British colonial buildings, Indian restaurants and Chinese temples can be found almost side by side in Georgetown, Malaysia. Because of these unique features, this historical city on Penang Island was listed last year as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. We only spent one day there, but that was enough for Kath to take more than 500 pictures of this beautiful city… here’s a selection!

After our 15-hour night, we went out to tour the city. First stop for the food, and back to the Chinese style breakfast of noodle soup!

Most of the sidewalks are covered arches walkways, though they’re usually taken up by junk outside of the shops, so you have to contend with the traffic.

Drive through, Malaysian style:

Another Chinese thing I was happy to see again: egg tarts!

We came accross a shop where a couple of people were setting fire to a pile of what looked like garbage, and pouring a ring of fuel around it. We think it was some kind religious thing, but it wasn’t clear.

We wandered down a neat little street and randomly came across a Chinese temple.

The walls had lots of paintings on them

And the lanterns were great!

If I remember correctly, it was a clan house, so there were photos everywhere of family members, and these name plates:

I loved the reconstructed kitchen, but remembering back to the hygiene standards in Kitchens in China, I’m not sure it was totally accurate…

Outside, there were a bunch of “trishaws” lined for a group of tourists:

Sadly, we weren’t on their tour.

Everywhere you look here there are interesting things, whether it’s just a shop…

… or a little shrine on the sidewalk.

In front of the mosque (after all, Malaysia is a Muslim country!):

Our wanderings led us into Little India, complete with the smell of curries wafting in the air and booming bollywood films.

Along the waterfront is the old fort and some big colonial buildings. And, of course, some people fishing:

Fort Cornwallis, the first British settlement on Penang:

the City hall:

the Town Hall (sitting next to the City hall):

And even a church:

The famous blue building, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion:

That pretty much summarizes our stay in Georgetown – it was amazing to be in contact with such a diversity of cultures, people and food: sometimes, we felt as if we were back in China, but two streets down we could discover the Indian culture, with speakers screaming Bollywood hits into the street ;-)

The next morning, we got up at 4am to catch the van that took us across the country to the Perhentian Island, on the East coast… but that’s another post!