George Town
UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 2008 As One Of The Historic Cities Of The Straits Of Malacca; The First British Settlement In Southeast Asia, Founded 1786 · George Town, Penang
FRANCIS LIGHT TOOK POSSESSION OF PENANG IN 1786 AND BUILT THE FIRST BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA HERE, decades before Singapore - and what grew around the fort was a port city where Chinese, Indian, Malay, Acehnese, Arab and European communities lived along the same few streets, which is precisely what UNESCO inscribed in 2008. THE EVIDENCE IS STILL STANDING AND STILL OCCUPIED. Shophouses by the thousand. THE CLAN JETTIES - Chinese settlements built out over the water on stilts, EACH JETTY BELONGING TO ONE SURNAME, Chew, Lee, Tan, Yeoh - lived in to this day. KHOO KONGSI, the most extravagant clan house in the region. A MOSQUE, A HINDU TEMPLE, A CHINESE TEMPLE AND AN ANGLICAN CHURCH within a few hundred metres of one another on the street everyone calls the Street of Harmony. And the food, which is a serious argument for coming at all. Walk it in the morning and after four, because the middle of the day defeats most people, and eat wherever the queue is longest - the stalls are single-dish specialists.
George Town, Penang Island, Penang, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
THE HERITAGE ZONE IS A LIVED-IN CITY, NOT A SITE - the streets are open always and free, and individual buildings keep their own hours. KHOO KONGSI, PINANG PERANAKAN MANSION AND THE CHEONG FATT TZE BLUE MANSION charge admission and keep daytime hours; the Blue Mansion runs GUIDED TOURS AT SET TIMES ONLY. THE CLAN JETTIES ARE PEOPLE'S HOMES: walk the main walkways, do not photograph into doorways, and understand that CHEW JETTY IS BUSY AND THE SMALLER JETTIES ARE NOT. MOSQUES AND TEMPLES have their own dress rules and prayer times. HAWKER STALLS RUN ON THEIR OWN SCHEDULES and many of the best close one fixed day a week. THAIPUSAM AND CHINESE NEW YEAR are enormous here. It is hot and humid year-round; walk in the morning and after four.