View From A Rickshaw
1 Sep 2011
Developing and yet distinctly traditional, it is no surprise that Penang is a place where people from abroad want to settle, a life changing place that brings together her inhabitants into an ever-expanding but tight knit community, brought together by an appreciation for the culture of Penang and the way of life.
But, one thing the honorary Penangites all agree on, is that what makes the place special to them, is the people, whether local or expat, the people of Penang bring something extra that makes this place feel like their home.
Michelle’s special location is a rattan shop on Beach Street and once we find the shop, nestled among varying businesses and shops, we discover why it is that Michelle loves it so much. It is an Aladdin’s Cave of basket delights and the owners welcome you as though they are welcoming you to their home.
We are treated to a lesson in basket making and shown the bamboo pieces in their original form. As we step across baskets and tools and wander out through the back into the store rooms we find more delights of half finished projects and raw materials.“I’m a British expat and I’ve been living in Penang for nearly six years. We came to Penang with our two children when my husband was posted here in 2006 and it was a trip down memory lane as we actually met in Penang in 1995. When his contract ended in 2008, I couldn’t bear to leave Penang and decided to set up my own company here. The company's name is Spiral Synergy Sdn Bhd—it’s an events company and we create all sorts of different events, workshops, classes, talks, lunches, dinners or whatever. I love Penang and poking about in all the side streets so the events that we arrange stem from this and end up being quite unique—we now have a growing database of clients both expat and local.
When someone mentions Penang I think of George Town—and more specifically the Heritage Zone. I think of blue skies and contrasts—crumbling buildings, tiled floors and walls. I also think of the living heritage—of the people old and young who are part and parcel of the life of Penang. You can really find everything in Penang—if only you know where to look.
This location, the rattan shop on Beach Street, is special to me because firstly I’m a sucker for baskets. I love the texture of woven rattan and I have baskets from all around Southeast Asia; fish traps from Thailand (though I never fished); chicken baskets (I’ve never had a chicken); baskets from Cambodia carried back in my suitcase; from Laos and from Sabah. So when I spotted the umbrella outside this place, I was curious and I knew I had to take a look inside. Mr Sim senior is one of the recipients of the HSBC living heritage awards—he was born in Malaysia but went back to China to learn basket weaving and the business is being carried on by his (young!) son, Ah Poh (60) and his daughter, and her children.
One of our Spiral Synergy favourite classes is basket making which we do sitting on tiny stools in the front of the shop—it is great to feel you are sharing a tradition, something that otherwise might become another mass produced industry with the original craft being forgotten. There are some wonderful places like this in Penang-just down the road you can see the people sieving rice by hand to sort it for size, or picking out bugs; or you can wander a little further down the road and find a man making fishing nets, the traditional nets with the weights around them for cast fishing. Knowing places like these is really important to me, as it means whether you are learning how to weave baskets, or watch someone mending or making fishing nets, you don’t just come out with a basket or a new skill, you come out appreciating a whole way of life.”
Michelle leaves us standing, as she disappears off laden with baskets, a fun place to be and certainly one that isn’t quite what it seems on the outside. For us it is another example of a family welcoming you into their home and the famous Penang charm is having its effect on us.
Frances listed Armenian Street as her special location as it reflects the culmination of cultures and heritage that she feels is unique to Penang. We capture Frances in a moment as she points out architectural features and quaint little cafes and shows us why this street is so special to her. “I always feel like an honorary Penangite—even though I’m British and I wasn’t born here.
I lived on this little island from the ages of four to ten, which are pretty formative years. My childhood world was bounded by three places, Scotland Road, The Penang Swimming Club and Penang Hill. Scotland Road was where we lived, it was a small house with an immense garden (which must be now an immense number of houses with pocket handkerchief gardens).
We had two badminton courts, a gigantic Boddhi tree housing ferocious ants, and a rambutan orchard which rambled down to the river. The Penang Swimming Club is where I learnt to swim. In those days, it was pretty much the only swimming pool on the coast. But the sea was clean enough to swim in then.
Penang Hill, the third place from my childhood is where I went to school at the old Uplands, now a crumbling ruin. I used to love the slow journey into the cooler air on the old railway, but I have to admit the new one is pretty amazing with its wonderful roller coaster moment where the two tracks meet at what was Middle Station.
I came back here by accident in mid life, but it is home to me. I am a writer – I edit the IWA magazine, Expressions, and freelance as a ghost writer on the internet under the pseudonym of Penang Pen.
Although Penang itself is in danger of being overbuilt which saddens me, I do feel that George Town is being very sympathetically restored. I particularly love strolling down Armenian Street, which seems to sum up the story of this island.
Even the name is a reference to immigrants, the idea that Penang welcomes all who come here. Starting with the Museum of Islam, and then gravitating to the Sun-Yat Sen Museum (another honorary Penangite whose ideas were so formative to modern China), then on to the Bon Ton shop for a chat about rescuing abandoned animals with the Australian owner, Narelle, over a salted caramel ice cream.
There are some wonderful little shop house in the lower half of the street, completely as they were, repairing bicycles and selling things which you didn’t know you needed, such as nails and tea urns. There are also some great miniature cafes, no wider than an alleyway, one of which serves delicious smoothies in jam jars.
You can get pre-packaged shopping malls anywhere on the planet nowadays, but individuality and quirkiness—that’s what I cherish about Penang.” As the outline of Frances and the rickshaw fade into the distant setting of Armenian Street we are left with a feeling of the appreciation of the expatriates of their adopted home and all that is has to offer.
Tearing down the streets of Little India market it was clear our rickshaw driver was expert at dodging the increasingly heavy traffic. The rickshaw we had found was adorned with windmills and flowers, a bright yellow and something we hoped would make us stand out against the passing cars who seemed not to notice us.
We were on our way to meet Wayne Yoon, an expatriate from Korea who has settled in Penang with his wife and young children. “I am from Korea, although have spent a lot of time living overseas since I was five years old. I’m married, with two young kids, and my family live with me here. I’ve been in the hospitality industry for almost 20 years.
I currently co-own and operate a German Restaurant, Weissbrau, in Straits Quay and am opening an Italian Restaurant, Spasso Milano. I manage the operations of the restaurant and its associated activities. Even though I own/operate a Germanrestaurant, I still love to eat local food. My life is about food, and getting in touch with real food helps me to understand people and culture more, and really experience the true Penang—everyone loves food of all types.
I wanted to come to Penang for several reasons, amongst others, the climate, the environment, the opportunities for my kids, and the chance to settle with my own restaurant. I have been located in many places throughout my career, but now it’s an opportunity to give my kids a stable childhood in a safe, fresh environment, where they have the chance to be real kids. You know, riding bikes outside, climbing trees, playing at the beach. Not stuck in an apartment behind grills in a busy noisy city.
One of the most memorable moments so far for me here has been the opening day of our restaurant, chaotic, but amazing, as I saw my dream come to fruition. I was able to work, but look outside at the sea, and really appreciate that I am in some form of paradise.
When someone talks about Penang the image that instantly springs to mind for me is food. I might be biased, but it really is food, food on all scales and levels, from street food to fine dining opportunities. Penangites love food, and they are amazing at coming together to share meal times. Food cuts through cultural and communication barriers, and it really helps develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of others.
Not to mention, you learn so much through exposure to different cooking styles, ingredients, and even by looking at how people eat their food. Little India is about the merging of so many cultures around an everyday activity of eating and buying food of all sorts. I love coming here because it helps me to learn and better appreciate the mix of culture that makes up Penang, not only from Malaysians, but the expatriate communities as well. It’s fun, vibrant, and has a great atmosphere.”
We leave Wayne tasting and testing as he is caught up in a throng of hawkers, buying sweetmeats and pastries for his dinner and for his staff back at the restaurant. Wayne looks at home here to us as any of the locals, commanding an audience with the hawkers and an air of willingness and curiosity to try out anything thrust at him.
As we pull up to Louise and Tommes’ special location we instantly know why it is so special to the couple. Louise and Tommes run That Little Wine Bar and upon seeing this dilapidated house opposite up for sale instantly decided this was for them, Tommes describes the house as having a good feeling about it as soon as he walked through the door.
“Myself and Tommes run That Little Wine Bar, a European-style restaurant and wine bar, and are about to open Irrawaddy Fine Foods, a gourmet deli. Tommes is the chef and creative mind behind the business, and I manage front of house, marketing and finance. We have been together for 15 years, having met when we both worked in France then lived together in New York for eight years and Shanghai for five years before moving to Penang two years ago.
Tommes trained as a chef in New York and worked for Michelin-starred chefs there and in Shanghai, while I continued in the corporate world, running the technology sector for Asia-Pacific for an executive search firm.
That Little Wine Bar was our first business venture together. We opened in December 2009, with the vision to create the kind of place we liked to go to, as we felt it was missing in Penang. We wanted a relaxed but professional environment, which would be a nice place for people to meet friends and have a glass of wine or two, but where the food, if you decided to order it was surprisingly yummy.
Also important for us, was that it should be a very female-friendly environment, with friendly staff, a good selection of magazines, and little extras like hooks for hand bags and hand cream in the toilets. We are very happy with the way business has developed—we have been helped by the reputation Tommes’s food has earned, and the growing interest in wines amongst both locals and expats, which we nurture with our wine education classes.
With Irrawaddy Fine Foods we also plan to fill a niche that is still empty in Penang, and we hope we will have some success and as much fun as we are having with That Little Wine Bar.
We fell in love with Penang because on top of what everywhere else in Malaysia has, Penang combines the charm and history of a cosmopolitan city with the relaxed style of living on a tropical island. Our original intention was to stay in China working, and come to Penang for holidays, then Tommes saw the empty restaurant, and the idea of That Little Wine Bar was born.
Once he had decided to open a restaurant, we packed up our apartment in Shanghai and moved to Penang full-time. The most special place for us in Penang is probably our bungalow. It was when we saw the (at that time very dilapidated) bungalow that we definitely decided to come to Penang rather than KL, where we had looked at some nice modern condos but hadn’t fallen in love with anywhere else in the same way.
The friends from Shanghai we were travelling with thought we were mad to take on such a renovation project, but we knew instantly that it was the right thing to do. It was clear to us that the bungalow had soul, and masses of potential. It was built by a widowed Nyonya lady in 1934, and was still lived in at the time we bought it by her grandchildren.
We have tried to restore it to its former glory, while adding a few modern essentials (indoor plumbing and air conditioning). We also added a swimming pool in the garden and it is on Sundays, when we are closed at That Little Wine Bar, that we can spend hours relaxing by the pool, and that makes us realise again just how lucky we are to live in Penang, and to live in our bungalow.
For us, Penang is all about the people - the spontaneous niceness and friendliness of the people in Penang still surprises us and we love it. For example the day a man waited outside our bungalow to apologise for the fact he had knocked into the wall and chipped a bit of stone out, but there have been many, many others.”
We leave Tommes and Louis in the idyllic settings of their home, sun setting and shadows falling as we trundle off to find our next expatriate and his special place. Urs Capol has chosen his café/bar Edelweiss as his special place.
We arrive and it is clear there is no moving anywhere on a rickshaw or otherwise, as Urs is seated comfortably outside the front of his café, beer in hand and reading the newspaper, a perfect example of why this is a haven for Urs. Urs looks a part of his surroundings and we abandon the rickshaw outside to join him for a much needed beer, some delicious home cooked food and to find out what exactly it is that makes this place special to him.
“I am a Swiss expat, 59 years old from Zurich. I am the Technical Director in a German owned company in Penang producing jewellery. I have been in Penang for 31 years and took this job as I wanted to be somewhere warm. It also gave me the opportunity to take up new challenges in my field of work.
When someone talks about Penang, the thoughts and images that come to mind for me are the rich history, the friendly people and the vast diversity of food. My special location is my bar and café, Edelweiss. I now call this place my home as my wife is from Kuala Lumpur, but we met here and this is where I have started my family. Edelweiss is special to me as it took us four years to renovate and to make it into what it is now. It is a little out of the way so we don’t get huge crowds coming in but it is a nice area, on a lovely street.
It was a project that we worked on together, we are getting older but by no means ready to retire we needed a challenge. I did the renovations myself which caused a little friction from time to time as my wife was very specific about wanting to keep the original structures and building materials, a lot of people here renovate and throw away flag stones and tiles, not realising that they are throwing away treasures.
My wife was very insistent on keeping the original tiles even though I said they would leak, the good news is they lasted for years before leaking, we are now looking to replace them with a compromise! We have kept the air well in the back part of the building so that the air continues to circulate and we have created a system that means we can close it easily if it rains.
It gives the feeling of dining alfresco in that part of the bar and keeps it cool as we don’t blast air conditioning throughout. It is a lot of work to maintain the house, if you keep one original feature you need to keep them all.
One of my most memorable moments in Penang has to be meeting my wife. I first spotted her under a tree at the Shangri La Rasa Sayang Resort wearing a red bikini, that will be a picture that will remain with me forever.
We try to make Mondays our day as Edelweiss is closed on a Monday and I leave work early, so we will usually go back to Rasa Sayang and have an evening meal and relax and just spend time together.” We leave Urs to his bar and trundle off with our rickshaw, we have visited bars and cafes, homes and shops and each one has revealed a little more to us of why Penang is so special. It has certainly worked its charm on us and we know we will be back for more.