Old and New Penang

Day 3

Yesterday was our last day in Penang. We have taken enough photos of the day before and assumed that everything has been done for the site. It was time to go around the town for sight-seeing and visiting some art galleries.

First we went to Carnarvon street in the morning and came to a market street. Chin Keng, Choon Wah and I stopped for a tau foo far break. God! It was cheap. Only 60 cents!!

The market street

Then we continued to Armenien street and we bumped into a building that we were looking for two days earlier. It is the residential house of Dr Sun Yat Sen when he came to Penang for a revolution. Many tourists including the President of People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao had came to visit the house, which now owned by Madam Khoo.

There are many movies about Dr Sun but I don’t really know much about him. I’m bad in History. Was he the one who united the people of China, and also the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore as well? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Heritage trail

Inside Dr Sun's house

Next to Dr Sun's house is an art gallery. There are many showpieces of great artist in Malaysia. Most of the works are in oil paint and water colour. Visiting the gallery could be useful to our current design project.

Thankfully the owner of the gallery, My Koay Soo Kau was kind enough to show us around and spent time explaining us ART. Many of them are abstract drawings and since my colouring (especially water colour) sucks badly, I didn’t comment much on the drawings. Hehe.

This is the gallery house

Gallery Seri Mutiara

Group photo with My Koay

The Islamic musem beside

Playing with the stone path

Passed by a chinese temple

Next we walked around the area and went to the famous Khoo Kongsi place at Lorong Cannon. It was my first time visiting such place and it is somewhere hidden in the houses along the street. Once we were inside, there was a big courtyard, a temple and a performing stage. This was where all the Khoo families gathered and stayed together at one time ago.

Other than Khoo family, there are also other kongsi such as the Yap and Lim around the area.

Walking

Entering the Khoo Kongsi

The are houses behind the row of houses

The temple

Inside

Drawings on the wall

The opera theatre stage opposite

Happy me with sad monk

Sad me with happy monk

After wondering around the historical area of Penang, it was time for a little shopping. Hehe. We headed to the RapidPenang terminal at the jetty and boarded bus 307 straight to Queensbay Mall.

Bus terminal

My first impression of the mall was, "OMG! It looks so much like MidValley."

Queensbay Mall

Suddenly I felt like I was back in KL. As it was Saturday, the mall was FULL of people; students, families, couples. A total different world from where we went for the past two days. And as for lunch we tried something ‘present’ - the Nando’s.

Macam MidValley Center Court

A car fair going on

Asrof and Veelai

Nothing special to buy and see there. Just like a typical mall in KL. Oh, the only thing I’ve never seen before is the inline skating at the top of the mall.

CW and CK in Nando's

The inline skating ring

When we were about to leave the mall back to town, RapidPenang really gave us a hard time. First, the bus frequency was so damn long! And not many buses go back to town. We had to wait for like an hour to get to a bus which goes to KOMTAR. And when the bus arrived, the people just rushed forward and cramped like sardine fishes. Till when la, only we can be civilized?!

Inside Rapid

Saw this in Burma road. The same thing in Bukit Bintang

Back to the guest house, we all bathed (separately) and prepared for dinner. As it was quite late already, I don’t think we would ever make it to Bon Odori at the Esplanade. Plus everyone was so tired already. Chin Keng, Choon Wah and I went to the street stalls nearby and the rest of them went to eat pizza at other place.

We checked out the Banana Guest House at 10pm and it was time to depart. Gonna miss all the food here. Sad...