Georgetown Festival 2010

On 7th July 2008, Georgetown (an island on the north of Malaysia) was listed as UNESCO world heritage site. Two years down the road, the Chief Minister of Penang declare this day as a public holiday. Besides that, there are activities throughout the month of July in conjunction with this world recognition.

Many employees take this day off merely as a day off. But for me, I jump into the opportunity to participate in as many of the heritage activities as possible. Although I am not born a Penangite, but I have live long enough on the island to be considered one. If you ask me how well I know the island, well I thought I am very familiar with the island until I really tour Georgetown on 7th July 2010.

I signed up for a pre-war buildings tour and it was a fun-filled experience. After the heritage trail, I decided to tour the town by foot. There are really many heritage buildings in town and I am so glad that we manage to preserve them until today.

Heritage Buildings







































Georgetown World Heritage Inc. Did not know that this place exist. A very informative place with friendly volunteers. Their collection of heritage items are unique too....different type of bricks, tiles, roof etc.






Khoo Kongsi






Malaysia is a multi-racial country and Georgetown is no exceptional. One of the most popular mosque was open to the public on this day. As the mosque is a holy place, we need to be properly dressed to enter. I did not enter because I was in shorts and short sleeve t-shirt but I did visit the museum located beside the mosque.











Then we went to Meng Eng Soo which was quite out of the way. It used to be the secret meeting place of the Ghee Hin gang.













The official launching of this festival was in the evening and there was a line-up of cultural performances. I even had an up-close encounter with the Malaysia Minister of Tourism. Overall, the performances were quite entertaining though not spectacular.









The highlight of the night was the Beijing opera performance by two non-chinese actors. The male lead was played by Ghaffar Pourazar (born an Iranian but grow up in UK) while the female lead was played by Morimura Chie (a Japanese). Both studied the art at Beijing and they are very well-versed in mandarin. Simply respectable. Oh, did I mention that they give chinese opera a twist (some modernisation) in order to lure more youngsters to appreciate the art.






Stalls were set up along the streets and some are pretty interesting.















To make the day a totally heritage experience, we had lunch at a 'mamak' restaurant. The chef serves dishes which are out of the ordinary but very yummy ones.


Art display along the streets of Georgetown





Fuh, finally! So many photographs to upload but the connection is not really co-operative. In conclusion, it was an amazing day and I am loving Georgetown even more.