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Published: December 5th 2014
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Cope on Trishaw
Georgetown, Penang,Malaysia Trishaws! Penang, Malaysia After a night and day traveling north through the Straights of Malacca between Sumatra and Thailand, we arrived at Penang, Malaysia at 4:00 in the evening. No bus for this tour…..
Trishaws! Yes! Our tour took us all over Georgetown, Penang in a Trishaw “cab”. The “cabs” were a little small, and the tour leader asked if Cope would like to have his own Trishaw and driver, and he jumped at the chance, so off we went with separate drivers. Our drivers were not young or big by any means but were they strong ;-). Pedaling us furiously to tour all over town. My driver liked to pedal fast and always passed everyone else up and got me to each point first! ;-)
Our first stop was the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, also known as the Blue Mansion. It is now a hotel, but was originally a home built by a very wealthy Chinese tycoon, Cheong Fatt Tze. He was the richest Asian in the world at the time, mid 1800’s. The large home was let go to ruin in the early 1900’s with many families of squatters living
Jean with Nam her driver
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia there. Around 1980, a local architect bought it and has lovingly restored the home to its former glory. It is a famous location to film movies and television in Malaysia. One of the unique features is the open courtyard as soon as you enter the building-no roof on the courtyard and an open fountain where are the rainwater comes in and is stored. Lots of plants surround the courtyard as the hot humid weather is so conducive to their growth. The home is still richly furnished with beautiful antique furniture…we really needed and enjoyed the treats they served us…cakes, fresh coffee and tea and sandwiches….as it was almost 6:00pm when we arrived.
Out to the Trishaws where my driver Nam was furiously waving to me to hurry… I think he wanted to be first out! LOL, he pedaled us over to the clan Temple, She Tek Tong Chea Kongsi, a family compound for a family that traced their genealogy on the walls back 300 years. They still own this lovely, very ornate building, and all the buildings around it. It burned in a fire the year after it was built, but the family rallied round and it
Chinese Kongs
Beautiful Mansion Georgetown, Penang, Malaysis was rebuilt in the 1870’s. There still is a “Board of Directors” who administers the property and family meetings are held there and lines of the family from all over China, Thailand and Malaysia still attend.
I hustled back to Nam so we would be first ;-) A few blocks later we were at a museum that was formally a home of another wealthy Chinese family, the Pinang Peranakan Mansion. There are still pictures on the wall of the wedding of the bride and groom, Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee, and his bride. There are over 1,000 collectables and antiques depicting life the “Straits” (living along the Malaccan Straits). The museum also features a Chinese jewelry Museum showcasing Baba Nyonga jewelry, an amalgamation of Chinese, Malay, Victorian, and Indian compositions. The mansion is very richly decorated with furniture with ivory inlays.
Totally dark now as we make our way through Little India with music everywhere, shops selling lots of cloth and clothing and people visiting on the streets. Nam, kept pointing out buildings to me… the Catholic Church, the post office, the school ;-) This Trishaw ride was going to end way too soon for
Blue Mansion
Reading the News me.
But… Nam was definitely heading back to the ship…bummer!
Just as we were arriving back at the ship, Cope’s Trishaw driver got side swiped by a car door that was suddenly opened in his path. The driver shouted in anger at the car driver. After Cope got off, the driver pulled over and started to try to repair his Trishaw. Fortunately no one was hurt.
Next stop: Langkawi, Malaysia
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