Pulau Pinang: the Isle of Enigma

Pulau Pinang is my kampung halaman/hometown, yet after living there for 37 years, it still remains an enigma to me. There are so many places there I have no inkling about and so many incidents I have no idea of. In retrospect, maybe I have never really tried to understand, being busy running around living life then; working 'to put food on the table' and bringing up family.

Kg Masjid, Teluk Kumbar

In the beginning during my 50s childhood, it was brief school holidays spent at both maternal and paternal grandparents homes in Teluk Kumbar; in Kampung Matahari Naik and Kampung Masjid. Those were idyllic days spent wallowing in clean clear rivers, observing little tupai/kuas (squirrels) in the pretty flowerbeds of bunga raya (Hibiscus) and bunga pukul empat (Mirabilis jalapa) and walking between padi fields. Now these are all gone and the developers have brought in their mean machines ... now there is even a Bandar Baru Teluk Kumbar!

Our old house after being transported
to Teluk Kumbar

Then in 1963 my Father moved the family permanently to the Malay enclave in Ayer Itam, PP. The Ayer Itam Dam built in 1962 ensured we had cool clear water you could even drink straight from the tap. The house we lived in was the typical kampung house on stilts. It was old and you looked up to the zinc roofs and wooden beams when you are in bed. In the daytime, rays of sunlight come through tiny holes in the zinc. At night its a different story altogether. Luckily I was then unafraid of pontianaks (aka pretty Malay lady vampires) who might just be resting themselves on these beams. So I never saw any! A very human person I remember then was the 'night soil' carrier who came around the neighbourhood, balancing two pails on a pole, to collect what he had to collect in the outhouse. (I heard many of these unfortunate beings contracted tuberculosis due to the work hazard).

Sometime in 1968 our old house was dismantled and moved to Teluk Kumbar, while we rented a place nearby (next to the white Mausoleum of Sheikh Omar Basheer), to await the completion of the new. With the new, the outhouse (pail closet) was replaced by indoor flush toilets. Thank goodness! Now 'going' in the night need not be such a great adventure. Though the poor NSC still had to come by our neighbours for a while after we had gone 'flush'.

A wedding entourage in Zoo Road
in 1976

I learnt that the nearby Zoo Road was once the site of the Penang Zoological Gardens but closed down in the 50s due to very high maintenance costs. The human residents there now live in terraced houses although there are some older big bungalows as well. The old Masjid Al-Gadrie there is small and cosy, but a tight fit to house the congregation during Hari Raya prayers. So there is the Masjid Negeri on Jalan Ayer Itam and now there is also the new Masjid Baru Ayer Itam (2009) in Jalan Thean Teik.

The Pagoda 1962

When you live in Ayer Itam, Bukit Bendera or Penang Hill beckons. So there were a few times that we went up the hill on the funicular railway. The Pagoda was another attraction but the steps were too much to negotiate. Although there was the Ayer Itam market, my father preferred to go into Tanjung, as Georgetown is affectionately called by the locals, to the Chowrasta Market. Sometimes I would go with him and inevitably we would be making a few rounds in the market before he finally bought the freshest produce. But the best thing about these outings? Eating nasi kandar served by very old mamak men at this very old shop off Transfer Road. I don't remember the name of the shop, if it had any, but I think it has been long gone. (But in PP, it seems that when one eatery dies, another two will sprout and hopefully at least one will be good.)

Water colour painting of trishaws in
George Town

As for public transport, in the 60s and early 70s it was adequate enough. There were regular enough buses, the taxis were not yet fleecing passengers, and even the trishaws were simple and adequate (compared to the garishly decorated 'tourist draw' now). I did enjoy the short trishaw rides in town when trishaws were 'kings of the road'!

Pre 1969, many came to PP for shopping due to its free port status, but when that was revoked I think many still came over, but more for the food. After all PP is the home of the original nasi kandar! And there is also the famous asam laksa, mee mamak, etc., etc.

Penang Road & Chowrasta Market
in the early 70s  (CNB)

My siblings and I would go to Tanjung to do our shopping for cloths, clothes and shoes (Zlin Store), mainly in Carnavorn Street and Penang Road. Then it was on to nasi kandar lunches at the Hameediyah or Meerah Restaurants and cendul & ais kacang dessert in Lebuh Keng Kwee. Talking about food, two Padangs (Commons) in PP were fun places to go for good hawker style. There's Padang Brown (where once we gorged on delicious satay, and then my Father realised he'd been pick pocketed!) and Padang Kota, for the best bihun/mee hailam and 'hottest' mamak mee mamak in town.

But I cringe when I remember the public toilets during that period, especially the one at the Prangin Road bus station. They were hell-holes you wanted to avoid at all cost!  Alas! The beginning of the never ending contributions to PP being called Darul Sampah.

For books, Campbell Street was the place to go, but for second hand books you went to the roadside stalls along MacAlister Road, but then they were later moved to Chowrasta Market into cubby holes on the first floor. Still a treasure trove of books but crammed and very badly ventilated.

From the kampung (village) to the bandar (town), the inevitable changes were ongoing ... (To be continued.)

Pulau Pinang 50s-early 70s