A Day in Georgetown

Our first real day in Malaysia was a group tour around some sites in Georgetown after travelling there the day before all the way from Koh Samui. Georgetown is the located on an island off the mainland via a bridge and is the capital of the state of Penang. We arrived in the evening on the 14th and so just went out for some dinner at a local food market and then crashed for the night after our long travel day.

The 15th consisted of us being showed around some sites by a crazy tour guide. He was very energetic and seemed to love what he did. He took us first to the Chinese clan jetties on the port. There are 7 jetties in total, 6 of which are named after a surname, or a clan, the last is basically the ‘other’ category. Only people with the clan name can live on the jetty of that name. I believe the jetties are actually pretty common surnames though, almost like Smith would be in English so you wouldn’t technically have to be immediate family to live on one of the jetties. They were, however, named after the first immigrants to land there so maybe they’re not the most common names.

The jetties are basically houses on stilts that jut out like a pier from the shore and communities have built on them with houses and shops and each jetty has a shrine at the start, on the shore, and a shrine at the end, at the furthest point from shore. The jetty we walked down was the Chew jetty, which is the most famous one. It was amazing to see a complete community built up on some concrete foundations poured into the water with wooden structures built on top, it was rudimentary and looked a bit thrown together but I’m sure they were built to be functional and not much more, and it seemed to work for them. It was maybe a bit unsettling to see the lack of edge protection and a bit sad and disappointing to see the water that was polluted beneath the boardwalk we were walking on, but there’s not really a way to get that to change. Regardless, it was an interesting little trip and it was interesting to see something so different than what we’re used to, especially with the regulations I’m getting used to looking at for UK buildings.

Next, we visited some botanical gardens. By this time, were all very glad for the shade some of the trees provided as we walked around the park with our guide. The park was really nice to walk around, it was peaceful until someone with a motorbike decided to ride their way through, which none of us really appreciated. It really spoiled the tranquility for most of us and we all thought it was a real shame for the natural beauty to be spoiled by people – they ruin everything, really, don’t they?

The motorbikes were annoying, and maybe the chainsaws. There had been a storm and heavy winds a few days before our visit and the guide told us that the high winds had taken down a couple of trees. He said he’d had to keep an eye on the weather the day we visited because if the weather was bad we wouldn’t have been able to visit the gardens due to the risk of falling trees. He said that if one goes down, often more go to like dominoes when one knocks down more. So, we were lucky we got to walk around the botanical gardens and it was a nice break from the city of Georgetown with its very different scenery.

We also got to see some monkeys in the garden. Was this a good or bad thing? Depends who you ask. We’d not seen enough monkeys at this point for the novelty to have worn off so, we were all excited when we spotted some and took some photos and videos (don’t forget about the water monitors that are also everywhere and are just as interesting to spot).

The monkeys were maybe not as pleased to see us as we were to see them though. The guide managed to get one of the large male monkeys to approach a bit closer by pouring some coffee he had from a bag, which is something very common they do in Malaysia so they can hang up the bag of coffee while working and take a sip when they want it, I have to note it was ice coffee though so no melted plastic bags. Anyway, the guide poured some of his coffee into the shell of a coconut that was on the floor to get the monkey to approach, a method not approved by Vera, but it worked and the monkey got closer because he was curious. Then I approached to take a photo and he jerked at me. It made me jump a bit but he definitely wasn’t going to attack me, he just wanted to scare me a bit. I think people would usually get frightened and run and they would chase but the guide had said to not do this so I didn’t. Experience at the Trentham monkey forest was what I attested my firm footing to. I managed to get a very cool photo out of it though and then I left him alone.

The guide then decided to remind us that he was, in fact, a little crazy and chased the monkey away with a stick before the group continued walking.

The monkeys weren’t done yet though. Just before we left the ground of the gardens, some people stopped to get some drinks and snacks from the shop they had. Including Aimee who decided to buy herself a tube of Pringles which she believed were safe to eat once she was out of the gates of the gardens, but, unfortunately, monkeys don’t follow human set boundaries and one followed her across the car park. When she got wind of that, she did the exact opposite of what she was supposed to and threw the tube one way and ran the other. The guide came to the rescue and retrieved the Pringles but she was too scared to eat them and promptly threw them away because she didn’t know what the monkey had touched.

The final stop on the tour was to see a huge Buddha statue. We had to traverse getting to the top of the hill to see the Buddha in our mini vans in first gear and the engine revving and struggling the whole way up, but honestly, we were grateful we didn’t have to walk. We made it to the top of the hill and the guide tried to tell us about our personalities according to our zodiac signs and then we entered the temple to have a look around. I was actually quite surprised by the amount of things on sale inside, including huge crystals and ceramics, which to me made it look less like a place of worship and more of a gift shop. Some people then bought some ribbons for wishes to tie to the tree. I opted out because I didn’t know what to spend my 1 ringgit to wish for.

Then, we took some time to look at the Buddha statue. It wasn’t the original Buddha that stood in its place but a replica and, if you looked to the building on the right, you could see the head of the original sticking out of the top of the building, in a much worse condition. There were also steps to the top of the stone gazebo that held the Buddha that, apparently, at one point you could walk up to look at it, but now it wasn’t safe so we didn’t get to see that. The photos of the Buddha didn’t even turn out that well because we were far too close for the size of it but, unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to get a photo from any further away because I, and everyone else, were raring to go and have some lunch.

That evening, we went for a Mexican and I got myself some tacos, which were very nice, apart from the sneaky bits of coriander than found it’s way into it. Some people stayed out late on this night, Georgina included. I went back to the hotel early and waited for her there. In my wait, I decided go pack my bags ready for the morning and I watched the rain, thunder and lightning from the hotel window in the early hours of the morning. Apparently, the group that came back late never even noticed it had rained and it had cleared up by the time they’d got back, which was amazing to me because of what I saw.

We had a nice start to our trip in Malaysia in Georgetown and we’re going to cover a lot more ground and visit a lot more places in a week, but it’s lots of fun.