George Town

Day 54 – George Town, Malaysia

I started my day by asking the hostel if they had laundry services -no- or where I could find them. After clear explanations from the guy at the reception (left-left right-right, they are everywhere you will find them), I resolved to take my laundry with me on my way to sightseeing and to drop it at the first sign of a washing service. (I came back with my dirty laundry.)

I had noticed that a certain neighbourhood was noted for its street art, so I started there. Indeed, there are several kind of street art. The “iron cartoon” kind, which explains the name of a street:

The “let’s embed a real accessory” kind:

And the other, more classic kinds:

(More pictures in the gallery.)

During my meanderings, I stopped at a henna booth and got a nice design on my head. Of course, it was midday, the sun was shining, and couldn’t put my head covering back on until it was dry… not only did I get nice rosy colours on top of my head and my neck, I’m sure that if it wasn’t for the henna dye I would have a henna-tattoo-shaped pattern of light skin.

Walking further, I went to the jetty, where souvenir shops and restaurants on stilts make a long jetty on the sea. (The smell is ripe.) But at the end, there is a nice view of the sea and the coast of the peninsula. Did I mention that George Town is located on the island of Penang?

There is a definite Chinese influence in the neighbourhood where I went looking for street art. There are Chinese houses, and there is in particular the house of the Cheah family, which is more an institution than a house. The Kongsi, as it is called, was founded as a place to welcome and help members of the Cheah family and of their village of origin that migrated from China.

As the family prospered, it became influential in the city, helped more of its family members, and so on. It reminded me of the communal town halls that I visited in Vietnam in Hoi An, where several family from the same place of origin would built together a communal place to meet and live.

The full gallery is here.

The Kongsi, as well as the city, are World Heritage Site.

After these visits, I came back to the hostel, rested a bit, looked up the laundry services on Google Map and found a laundromat 50m on a side street from my hostel. The coin machine ate my 5-ringgit bill because it didn’t have enough coins to give me back to feed the washing machine. Fortunately there was a second machine with enough coins, but still, it ate my money! (5 ringgits is around 1€.) But now I have clean clothes.

(I have a small bag for easier travel, so 4 changes of clothes: hence my numerous laundry expeditions. I am considering acquiring a 5th outfit to give more breathing space.)

I spoke a bit yesterday of differences in Malaysia.

There is a one-hour difference with the other Asian countries I visited until now. I thought I had checked beforehand and that all South-Eastern Asian countries were on the same time zone, but obviously I was mistaken. One hour is easy to get used to, so no big deal.

I was thinking two days ago that all Asia was on the same power outlet shape also, it was certainly true until now: they followed the USA/Australia setting on my world adapter. But here they are on the UK setting, which is actually better for me because it uses a three-prong setting, and it holds better on than the slender two-prong one. It is funny because I was thinking that if Asia, Australia and the USA used the same system, I just had to check if South America was on the same model and then I needed only a simpler adapter. Well, it shows never to assume! So, big thanks to my big brother who gifted me this adapter.

I bought a bus ticket for tomorrow, I’m headed to the Cameron Highlands (a name so typically Malaysian), a hilly area reputed for being cooler and its tea plantations. I will stay at Tanah Rata.