George Town, Penang, Malaysia

On Wednesday, we toured the city of George Town in the state of Penang in the country of Malaysia. Our tour guide’s name was Harold, who was extremely likeable, as he was very witty and made some amusing comments, and even told a few jokes.

 

Harold

Penang is heavily influenced by the Chinese and the Chinese population here is almost the same as the Malaysian natives. It is 48% Chinese, 47% Malay, and 4 or 5 percent Indian. Harold happens to be Indian. While most of this part of the world is Buddhist, Malaysia is heavily Muslim.

When the area was first developed, the initial buildings were religious sites: a Catholic church, an Anglican church, a Buddhist temple, a Taoist temple, a Hindu temple, and a Moslem Mosque. The Anglican church is the oldest Anglican church in southeast Asia. These religious sites are all located near each other on a street appropriately called Harmony Street. They valued the importance of the different religions with their individual worship sites, and they felt that by constructing the religious sites first and then developing the rest of the town, they were building on a good foundation.

 

Temple

Mosque

Harold cautioned us to be careful when walking around George Town, because the traffic lights here do not mean the same thing that they mean where we live. Here, green means go, yellow means go faster, red means stop, look around, and if there are no policemen in sight, then go.

Harold told us that they value the elderly here, especially their wisdom. They don’t call them elderly, old, or senior citizens. They call them the Golden Generation. Anyone over 60 qualifies. People tend to continue living with their parents most of their lives, even after getting married. Harold is 55 and lives with his parents. (Sadly, his wife passed away last year due to Covid.) He said people not only live with their parents, but they still are expected to obey them even when they are adults. Harold, for example, said that if his mother tells him to do something, he knows he’d better do it.

Some of the sights of interest that we passed and learned about from Harold was a wet market, where they sell fruits, veggies, and livestock; Chinatown, which is the largest Chinatown in the world; Little India; temples and mosques; and lots of markets where people were selling their wares. 

 

Large temple

Apparently Penang is famous for its food; people come here from a lot of other areas, especially Singapore, for the food. George Town lies on the Strait of Malacca, which has been called the spice route of the world. This is a part of the world that uses spices in abundance, and the importance of spices cannot be underestimated. In fact, Harold said that if the Strait of Malacca was closed for one month, the world economy would collapse.

Malaysia has a king, but is not a monarchy – kind of like Britain. Where the power lies in the Parliament, the King is a symbolic ruler. But unlike Britain, the king is not for life. A new king is chosen every five years. Eight of the states of Malaysia are run by Sultans, and these Sultans get together every five years and choose a king from one of their number. The king must be native Malay and also must be Moslem.  

There are 3 different school types in Penang: National, Chinese, and Indian. This is to preserve the different cultures in this multi-cultural area. All schools are under government control. English is compulsory in the schools along with the National language of Malay, and then they teach the native language of the particular students at the school so that their mother language is not lost.

We stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. We were warned that we would not find “western” types of bathrooms, but that these would be “of the squat variety”. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Another interesting sight in George Town is the 15-mile-long bridge that connects the island that George Town is located on to the mainland. This bridge is very strong, as it was built to withstand earthquakes, which are numerous in this part of the world. Unfortunately, it was raining, a bit hazy, and not conducive to good picture taking. But the bridge was very impressive looking.

 

Another interesting place we passed was the Asia Camera Museum, since a lot of very good and well-known camera brands are made in this part of the world. We didn’t go through the museum, but we were wondering if you would be allowed to take pictures in the Camera Museum😆😆😆

Harold said that there are no homeless native Malaysian people in the country. He said the government makes sure that everyone has a home to live in. Most people get married between the ages of 25 and 30, and when they get married, they register with the government. Then the government calls them in for an interview to find out their financial situation and how many people are in their household (for example, how many parents, or those of the Golden Generation, that are living with them). Then the government gives them a choice of appropriate houses and they choose which one they want. It is not free, but the government helps to arrange the bank loans.

Even though there are no homeless native Malays, there are other homeless. There is an illegal immigration problem. With George Town being right on the coast, people from other places just come in on the boats and live here as illegal immigrants, and some of them unfortunately are homeless.

Education and medical care is provided by the government. Penang is known for its hospitals, especially cosmetic surgery. People come here from different parts of the area for the cosmetic hospitals, and they call it “Medical tourism”!

On this note, Harold told us a joke. He said that there was a woman who had a heart attack, and her soul left her when she was on the operating table. She faced God, who told her that she would go back to earth and live for 30 more years. When she returned to earth, she had some cosmetic surgery done to look much younger and more beautiful. Two weeks later, she got hit by a car and died. This time, when she faced God, she asked him why he didn’t stop the car from hitting her after promising her 30 more years. He said it was because He didn’t recognize her. Okay, if you don’t like the joke, don’t blame me, blame Harold.

We passed by the stadium where the national team from Malaysia plays soccer. Harold said that the Malaysia team is very bad. Another of his jokes: in the Bible where it talks about signs of the end times, it lists the Malaysian soccer team winning the World Cup as one of the signs.

Another Harold joke: he said that someone asked him why the cows in Malaysia are so skinny. He said that they only produce low fat milk.

Harold mentioned the big tsunami that hit this part of the world in 2004. The loss of life in George Town was minimal compared to nearby areas, but the beaches were completely wiped out. They did not restore the beaches, but created new coastal developments, like high rises, instead.

Harold told us a little about the animal life of Malaysia. He said that elephants are a protected species. There are spiders as big as crabs. And the longest snake in the world is found in Malaysia. There are three types of cobras here. One type, if it bites you, you have 25 minutes before you die. Another type, the King Cobra, is the longest venomous snake in the world – they can be up to 19 feet long. One bite from one of these and you have 10 minutes. These cobras can actually raise themselves up and stand as much as six feet tall. Harold said he once asked someone if he knew what he should do if he came face to face with one of these venomous snakes, and the guy responded “Hide behind your wife!” Ha ha! Harold said that the correct answer is to stand still. If you are perfectly still, the snake will eventually go away, maybe like after 5 minutes. Harold said this might be the longest 5 minutes of your life. He said they will go away because we are not part of their food chain.

George Town is mostly flat, but we passed some scenic hills along our drive.

Harold also told us about the famous monkeys that abound in this part of the world. We took a drive by the Botanical Gardens, where we saw a number of wild monkeys just hanging out in the parking lot, climbing on vehicles, and hanging from the nearby trees. They probably didn’t have the admission fare to get inside.

 

After a very enjoyable tour of the city, narrated by the very entertaining Harold, we returned to the ship, where we will set sail this evening for tomorrow’s destination: Kuala Lumpur.