Penang Road and Streets

Upper Penang Road and Chulia Streets

For those who love to drink and party, the Upper Penang Road party hotspot in George Town comes alive when the sun descends on the horizon. Here, you will find pubs, karaoke lounges and clubs with live bands where the drinks keep flowing and the beat keeps thumping! At nearby Chulia Street, backpackers chill and bond in little budget motels, coffee shops and watering holes that serve relatively cheap(er) beer and drinks.

Lovely Farm

Butterfly Farm

In contrast to Georgetown, which is predominantly Chinese, Batu Ferringhi is a place where the mixed ethnicity of its residents are more apparent. All along the coast, visitors can see Malay and Chinese  fishing villages. The cafes, restaurants, sidewalk stalls and single-story shops that line Batu Ferringhi road, are run by people of different races, all sharing in the wealth that tourism brings in to Batu Ferringhi. And although the sidewalk bazaar in Batu Ferringhi has a noticeably larger number of Chinese entrepreneurs, there are a few stalls selling speciality items that are run by entrepreneurs of different races.

Sunshine

Batu Ferringhi Beach

The name Batu Ferringhi itself attests historically to Penang's brushes with several different foreign powers, including the British, the Dutch and the Portuguese. Some locals believe that the word Ferringhi was derived from a foreign language (perhaps Portuguese) which refers to 'foreigners'.

Batu Ferringhi has long been known for its scenic seaside panorama. Like other seaside destinations such as Cherating, Batu Ferringhi has been frequented by tourists for decades. Over the years, factors such as the industrialisation of Penang island and the presence of the RAAF in Butterworth, further exposed Penang and particularly Batu Ferringhi to even more foreign visitors. But it wasn't until the late 1970's that one of the first international resorts and hotels were built.

In contrast to Georgetown, which is predominantly Chinese, Batu Ferringhi is a place where the mixed ethnicity of its residents are more apparent. All along the coast, visitors can see Malay and Chinese  fishing villages. The cafes, restaurants, sidewalk stalls and single-story shops that line Batu Ferringhi road, are run by people of different races, all sharing in the wealth that tourism brings in to Batu Ferringhi. And although the sidewalk bazaar in Batu Ferringhi has a noticeably larger number of Chinese entrepreneurs, there are a few stalls selling speciality items that are run by entrepreneurs of different races.

Water Babies

The Weld Quay Clan Jettiest

The houses used to have atap roofs but these have since been replaced with zinc sheets. The six clan jetties may be located at the backwaters of George Town but the 6ha area is home to a priceless piece of Penang’s history and a living heritage that serves as a reminder of one of South East Asia’s most important maritime ports.

The birth place of many community leaders and successful merchants, Weld Quay is a crime-free settlement – a claim several residents attest to.

Here, people consider their neighbours family and would bend over backwards to help each other – a rarity in this modern day and age.

The settlement’s oldest resident is 91-year-old great-grandfather Chew Boon Cheang. The friendly old chap doesn’t speak a word of English but will flash the warmest smile whenever he sees a tourist visiting the settlement.

His parents were pioneer immigrants who came to seek their fortune here more than a century ago. Lured by the promise of a better future for their poor families back home, Chinese immigrants from the different clans settled here and lived in groups according to their provinces. The five main clans at the jetties are Lim, Chew, Tan, Lee and Yeoh. There other immigrants stayed together at the Chap Seh Keo (Mixed Surname Jetty).

In the old days, traders from Myanmar (then Burma), Acheh and Medan in Indonesia, and Kerabi and Phuket in Thailand would come to Penang, providing opportunities for the Weld Quay settlers who were mainly boatmen, fishermen, odd-job labourers and porters, to earn a good living.
Today, the young ones, who no longer depend on the sea for a living, have moved out of the settlement while their elders continue to enjoy the wooden jetties’ laidback lifestyle.

During the Thee Kong Seh (Jade Emperor’s birthday), Phor Tor (Hungry Ghost Festival) and Kew Ong Yeah (Nine Emperor Gods) festivals, everyone comes home to dutifully embrace their religion, culture and life at the settlement. Indeed, these are the best opportunities for foreign tourists to observe some of the most interesting local ceremonies in Malaysia!

Places Of Worship

Places Of Worship

Grand churches, elaborate Buddhist and Indian temples and magnificent mosques are all part and parcel of the local culture. Be it the St George’s Church (built in 1816), Kapitan Keling Mosque, Kek Lok Si Temple, Snake Temple (yes, there are live snakes inside!) or Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the different races often converge at these places of worship to practice their faith and it is indeed, a sight to be hold.

Old Streets At Penang

The Streets Of Georgetown

A fascinating fusion of eastern and western influences, Penang is Malaysia’s most tourist-visited destination. The island manages to embrace modernity while retaining its colonial traditions; due to its well-preserved heritage buildings Penang’s capital, Georgetown, has been accorded a listing as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

Although Georgetown’s landscape is dominated by Chinese storefronts most in need of a good paint job there are also swanky shopping complexes, refurbished Chinese manors, rowdy pubs and artsy boutiques, cafes and studios. The city is a mainstay on the Malaysian tourist scene yet it is also a popular expat enclave; besides that, the food here a hotchpotch of Indian curry and Chinese noodles is for many the best in Malaysia.

Noteworthy as the only state in Malaysia to have a Chinese majority population, Penang’s sub-culture is a mixture of Asia itself. Rather than feeling mono-ethnic, it exemplifies the country’s colonial past and mixed-heritage future brilliantly. It isn’t Malaysia’s most beautiful state yet it does posses a certain charm – the oldest of the British Straits settlements, this state is arguably one of its most tolerant and cosmopolitan.

Georgetown, Penang’s capital on the north-eastern corner of the island, is dotted with idiosyncratic Chinese shop lots, narrow roads, old-fashioned colonial-era mansions, clan houses, numerous schools, ornate temples and Little India districts. It goes without saying that the city is an exceedingly rewarding destination – skirting the conurbation is a landscape of beaches, forests and lakes.

Beautiful Nature in Penang

Penang National Park

The Penang National Park spans 1,213ha of land and sea and is used by scientists, researchers, and nature lovers to explore its natural treasures.

Previously known as the Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve, this pristine site is known to harbour 417 flora and 143 fauna species. Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve, located at the northwestern tip of Penang was declared the Penang National Park in April 2003.

Penang National Park is the first protected area legally gazetted under Malaysia's National Park Act of 1980, signifying the State and Federal governments’ environmental protection efforts.

Penang National Park was established to preserve and protect flora and fauna as well as objects with geological archaelogical, historical, ethnologycal, scientific, and scenic interests.

Natural attractions of Pulau Pinang National Park include the Hill / Lowland Dipterocarp Forests, Mangrove Forest areas,sandy beach habitats, the unique seasonal meromictic lake and the open coastal seas. Stands of Seraya (Shorea curtisii) trees, common feature of coastal Dipterocarp Forest, can be easily seen on steep slopes around Muka Head. There are over 1000 species of plants recorded which are dominated by the family Dipterocarpaceae, Leguminoceae, Apocynaceae, Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Moraceae.

Part of the Pantai Acheh Forest Reserve had been logged before 1955; no forest areas there have been logged since 1955. All logging activities were stopped in 1996, and Malaysian public funding has been allocated to develop the Penang National Park, within guidelines.