Heritage walkabout

It's time for me to slot in one or two fresh posts into this blog since I had been too busy to do much since the end of last month. For one thing, I had been given two tickets for a heritage trail on the seventh of this month that traced the paths of the early Chinese migrants in Penang, in particular, that of the Kapitan China Koh Lay Huan and Towkay Yeap Chor Ee. Thanks for the tickets, Janice Yeap! But with my father-in-law's hospitalisation, my wife was in no mood to accompany me. Ended up with only me going for the event. 

It was a small group of participants, possibly numbering less than 20, and split into two groups with separate tour guides. My mood wasn't too good but it noticeably lifted up when I spotted a very familiar face: my former colleague from my old JobStreet.com days, that of Chong See Ming who had jetted down a day or two earlier to enjoy the George Town Festival. Rather a surprise for me to find her here! And she was also surprised to see me too. The surprise was quite mutual. 

As I mentioned earlier, the participants were split by the lady tour guide into two groups, one comprising mostly the ang mo tourists and the other comprising local Malaysians. Why she did that, I don't know, but she chose the unilateral decision to lead the ang mo group and left us locals with no choice but to stick with the male tour guide. The two groups left in separate directions.

The path we took led us to the Queen Victoria clock tower, along Light Street and past the State Assembly building and the esplanade field before stopping at the fountain beside the Dewan Sri Pinang. This fountain, as the tour guide explained, was donated to the town by Koh Seang Tat, a descendant of Koh Lay Huan who was a very influential Chinese merchant in his time. In fact, Francis Light appointed him as the town's first Kapitan China. We then crossed the road to the House of Yeap Chor Ee where we were given an extensive tour of the private museum. We walked down Penang Street and into Church Street, breezed by the private Peranakan Museum without going inside, crossed to Church Street Ghaut and turned into Weld Quay and going up China Street Ghaut passing the row of buildings that sat on land that was once owned and developed by Yeap Chor Ee. The final stop was the East Indies Mansion in China Street where refreshments and Penang Indian/nyonya tidbits awaited us. But it was a considerable 40-minute wait until the other group joined us. One may ask why there was this 40-minute difference in the two groups ending up at this hotel. Methinks it could be the lady tour guide's wider experience and ability to impart more knowledge.

It made little difference to me as I already know all this stuff about Yeap Chor Ee and the spots around the heritage business district but I could understand See Ming feeling more than a little miffed by being forced to join one group instead of being able to decide on her own to join one group or the other. Having paid a small bundle for the tickets, I know she would have enjoyed gaining more indepth information from this heritage walk instead of just superficial knowledge.