Continued from Part 1
The day dawned bright and sunny. Ok, maybe dawn is an exaggeration, and it’s usually so at 8.30. 😀 The buffet breakfast was at the Spice Market cafe, and the spread was just fantastic. I’d planned on a light breakfast since street food was a major part of the day’s agenda, but I really couldn’t help myself. Given that we were running a bit late, we skipped the original plan of taking Bus #101 and took a taxi to Georgetown, (40 MYR. They all claim to be metered, but ah, well. So ‘negotiate’ the rate before you start.) a UNESCO Heritage Site since 2008. Fort Cornwallis was where we asked to be dropped and the view from there reminded me a lot of Cochin.
Someone at this fort had a cannon obsession. The damn things were everywhere, and the irony is that the fort has never engaged in battle! We took a leisurely stroll inside and then turned into Pengkalan Weld, to begin our street art discovery.
You can do this street art exploration in many ways. You could just walk around and organically see the ones on your route, or research, figure out the ones you want to see and make a walking route. We did the latter. There are many resources available – a Google Map, an online brochure (doesn’t have the 101 Lost Kittens series) and the free guide that you can pick up at the airport is actually the most up-to-date one. Our first stops were Louis Gan’s “Two Children playing Basketball” and “Brother and Sister on a Swing”, both almost seemed alive!
We then visited the Clan Jetties, the place where the Chinese first settled. The one we wanted to see here – Two Children on a Boat by Ernest Zacharevic – had faded away. The jetties also offered a fantastic view of the waterline. Families still live on the jetties and we wondered what they thought of these tourist visits.
We caught a few from the 101 Lost Kittens (Love me like your fortune, Skippy, Please Care & Bathe me, I can help catch rats) series after this, and a few of Ernest’s other works. (Boy on a Bike, Little boy with dinosaur, Boy on a Chair) The dinosaur had disappeared like the rest of its kind, and the last work almost had a queue of people waiting to pose with the boy! The famous Khoo Kongsi house was near this, but we skipped it.
‘Old Man’, which was in the Armenian Cafe had been destroyed, and the cafe itself had shut down. But, as if to compensate, shopkeepers had made their own versions of street art!
We also saw arguably the most popular of the street art works – Little Children on a Bicycle, and my personal favourite – “The Real Bruce Lee would never do this”. The latter was also the most difficult one to find!
After catching a few of the official installations (As part of the UNESCO tag, Georgetown conducted a competition to choose 52 designs that would best represent the culture of the place) we decided to break for lunch.The first stop was Joo Hooi Cafe on Jalan Penang. A very nice old shopkeeper practically led us there when we asked for directions. A good time to point out that the people here were always helpful. Penang Laksa and Cendol were the items to be tried out here. (Again, there is a free guide at the airport, which has a list of dishes, the best places to have them, and opening and closing times) Only D could have the Laksa since it contained prawn. She seemed to like it, as I did the Cendol I asked for. The Cendol was different from the one that we had loved in Bali. We also tried a wheatgrass drink, which was similar to the Barley from the day before except in colour.
The next stop was further down the road – Ho Ping cafe, where the dish to be tried out was Char Kway Teow. This one too was prawn based, so I sat watching and sipping cold white coffee. These guys took a while delivering and I began to figure out why the cafe was named so! Now is also a good time to point out that so long as you’re not really paying attention to the cooking area, you should do just fine. Remember, this is street food.
Nasi Kandar is a must have when you’re in this part of the world, and probably the most famous go-to place for this is Line Clear, which is only some distance ahead of Ho Ping Cafe on Jalan Pelang. The line, clearly long, indicated the popularity of the place. As we waited in line, I caught a glimpse of the fish heads, which are a special here. Unfortunately, a larger group was required to do justice to it. Do not make this place a part of your plan unless you can stand a fair amount of grime – cooking, and seating options. We finally got our chance to order, and asked for a beef version of Nasi Kandar. Finding a seat is not easy and you’ll most likely be sharing a table with random people unless you’re in a large group yourself. The dish was decent though D commented that this was one of those places that undeservedly held on to a legend status. The rain gods clearly didn’t agree with this, and our luck on this front ran out!
We had to wait quite while for the sky to clear, and then discovered that the Wantan Mee stall at the junction with Lebuh Kimberley was closed! The walking (almost 9 km) and the waiting took its toll and we wanted to sit awhile before anything else. Starbucks at the Prangin Mall was a nearby option and we acquired some energy in the form of hot chocolate before returning to art forms.
Each of the official street art installations have a story that represents something about the local culture. We had done some research beforehand and found several interesting – Too Narrow, Cow & Fish, No Plastic Bag, Kopi-O, Three Generations, Rope Style, Spy, High Counter, Jimmy Choo, Quiet Please, Gedung Rumput, Wrong Tree, Kandar, Cannon Hole, Born Novelist, Waterway, One Leg Kicks All, Cheating Husband, (dynamic addition based on D’s request) Budget Hotels. During the day, we even saw a couple of others which were not on our list.
We also caught two more of Ernest’s works – Kung fu Girl and The Trishaw, both of which played elusive for a while!
The other places you might want to squeeze in are The Chocolate Museum, (which disappointed me by revealing that India is not among the top consumers of this wondrous thing) The Cheong Fatt Tze mansion, (also called the blue mansion. has an entrance fee) St.George’s Church, Church of the Assumption, and Kapitan Keling Mosque. ‘Love Lane’ is where some rich men kept their mistresses. 🙂
We were in Little India and looked around for a trishaw to take us to the Tanjung City Marina on Pengkalan Weld – that’s where our dinner spot was. The trishaw man said it was too far, but found us a cab. The people here are just awesome! We reached QE II in about 15 minutes and found a table upstairs that suited our main purpose – the view. That turned out to be fantastic and just kept getting better as the sun set. After the afternoon food assault, we weren’t really hungry and shared some beer and a plate of scallops wrapped in bacon.
The bus station was a 2 minute walk away, and we took the 101 to Batu Ferringhi. The night view was wonderful, and though the bus was freezing and directly attacked my sinus, my recent neti pot activities made sure I didn’t have a bad headache! We were dropped near the night market and this time, we shopped in earnest! We also became hungry! We decided to try the competitor to ‘Long Beach’ called “I Love You Cafe” (!) When a 20 minute wait (after ordering) got us nothing, we moved on to the Power Up Cafe for Sweet & Sour Fish, Hokkien noodles and a Cendol. “WHY IS THERE SO MUCH ICE IN THE CENDOL HERE?” became a recurring question from then on!
When we got back to the hotel, we figured (thanks to my tracker) that we had walked 18.6 km that day! Actually our aching feet had already indicated as much. The next day was scheduled to be divine! 🙂