Art at the Heart

Three rounds of toast and jam were required this morning to power us through a self-guided walk of George Town's street art. K had mapped the route and was going to navigate us through the streets.

Penang, like Langkawi, feels like a place with a conscience. The streets are clean, but not sterile, and there is an emphasis on keeping Penang green, choosing not to use plastic bags and on cycling. Admittedly, most shopkeepers will automatically bag up even single items that are already shrinkwrapped, and most of the bicycles can be seen in shops and not between people's legs. It's a start, though.

Ubiquitous 'children on bicycle' image

People are also compassionate towards animals. With a large Buddhist and South Indian community, vegetarianism abounds. Several times I have seen a call to 'save our strays', most effectively by curbing the population of cats and dogs so that the island does not become overrun.

Bruce Lee kicks a cat

Our walk around George Town took us down back alleyways and parts we wouldn't otherwise have visited. Some of the artwork was commissioned, while other pieces appeared organically. In either case, they occupy walls of crumbling plaster, often of disused buildings, which gives the art an evolutionary aspect, as it flakes gradually away and will eventually disappear completely. This is evident by contrasting the photos in the walking map, taken only a few years ago, and the current state of the pieces.

Old motorcycle

Actually, aside from the street art, public galleries are few and far between. Most are small commercial shops displaying a single artist's work for sale. To satisfy our urge for more art, we settle on the 3D Trick Art Gallery.

Hosting a number of murals of the kind typically drawn by pavement street artists, which give the impression of an enormous chasm opening up in the flat surface of the pavement, but which is only effective from one particular viewing angle.

This was a bizarre experience, as we were encouraged to become a part of the trompe l'oeil and be snapped escaping from runaway boulders, eaten by snakes, and riding a bike with ET.

We took lunch next door at the Water Drop Café, which fortuitously served only vegetarian food. We both eulogised about the sesame 'pao', which were pillowy soft buns, coated in sesame seeds on one side and fried, filled with a barbecue soya mince filling.

Sesame pao and rojak

The café serves a different menu each day. I had the rendang set - mock beef in a rich coconut sauce spicy with cardamom, served with okra and cucumber. K had savoury braised noodles in a soup.

Braised noodle soup

We were also given a small dish of rojak, which we had been keen to try. This was cucumber and other raw vegetables dressed in a black sauce, which is typically made from slowly simmered shrimp paste and chilli, but here was concocted from soy. The 'salad' also normally includes crunchy raw fruits, such as papaya and pineapple, but the savoury sauce over the sweet raw vegetables was an odd taste combination that I was not too keen on.

Errands at the post office and launderette added to our march about town, but we finally arrived at the Camera Museum on Lebuh Muntri.

Before arriving in Penang, TripAdvisor had done it a serious disservice. In the top five attractions in George Town featured two camera museums. "This place doesn't seem to have much going on", I remarked to K. The most entertaining part was a review by a visitor who had been suspected by the guide of being an undercover spy from the rival camera museum.

History of photograpjy

The museum was full of collected antique Leica and Kodak cameras. It featured a camera obscura and explained the history of photography up until the death of film in 2009. Unfortunately, it had nothing to say about digital photography. It is odd to find one such extensive collection of photographic equipment on a small Malaysian island, let alone two museums.

In the evening, we went on a hunt for a vegetarian restaurant known as Happy Realm, but discovered once again that no matter how many technological aids we have - Google Maps, Foursquare - technology is a fickle mistress, ever bent on leading us astray. Looking for Happy Realm (it does sound a little like a euphemistically named massage parlour, so I was slightly relieved when we didn't find it) we drew a blank and gave up owing to having little time.

The reason we had limited time was that an outdoor screening of short films was taking place as part of Tropfest. As the screening was being held in Nagore Square, we swung by our new favourite restaurant, Zen Xin.

Char koay teow

There we ordered up a quick couple of dishes: Penang's signature dish, char koay teow - broad rice noodles stir-fried in a soy sauce, chilli, beansprouts, and prawns. This is found everywhere on street stalls, and this version was freshly hot from the wok, contained vegan prawns, and had a pleasing spicy warmth. K ordered Xiang Chun fried rice, which was a green colourful mound of rice with a chive-like taste that apparently comes from the xiang chun herb. We gobbled both quickly, but just had time to pick up a slice of cake from Mon Délice to enjoy with the films.

Délicieux

Down a small alley of abandoned car garages, alongisde another mural, rows of chairs had been set out and a projector rigged up.

Outdoor screening

Overhead, red lanterns had been strung, which lit up as dusk fell. Stalls selling refreshments had sprung up in the deserted garages. We were treated to two hours of shorts ranging from 10-15 minutes long. The styles were various - some whimsical, some dark and thrilling, others tragicomic. All were extremely well accomplished and enjoying the results of such great talent in the balmy evening was a real joy. More of this kind of thing, please.