The butcher, the baker, the joss stick maker.

Thursday 25^th Feb 2016.

Very hot and weary by the end of the day yesterday, so we decide to explore a bit closer to home today. There’s some street art closer that we haven’t seen yet and the building where Jimmy Choo began his shoe making apprenticeship is not far either, so it’d be a shame not to go by past and take a photo. I know a girl at home who loves her shoes and might like to see a pic. 

Before we headed out though, we got a surprise to see a helicopter coming in to land across the road at the school. There must be other VIP’s coming to town. And before we knew it, another one landed. Something big is going on! It’s surprising, although I guess it shouldn’t be, the amount of things to see and do quite close to our hotel. Street art is all over town, concentrated in the UNESCO World Heritage Zone, both paintings and 3D steel art on the walls. We’re in the Buffer Zone, and there is still a smattering here too. We also found a Laundromat that would be handy if we came back and stayed somewhere cheaper. I think it was in Love Lane, so named because all the wealthy gents who lived in Muntri Road kept their mistresses in the lane around the corner. 

Wandered around following our street art map and there was a joss stick maker marked in Lorong Muda, so we went there next and were absolutely amazed at the dear little old man who, at 88, still gets up every day and is busy at work sitting 6 inches off the ground, making Joss sticks so as to be able to put them in the morning sun across the road to dry. Mr Lee was his name and he only spoke Chinese. Fortunately for us, his 55 year old son had recently returned home to care for him after the death of his wife, and he spoke English as well as Chinese. The sandalwood comes from the forests of Western Australia and we all got a bit of a laugh when we said we were from Australia too. I hope we can get them back through Oz border control.
Mr Lee the Younger took us inside his father’s house and showed us 3 dragons that his father had made, all kept in separate perspex boxes, about 300mm size. He made them many years ago and each one took him 2 months to make, another facet to his abilities. They’ve turned down large sums of money from people wanting to buy them, saying that when they die, if there’s no-one to carry on the business, the dragons will go to the museum. It’s no wonder, they were so intricate and beautiful. 

They offered us a go at trying to make a joss stick, Mr Lee the Elder made it look so easy. It also looked like poo, so we politely declined. Mr Lee the Elder said it kept him young, the smell is good for his lungs and keeping busy is good for him. Mr Lee the Younger wanted us to smell the fragrance of the combined sandalwood and incense and also for quality control, so he lit one and it did smell quite nice. There’s no chemicals added to the mix so nothing to irritate the eyes or nose. They were very proud of that fact. 

We’ve had the most interesting conversations with the locals, it’s been one of the best parts of Penang, and would certainly recommend taking the time to others. What a great discovery these 2 men were and to think, we’d never have ventured down that particular street if we’d seen all the street art there. We realized we’d missed a good one yesterday, so went back today.

The Penang Museum sounded interesting. All the reviews I’d read didn’t rave much about the content, but the a/c and 1 MYR entry fee. “If you’re not interested in history and don’t like museums, don’t go there”, well DER!! Anyway, we forked out the entry fee, found the clean loo, and basked in the very inefficient a/c whilst we browsed the history of Penang. We found it quite interesting and we learned a bit about the founding of European settlement and trade here and a lot about the ethnic mix of the place. It’s a real melting pot, Malays, Acehnese from Aceh in Indonesia, Arabs, Armenians, British, Burmese, Germans, Jews, Chinese, Gujeratis from India, Bengalis, Japanese, Punjabis, Sindhis, Tamils, Thais, Malayalees from Kerala, Rawas from West Papua, Javanese, Mandailings from Northern Sumatra, Portuguese, Eurasians and others, all living together , and not always peacefully. A lot of these groups are gone now but they have left reminders of their presence in the names of many roads and their cemeteries.

As we arrived at the museum the sirens we had been hearing all day got much closer and there was much cheering and celebratory noise. Surely couldn’t be for us?? No, it’s the Tour de Langkawi going through town. I can’t believe they race bicycles in this heat!!

Fried oysters for lunch at Kedai Kopi Gou Lou on Lorong Kampung Malabar
10MYR for a big plateful and 16MYR for 2 beers. Caught the CAT bus back. Don’t think the driver knew if she was meant to be driving the pink route or the blue route!

Chill out time by the pool, water a bit too cold considering the wind that was blowing so dipped our feet and had a cold drink.

Dinner – decided to venture out to the Gurney Hawker markets on the 101 bus, driven by Lead Foot Lucy. Wished I had brought my hungry stomach. Been ticking off some food, but there’s still more to try. Trevor paid 4 MYR for some fried mantis shrimp, chopped up and battered – the closest we’ve come so far to getting any.
Bought another sundress – 20 MYR, similar to the one I bought in BKK.

101 bus back to Komtar then onto the 204 heading for the jetty. Got off around the corner to buy some drinks on the way home.