Georgetown Heritage Walk - A Report.
Fujichrome Velvia 50 (shot at 40ISO) on Canon A-1
Y’know, I’ve always wanted to re-live certain wild hobo moments in life that I can cherish its very novelty over and over again. Too bad, the incumbent reality of life won’t accommodate one’s every desire -you can’t always get what you want! Nevermind, I’ll settle for something lesser yet still adventurous: travel by train to Penang.
It was a Friday, the holy day for Moslems. Most Penangites are Moslems, regardless of race. But when I walked passed the Kapitan Kling Mosque, it was tight closed and the sign informed this time around Friday prayer was to be held at Leboh Acheh Malay Mosque. Either there are not so many professed Moslems anymore in Penang or it’s the strategy for national unity in religion (Kling is associated with Indians), I guess. I don’t know. Perhaps, the nasi kandar joint next door has the answer. But I’d prefer the dirtier and Dickensian Nasi Kandar Line Clear.
One of the famous attractions in Penang is Sun Yat Sen’s house in Armenian St. I could not really tell which one was the house as all the houses in that row along the street looked the same. Inside the house, or rather Dr. Sun’s HQ in Malaya back then to raise fundraising to lend support for the revolution in China, I felt the ghost of history.
If I were to build my own mansion, I would build one like the Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion, famously called the Blue Mansion. I was so amazed by its architecture and underlying eastern zen philosophy of the house, which at the same time wears a facade to permit me to click my shutter secretly and shoot a picture of its interior.
Its true, Penang is very metropolitan. It’s where differences of cultures reside. The island where a statue called Logan’s Monument was built in memory of a lawyer who fought against the East India Company. Oh, that rings a bell! I say, Nemo iudex in causa sua!
-J.K
