penang Island. The lighthouse appears as a mast on land. There is a chapel and a gunpowder magazine in the fort, but all in all, it is underwhelming.

Now we leave and basically cross the street to a clock tower in a roundabout at the fort's corner. The clock tower was built to “commemorate the Diamond Jubliee of Queen Victoria. At the height of 60 feet, each foot signifying one year of the Queen's reign” (up to that time of 1897, marking her 60th year of reign, which ended in 1901 at ther death). Anyway, the clock tower was commissioned by “Mr. Cheah Chen Eok, a local philanthropist (and self-made) … millionaire … and was known for his generosity and modesty.” – sources were a placard and Wikipedia.

Next we walk down Beach Street through the heart of George Town. Again a placard stated that George Town “was built on swampy land that had to be cleared…, leveled and filled.” The placard had three maps and you could see the land reclamation. Anyway, the historic part of George Town, the World Heritage UNESCO Historic Site, becomes more apparent. Colonial houses of past British 18th century era; and different mini towns (little India, China town) have caused the multicultural heritages that make up George Town.

We now pause at a Chinese Street Food area and begin the food tour part. I got a Seremban Siew Bao / Shao Bao, which is a baked flaky BBQ pork pastry bun with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. It cost 2.90 MYR ($0.69). We both found it a touch sweet but good. Jeff found and bought Handmade Dumplings, dry – 8 pieces for 11 MYR ($2.64). They are “purely handmade, without any additives, you can eat at ease and eat healthily” as per their advertisement. LOL!! It took a while to get his order but worth the wait. The lady gave us a sweet and sour sauce (with chillies added after we okayed). We both had a lemon iced tea to drink (had to buy a drink to sit at a table). The teas costs us 5.60 MYR ($1.35). Enjoyed this bits of Chinese food.

Moving on, we came to Pinang Peranakan Mansion. According to the placard, it's a “typical home of a rich Baba of more than a century ago, … depicting… the opulent lifestyle of … a locally acculturated Chinese.” The mansion “incorporates Chinese carved-wood panels with English floor tiles and Scottish iron-works.” We pay 25 MYR each ($6) and enter into the mansion. It opens to a square atrium area with a second balcony floor and a retractable roof. Pretty cool lay out. This show house showcases many collections – marble sculptures, inlaid furniture pieces, silverware sets, fine china, amazing hand-blown glass sets, tiny beaded footware and jewelry, ect… On the main level there is a shop where you can rent a time period costume as you go through the mansion having your pictures taken posing. We spent quite sometime inside the mansion, as there was so much to take in. We did venture into the adjacent temple built by the same man, Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee.

Now we leave here and leave the Chinese influenced area and go to Little India area. Here are all the smells of Indian Spices and some loud music. I did not hear the horns honking though, or have to find my way through masses of people. So a better version of India!?! Hee- Hee!!

As we continue our tour we pass by art works – painted or created pieces scattered the sides of buildings. A famous one of two kids gleefully riding a bike. The bike is real and fixed in place; the kids are painted as if sitting/ riding it. What fun! We took a small break here due to rain starting. We ducked into A Tiny Coconut Shop, having a coconut pudding and a Mango Shake with a scoop of coconut ice cream. Both were fresh and yummy! It stopped with the spitle of rain just as we finished so we continued on.

Taking in more art works as we meandered to Chew Jetty. The jetties are waterfront settlements built by Chinese clans – this jetty by the clan with the surname of “Chew”, hence Chew Jetty. The immigrants built out over the water on stilts and had wood plank walkways to connect the jetty houses. It is humbling that some people still live out here, but some have minisplits and you can see they have water system out here now. Also because of tourism, some have opened shops with all manner of souvenirs or food/snacks you can buy. There are also more murals out here. We also went down another jetty – Tan Jetty. But was more of the same, with more scary wood plank walkways.

Now we come to a street that “T's” and starts at the Acheen Street Malay Mosque. It was built in 1808 by a wealthy spice trader of Arab descent and a Aceh Royal family -Tengu Syed Hussain Idid – that migrated to Penang in 1791. There is one minaret and it's architecture of Moorish and Chinese influence. We did not go in as we were in shorts.

On down this street we pass by, more great art murals (one of a boy standing on his tiptoes on a chair reaching up to a window). Then we pass by couple of Hindu and a couple of Buddhist temples, and another Mosque. We did stop at a shop here when we saw some post cards. We bought one and filled it out with Birthday greetings for someone we know back home.

As we continue to the end of this street, our tour takes us to St. George's Anglican Church. Built in 1818, it is currently undergoing major work as scaffolding dominates the entry way. We could not go in here, due to this. From here we turn on another street to the Church of the Assumption, and it's not open. So we skirt down Love Lane, where a placard says “largely Cantonese & early Eurasian area near- Catholic Cathedral. Lane of lovers probably refered to illicit liaisons with mistresses.” We walked down Love Lane and found a Beryl's Chocolate “Story”. We went in and bought some dark chocolate covered coffee beans. Yeah- can't wait to try them!

Lastly we pass by the Modern Hotel, established in 1920. It appealed to us as it has a definite Art Deco style going on. There were couple more art works and finally our self guided walking tour ended at the Blue Mansion, but is not tourable as it is a private hotel now.

Whew, what a tour. Jeff hailed us a Grab taxi via the app. We were hot and had done 11,000+ steps! We hired the taxi to take us to a home care place that was supposed to have the electrode pads for our TENS unit – they did not. (But they did have the over one shoulder bag like the old one I had originally. I only mention this because we looked a long time for this bag, but never could find one – AND we had just talked with Jeff's sister referencing this bag. Crazy!) We walked to a mall and did a bit of shopping- found a Decathlon and Jeff got a pair of shorts and pants. 

So we went back to our place walking and relaxed. Supper was ordered in per food panda delivery from Nurjaya Thai Food Restaurant. We had four things. 1st- Kuey Teow Kungfu, which translated as rice noodles in egg gravy. It was a thickened egg soup with some veg and a shrimp, squid, and maybe some over cooked noodles(?) with some kind of deep-fried crisps. 2nd- Telur Dada, an Omelette. 3rd- Daging Halia, which was Ginger Beef. It was very nice. 4th- Nasi Goreng Daging Lada Hitam, which was Beef with a Black Pepper sauce and Fried-Rice. This was very nice as well. With that we finished our day, crashing around 2200.