Colour, pattern and spice

Wall and tiles, Sun Yat Sen Museum

At the Tropical Spice Gardens I had a personal tour with the very knowledgeable Syam. 

First a coffee by the sea

Then a walk around the gardens, tasting and smelling all these along the way

For the bromeliad lovers out there

Syam, my excellent tour guide

Selfies at the rooftop bar at the end of the day.

Daily worship

The call to prayer, before dawn and after dusk and in between, echoing in stereo from multiple locations 

There are so many temples, mosques and shrines around George Town and they are very much part of everyday life. They also support a variety of businesses, including a shop that sells all sorts of life-size cardboard replicas - polo shirts, silk cheongsams, luggage, computers - to be burnt as offerings to the spirits.

Branding is all cardboard Burberry shoes 

The spirits get real offerings too; incense of course, oil to burn in the lanterns, garlands of fresh flowers, and dishes of favorite foods. 

Indian deities

Guess what was this ancestor's favorite thing?

Big alters

and little ones

Angry demons

and ornate gods

Turmeric and rose petals scattered in the street outside Karaikudi (one of my favorite places to eat)

Ancestor tablets

Spaces redolent with incense

and spaces in between shopping malls and blocks of condos

Engaging all the senses and co-existing in harmony,

The Blue Mansion

Winner of a national Architectural Award for Conservation, the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion is now a heritage hotel and would be a lovely place to stay if you are thinking of spending time in Penang.

The owners have been creative about funding the restoration. As well as running the hotel and a couple of fine dining restaurants, they hire out rooms in the building for events such as weddings. And if those rickshaws out the front don't look the part, it's because they were imported from Viet Nam as part of the film shoot for Indochine. Some of the furniture in the public spaces also came with that film.

But they are very photogenic.

I did the tour, which costs a few dollars. Our guide told us a little about Mr Cheong and his eight wives. By the 1970's there were some 37 families living in the building. The current owners passed the building daily going to school, and it came up for sale they year they returned to Penang after both studying conservation architecture in London.

Breakfast is served in the courtyard for hotel guests

Enthusiastic guide

Blue for Chinese is associated with funerals, so not a common colour for houses

The 5 terrace houses over the road housed servants in Cheong's days

I'll have this room thanks

Afterwards I went to a little local restaurant beside the law courts for nasi lemak. Then wandered in the lanes and streets of the Heritage Zone.

Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi

What did I see at the Temple in the Khoo Kongsi complex? Beautiful lanterns. A sleeping guard. Swarms of tourists in tight groups, from the cruise ship that came in at dusk last night. Bats in the ceiling, crap - oh, I mean carp - in the courtyard. Charcoal wall murals, ornate gilded wooden carvings, beautiful roof trusses.

Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi

The Khoo temple and village - reflecting the defensive instinct of the Hokkien in Penang

Local businesses

Very tempted to try this local business 

Garland makers in Little India

Just around the corner from the Goddess of Mercy shrine is Mr Lee the Joss Stick maker, one of the few traditional craftsmen still operating in the George Town Heritage Zone. His son Mr Lee would have talked to me all afternoon had I not been melting in the little shop that was like a sauna. Old Mr Lee is 88 years old and rests in the afternoons but can seen making incense cones and sticks each morning. They use sandalwood powder that comes from Western Australia, mix it with stuff from the local 'sticky powder tree' from and some Kuantan sawdust, another local tree that reinforces the stickiness. The cones are dried in the sun on the pavement in front of the shop. This business has been operating from the same building for 65 years, though during the Japanese occupation Mr Lee destroyed his stock rather than coming under their orders.
   He gave me a fragrant cone, but I had to buy a few sticks for having listened to the stories. Local media studies students had made the brochure for the business.

Some other local businesses

Chop Maker (stamps)

Dress Maker

Chinese medicines

All sorts tourist business

Indian supermarket (my purchases)

No pictures of the women in very high heels and false eyelashes who appear along Chulia Street after dark. I think I had an offer of 70 ringgit from a very large lady who looked perhaps half black half malay. Maybe she was talking to someone walking behind me. I wasn't going to check to find out though.

What IS that hanging here?