I arrived quite late last night. The airport was busy but it all went smoothly - they take/scan your finger prints when checking & stamping the passport. Then all bags have to go through an x-ray. There was a traffic jam outside the airport and I'd ordered a taxi through GRAB and was thinking, how the hell will he get through this lot?, but they have a separate area for GRAB taxis, which the app told me so I got picked up ok, reaching the hotel at 11.30pm.
I didn't sleep that well - my mattress was lumpy - and in the morning, when I went to unpack my rucksack from the flight bag, I discovered that New Zealand Airport Security had checked my bag and removed all my AA & AAA batteries. I had noticed the sticker on the bag at Singapore airport but not paid a lot of attention at the time. Inside the bag there was a note to say they had removed my batteries! - all 16. They say you shouldn't have loose batteries but these were well secured and one pack of 10 AAA were not opened! I'd flown into New Zealand with them.
They must have opened my lock and put it back and unpacked and re-packed everything!!
The hostel, called Heritage House 123, is also a cafe called Space House Cafe - shown below
I wandered about taking a few photos and everything seemed to be closed - the museum, and the fort I wanted to visit were both closed for renovation.
The Fort Cornwallis Lighthouse:
This area is called the Esplanade
Streets of Georgetown
I love these tiled floors!
I had a coffee in a little place - Kopi is the traditional coffee - which is strong black filter coffee often served with condensed milk and sugar - It was good & only 2 ringgits which is less than 40 p
I did visit the Penang Straits Museum - which was also a cafe.
Here I learnt some history of Penang - which got its name from the 'pinang' palm tree which grows here, producing the betel nut - which used to be chewed as a stimulant:
and it was a sleepy fishing town until the British arrived in 1766 - there was a lot of information so I've tried to give a bit of an outline
The British - The East India Company - saw George Town - Penang, as a strategic point for a Port in the Malacca strait and Fort Cornwallis was built, to ward off attackers, including the Malay pirates.
It had always been well placed in The Maritime Silk Road - a route connecting China, Southeast Asia, India, The Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe - a route used since the 2nd century BC.
It was an important trade route at a time when ships were the only way to transport goods quicker than by land and could reach the spice islands (Maluku Islands), rich in nutmeg, cloves and spices that were in high demand in Europe. Also through the maritime route, European ships would pass by the straits of Malacca en route to China to trade for porcelain and tea.
Sailing these routes became seasonal - due to the winds
and many ships were wrecked along the coastline of Malaysia. The area, of course, became an area of conflict and battle between different countries
The museum had a lot of recovered porcelain from the wrecks and had some out of the cabinets that you could actually touch and hold!
More streets & tiles & street art. The town did seem to be waking up and there was more traffic about.
They have an area called 'Little India'
This is a stall selling the famous spiky Durian fruit which has a disgusting smell but is supposed to be delicious.
The outside of the hostel at night
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