George Town UNESCO heritage celebration 2

It's time for the walkabout to begin. Well, it was due to begin some one-and-a-half-hours ago, but my wife and I begun ours from 2 o'clock, accompanied by my old school mate, Siang Jin.


we called it quits at about 4.30pm. Partly, it was because the day was too hot but partly too, we didn't want to be caught in any traffic snarl on the bridge or the mainland. Today is also the high point of the week-long St Anne's Feast in Bukit Mertajam and, well, our house is just a stone's throw away.

But coming back to the George Town heritage celebration, we couldn't cover all the 12 participating heritage sites but we managed to visit the Sun Yat Sen Penang base, the Syed Al-Atas Mansion, the Acheen Street Mosque, the Teochew Ancestral Temple, the Khoo Kongsi, the Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple, the Cheah Kongsi and the Kapitan Keling Mosque.

Our disappointments: the Arulmigu Mahamariamman Temple was closed while nobody knew anything about the rubber stamps at the Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple, the Cheah Kongsi and the Kapitan Keling Mosque. "Today's a half-day. The staff have gone back," someone told us at the Cheah Kongsi and then, wanting to feel helpful, added: "Come back tomorrow morning." However, we had a most wonderful tour of the Kapitan Keling Mosque. A bonus: we went into the Lim Kongsi which normally, is closed to visitors.