Mantajo: Visiting Penang, George Town World Heritage Site

I haven’t visit Penang after both Melaka and George Town was declare UNESCO world heritage sites for its historic cities at straits of Malacca on 2008. I planned a trip to Penang or Pulau Pinang from 30th May to 1st June to attend a good friend beautiful baby Iris 1 month old birthday party at Bukit Mentajam and it is a good time for me to bring my family as well to visit this special heritage site at George Town.

Before Penang declared the world heritage site, I never really walk George Town after visiting Penang several times. This time I will take my time to capture some heritage building at George Town with my own design walking tour after so many good reference sites from Penang blogger and observer. I will name this tour “Jo’s George Town Core Heritage Walking” tour (separate into 4 section Esplanade section, Commercial Section, Clan Section and MKK Section) which take approximately 3 hour by foot that covers Esplanade Cornwallis, commercial building at Beach rd, historic religious places and some traditional houses.

My walking tour is mainly focus on building architecture and religious places without entrance fee. Anyway I visit the heritage sites on Sunday where many places like Fort Cornwallis, Lim Kongsi, Dr. Sun Yat Sen base are closed. Some places like Khoo Kongsi, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Historical houses need to pay for entrance which I am not interested. So this is the places that I am interested and worth a visit according to my preference where I would be introducing.

I started my first section of the walking tour from Esplanade section along Light Rd where my first attraction would be the Logan’s memorial sitting in front of the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi). This is a beautiful statue that captures my attention.

That’s another structure that captures my attention which is the Great Eastern old building. Then we walk towards Esplanade to look for Town hall, City Hall Building and Cenotaph War Memorial. The next destination would be Fort Cornwallis that I would recommend but I did not really visit as it was close on Sunday.

Then come the second section of Commercial building, where I started from the Queen Victoria clock tower, follow by the stretch of commercial building of Standard & Charted building, RBS building,

Malayan Railway Building that I love most and capture my attention.

After beach rd, then I turn into Chulia Rd where my third section of Clan started with my first attraction which is the little mosque of Nagore Shine.

Then by pass Madrasah Hamid Arabi & Lim Kongsi, visiting Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple and Yap Clan Temples.

Then we walked along Armenian Rd to visit Dr. Sun Yat Sen base and Islamic Museum, former residence of Syed Alatas Mansion before ending at Khoo Kongsi and Acheen mosque.

We had our early vegetarian lunch along the Masjid Kapitan Keling Rd next to a temple. After the lunch then we start our final section of the MKK section that comprise of penang oldest temple Kapitan Keling Mosque,