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WE celebrated a wonderful wedding in a multi-ethnic way. We were in Penang staying in Shangri-la’s five-star deluxe resort of Rasa Sayang which means ‘feeling of love’. A beautiful Malaysian girl had married a handsome Norwegian man. Rasa Sayang was living up to its name. But neither the young couple, nor we, were the first foreigners to visit this exotic place. Almost 600 years before us, an English captain named James Lancaster had loaded his ship, here, with spices and prepared to sail back home. Though Lancaster lost his cargo to a mutinous crew, his appetite had been whetted. He convinced Queen Elizabeth I to set up a company to start this lucrative trade. It was registered on the December 31, 1600, as The Governor and Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’ better known as The East India Company.
One of their officers was Capt Francis Light. His statue stands in trading fort he built. He and other officials of the company encouraged Indian and Chinese families to bring their traditional, professionals and entrepreneurial skills to develop Penang. Chinese women married local Malayas and created the proud Baba-Nonya community with its own mores mingling the two cultures. Then came the neighbouring Thais and Burmese, who built their resplendent temples. At the fringes of the ethnic groups there was more intermingling, and even Francis Light had married a woman of Portuguese origin. For us, the kaleidoscope of cultures was exciting. In Georgetown, the Thai temple was a resplendence of gold, green red and blue with an enormous reclining Buddha with a pink face and gold robes. Across the road was a Burmese temple. Interestingly, souvenir-sellers outside the temple offered a variety of statuettes including those of Rama and Sita. In a jetty restaurant, we dined on fresh seafood. Some dishes had the flavour of lemon grass, others were almost-tandoori relished with the South-East variation known ubiquitously as roti-prata. “But a parantha is a bread,” we argued. The Sino-Indian-Malay hawker grinned benignly. “Yes-yes” he bobbed his head, “but this is Penang!” and he proceeded to break an egg onto the sizzling roti-prata. Fortified, we moved on to the cool serenity of the Floating Mosque rising above its reflected image. The original architecture of the three Semitic faiths, born in arid West Asian lands, tended to be more minimalist than those of religions nurtured in the lush tropics.
St George’s Anglican Church was immaculately white as it had been when Captain Robert Smith of the Madras Engineers had built it in 1818. From there, we boarded two pedi-cabs and toured Little India. Men in mundus and women in sarees strolled past. In the Mahamariamma Temple, under a towering gopuram, the fragrance of incense and temple bells were a vignette of Chennai. A little further on, there was a Taoist temple. Inside the temple, votive lamps threw a golden glow on dark statues of Pao Sheng Ta Ti, God of Justice and Ma Chao, Goddess of the Sea. The Chew Clan believed that justice had been given to them by the sea after their arduous ocean voyage from China to Penang. Here they had built their village on jetties along the Weld Quay reputedly because they did not want to pay land taxes. Their village, standing on pilings driven into the tidal flats, is linked by wooden walkways open only to pedestrians and motor-cycles. We took a trip on the funicular railway to the peak. Penang island spread at our feet. It was cool and misty at this height. We descended in the funicular and drove out to our last intriguing destination in Penang: the Chor Soo Kong Snake Temple. Here, highly venomous pit vipers had draped themselves on low, dried branches. In this temple, we were told, they are under the soothing influence of a departed seer. Clearly Penang weaves magical spells over its inhabitants, and visitors like us.
What to do Walk the streets of Georgetown, one of Unesco’s heritage sites. Join the guided walking tours organised by Penang Heritage Trust. Visit Penang Hill, St George’s Church, Kapitan Keling Mosque, Kek Lok Si Temple, Snake Temple, Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Weld Quay Clan Jetties, Flea markets, pasar malam, modern shopping malls, tropical butterfly farm in Teluk
Bahang. By air The Penang International Airport, located in Bayan Lepas, receives direct flights from major capitals in the region. Malaysian Airlines operates more than 20 flights daily to and from
Penang. By road The North-South Highway connects Penang to major cities on the West side of Peninsular Malaysia. Travel by highway can take 4-5 hours. By train KTMB, the national train company, runs a daily service ( around 6 hours) to Butterworth from Kuala Lumpur. For further information, visit www.ktmb.com.my. Accommodation There are hotels to suit all budgets. What to buy Kuih bahulu, (Malay cake), tau sar pneah, (Chinese biscuits), batik (cloth), ceramics, nyonya beaded shoe, bead embroidered kebaya, capal (Malay sandal), songkok (head dress for men), herbs and spices
Globetrotting
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