Clara still wasn’t feeling great this morning, so I wandered out alone with the intention of blitzing the museums I’d postponed. I stopped first at a little chocolate and coffee museum.
It wasn’t too interesting (the shop was bigger than the museum) but it was free to enter and there were free samples of the rather tasty Malaysian chocolate.
After just a few minutes there I walked to the Penang Time Tunnel museum. It offers a pretty detailed insight into Penang’s history, and is quite well put together. The story of Sir Francis Light, coming over from the UK to negotiate with the King of Malaysia, and being granted free rule over Penang island, is fascinating. It tells of how he arrived with little more than a small crew of envoys and a group of Malay sailors, and simply started building, founding the heart of modern Penang. The descriptions on how Penang quickly became a free-port market town explains the richness of the town in terms of both money and cultures, and left me feeling like I understood the place a bit better. Photographs of Penang’s churches, British-built town hall, government building, ports and cricket pitch sitting next to mosques, Buddhist temples and multi-lingual schools, I got the impression that Penang is proud of its history, and its current state of cultural diversity and acceptance is truly inspirational.
Immediately above the Time Tunnel museum is the “Fluorescent Fantasy museum”. This is a lot like the Upside Down museum, in that it’s 100% gimmicky, and not a lot of fun to walk around alone! There were a couple of attendants asking if I’d like a photo. I awkwardly said no and left.
Wandering the waterfront, it was still relatively early, and Penang doesn’t wake up until past midday, so I took a few shots of the deserted plazas and watched a couple of fishermen relaxing by the water:
Further along is the landing point of Sir Francis Light (who founded modern Penang, remember?) so I dropped in and explored the fort he built. It started out in bamboo, but was later converted to brick, and then stone, and now still stands, complete with its chapel and gunpowder store:
I think the area is also used as an events venue, as there’s plenty of space and large tiered seating area. There wasn’t anything going on at 10am though.
I realised at this point that I had about an hour or so until I had to be at the ferry port, so I dashed on down to my last destination; the Perkantian Chinese Museum. Much like the Blue Mansion, this was built by rich Chinese merchants, but has been arranged specifically to show items of the Straits Chinese culture and history.
The first picture here shows a room with an interesting feature – there are two huge mirrors on either wall which, from the head of the table’s perspective, allow you to see the staircase (left) and the front door (right). The head of the table can therefore keep an eye on all entrances while entertaining guests…
I took one of my favourite pictures in that house, at a chair which was designed for couples to read books while truly enjoying each other’s company. My mum asked me how much it was. I still can’t tell if she was serious:
The house was filled with interesting objects and stories. I learned how tradition dictated that the colour of a woman’s dress must change after she marries. I saw one of the most beautiful cameras I had ever seen, and wandered through an apothecary holding every medicine and “medicine” I could name.
The house even has its own temple, and with its intricate figurines and carvings surrounding colourful shrines and more unique furniture, it would be worth visiting for this alone.
Overall I felt it was the most fascinating and well presented museum in Penang, and was sad to leave when I ran out of time and had to make my way to the ferry port.
Arriving by the water I found Clara arriving, perfect timing! There was one more moment to take a final picture of the Francis Light memorial by the ferry port, and then we hopped on board to make our way North to Langkawi.
