After being rained out last night, we decided to pay close attention to the forecast. There were two thunderstorms predicted today, and only one for tomorrow, so although we wanted to have a beach day, that may have to wait.

As Jessie mentioned yesterday, George Town is host to clever street art and historical installations. Today being our first full day in town, this seemed like a good way to get our bearings. Before setting out, though, we decided to grab a quick breakfast.

Half of a block from our guest house lives Leong Chee Kee Pepper Biscuit– a traditional bakery listed in the “Heritage” section of our tourist map. Their main draw is their coconut tart. We snatched a few items including the tart and a pack of their pepper biscuits (reminiscent of a thin gingerbread) and brought them back to the guest house, where we prepared instant coffee (Salute Brand Cap Tabik Kopi ‘O’) for breakfast.

 

 

 

Our guest house, like many private spaces in Malaysia, asks us to take off our shoes before going upstairs to our room. Jessie says that she saw somebody taking a picture of my sandals, a size fifteen among the size sevens, eights, and nines of the other guests.

After breakfast, we hopped on the free city circulator bus, and rode it to the end. From there, we walked the esplanade. It was a warmer day than we were used to- mid to high eighties, with humidity to match. Along the way, we saw a large food court, bustling with people and their tantalizingly iced beverages, so we stopped for a quick iced coffee.

The esplanade itself was empty and without activity. On a hot day with no shade, we found ourselves eager to get back to our exploration. We got aboard the bus again, and went off to our next destination. There were a few shops that we wanted to check out. Notably those containing souvenirs made by locals. There were a few items that piqued our interest, but we made no purchases and continued on.

After visiting the shops, we went to see some street art. I have more photos than I ought to share, so I’ll limit myself here. There is a series commissioned by the city from a cartoonist, depicting the local history of various streets. There were also many installations using real items (basketball hoops, bicycles, benches) permanently fixed to walls. One topic that also stood out was cats. The quantity of murals focusing on or involving cats was encouraging— demonstrating the universality of affection towards our fuzzy friends.

After walking for a few hours, we decided to sit down for an actual meal at a local Indian restaurant that I had heard about. Since we were in the “Little India” neighborhood, we thought it appropriate to taste a more authentic version of some of our favorites. A cat with an injured tail stared at me while I ate my chicken tikka butter masala.

As we wandered around Little India, we got a few smiles from locals that we debated about. Were they being nice or friendly? Do they think Jessie is cute? Do I have gum in my hair?

Soon after this, a local art shop was scheduled to open, so we scurried on to the next stop: Unique Penang Art Gallery, a gallery that only sold art at postcard size. After a bit of confusion finding it, we browsed a neighboring shop until well after it should have opened, only to find it remained closed. Mildly disappointed, we decided to head back to our guest house, passing a family of cats along the way.

The thunderstorm soon came in, so we spent much of the evening waiting it out from the comfort of our room. Once things had calmed down, we ventured out for a late night dinner of Nasi Kandar. We had went out looking for this specific vendor yesterday, without any luck. This time we found a different address online and made our way there.

This style of dining was very new to us. The restaurant itself was basically an alleyway with a kitchen in it, you pass all of the food before you sit down, with about 6 cooks manning different stations. We obviously needed help.

Nasi Kandar is a Penang specialty, which could best be described as “going to an Indian restaurant and getting all of the food on one plate.” We ordered just one plate of it to share between the two of us, and they grabbed spoonfuls of various curries and sides, and before long we had a mountain of food. We were clearly satisfied, and the man we had ordered from wanted to take a picture of us together with a plate and the man with the spoon. I can only imagine that this is for social media purposes.

Sitting down, we once again found ourselves in the company of cats, with a little calico staring at me, and meowing whenever I stared back. With my back turned from our table and towards the cat, I notice a man from the table behind us clearly taking a picture of us. When I told Jessie, she turned back, and he quickly acted like he was taking a panorama.

I’m not sure if I’ve gained any wisdom, or even any sense of resolve, but my current theory of why we’re getting paparazzi here could not be because we’re white, because even though this place seems to have the least number of European tourists, they still are not uncommon. Jessie thinks it’s because there’s a giant red-head walking among them.