We started the day with our 3 personal local tour guides with breakfast in this exotic little cafe...in the Little India street of Penang.
Every Chinese clan apparently has their own 'association', a sort of big community hall for use of the clan. In the olden days, these halls use to host people belonging to that clan / sir name when they first arrive in the shores of Malaya. The newly arrived will then settle and build houses around the main hall, which is also like a big building that serves as a temple and restaurant
Although there are many 'Kongsi's around - Tan, Teh, Cheah etc....we visited the Khoo Kongsi - the riches Chinese association in Penang, It's a building covered in gold and splendor - a magnificent display of the prosperity of the Khoos.
We discovered in the house, a room filled with the names of all the male Khoos in Penang who had graduated from a university with a degree (minimum bachelors). They each have a plague with their name and degrees engraved on it. How unfair!!! The Chinese world is such a male's world. What about the Khoo ladies and their achievements????!!!???? Are these not recognised???
Then, it was an amazing race hunt to look for as many 'Paintings on the wall' as we could find. Think it was a scheme to try to raise Penang's artistic and creative image in the eyes of the world.. Of course even in the sweaty hot weather, we were not the only ones panting around the roads of Penang looking for a photo opportunity. There were long lines of tourist at many of the 'paintings' to capture the 'beauty of Penang'.
Next is a visit to The Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion, more commonly known as the Blue house which is a now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The mansion is now owned by a company, and as well as being open to the public, the mansion also serves as a hotel - yes, for a substantial amount of money, you could stay in this beautiful mansion on your holidays in Penang.
We had a hour long guided tour of the mansion, who volunteer as guide in the mansion during her holidays apparently to be near the chi-ness of the place. We were shown the ground floor, upstairs and various room in the mansion, and most importantly shown where the 'Chi' of the house originates from. Apparently with the back of the house facing a mountain and front facing the sea (or was it the other way around??) the mansion is full of 'good chi'.The tour guide gave a very informative historical account of the mansion, but unfortunately all I could remember is that the mansion was bought my Cheong Fatt Sze for his n-th concubine in Penang!!! Apparently, he had a mistress in every region. Mr Cheong, is such a successful and well respected man that apparently when he passed away, the flags (Penang was under British rule than) were flown at half mast! Alas sadly, his heirs / descendants are not as prudent or business savvy as him, and hence are just living/squandering off the fortune that he had amassed without making any of their own. Story had it that the family was just waiting and waiting and waiting for his last son to pass away before they sold off this historical house (and several of his other houses around the region) to obtain more money to live off.
Finished the afternoon off with a yummy yummy coconut drink (standing by the roadside)..
There you go...What a fun day we had ! Who says we need travel a long long distance or spend lots of money flying across the globe to enjoy being a tourist. The best things in life are free :):)
p/s The tour guides are of course, very ' richly rewarded' with a huge tip.
