Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our short getaway to Penang Island, Malaysia, back in July 2022! It was our first trip post-covid and since we weren't sure about the covid climate yet (and how effective our vaccines were), we decided to take a short 3 day trip there! It had been a good decade since either of us have visited Penang so this was a semi-new experience for both of us.
24 July 2022. Sunday.
Last week, after settling into our hotel at the Wembley, we took a walk around the neighbourhood to see what was in the area and after walking along quite a few old alleyways, we coincidentally found a famous cendol dessert streetcart! It was good timing since the heat was getting to us.
After which, we walked for a while and ended up in the famous Kimberly Road which was a foodie street with more streetcarts and stalls!
We had a nice dinner of claypot rice and the famous Penang char kway teow although we were sweating buckets and left before the dinner crowd came i.
We were pretty satisfied from dinner especially after 2 drinks since it was very warm especially with all the stalls cooking around us. Once we left the hawker center we enjoyed a nice stroll hoping for a night breeze.
We were staying right in the middle of the most touristy part of Penang called George Town and unknowingly walked to the cultural centre.
There was a park and basketball court where I guess they hold cultural performances, but it was really dark at night apart from lighting up this board so we couldn't really go there.
We walked along another street and passed by quite a few bars, enjoying some street art on the way until we found this very interesting shop with lots of cats!
And by cats I mean cat-themed stuff not actual cats, unfortunately. But it was still very fitting since the store is called The Heritage Cat!
When we entered the store everything we could see was cat! From the murals on the walls, to every product on display even those lining the walls, there were cats as far as the eye could see!
There was even a sink at the entrance of the store that had a cat as the faucet head!
I don't think I've seen a store like this in Singapore that's for sure. But it was crazy how much cat stuff there were! We thought it was just a small shop but there was even another room in the back and on the right side of the entrance.
It did have the vibe of old vintage stuff but somehow cool and a little hipster at the same time? The back room felt more traditional with these display cases with many fragile cat figurines.
There were of course plenty of cat plushies, paintings and cat houses for actual cats!
And there were murals even on the inside too! There was some mild air-conditioning as well so it was somewhat cool but the store was also quite big so it was limited.
I really liked the style of this area; it reminded me of ink drawings that I've seen on notebook covers.
There was some empty space in the back area that was full of murals! Here's one with Michael Jackson and the Avengers (but also Superman and the Flash) all as cats!
There was also Batcat and Jokat in this mural that I thought was pretty funny.
The side room had more general stuff and plenty of magnets, signs, and keychains as souvenirs. There was non-cat stuff as well.
They even had some apparel that looked pretty nice but was obviously marked up a lot and was way too pricey for me.
There was also an actual cat in the store so it wasn't a bait at least! We were wondering if there were any actual cats here after seeing all the cat-themed merchandise. I think the owner told us he found the cat wandering outside and gave her food and she's never left.
Since we were the last customers we bought a few souvenirs before leaving. It was a really nice store anyhow, so I was happy to support it. Although now that I'm writing this I wish I had bought a magnet instead of the cat cloth mask I got. Oh well.
We left the store and saw a food and water bowl outside and figured it was for the cat we saw.
But it wasn't until we walked a little further down when we saw way more cats! There were about 5 hanging around this shuttered store; it really is a cat paradise!
We passed by a few more streets and bars, including some Japanese restaurants that had this semi-creepy alleyway between them with bamboo trees.
We walked down a few more alleys not having a destination in mind but just enjoying a nice walk. It was still slightly warm but a lot better than earlier in the evening. We also came across quite a few nice cafes.
There was also a building with a huge yu yee bottle on top of the roof for some reason. If you're unfamiliar, Yu Yee oil is a medicated oil that is a household brand for many Asian families and is often used for stomach aches, or when your stomach is full of "wind" from bloating.
That was definitely the biggest Yu Yee bottle I've seen and we had no idea why it was on the roof. It didn't seem like a shop for it either.
Eventually, we passed by a temple where there was a huge crowd of people sitting on the grass watching a performance!
We were just wondering where all the people were since we haven't seen any huge crowds and I guess we got our answer! Turns out they were all here at Seh Tek Tong Cheah Kongsi for a special George Town Festival!
We thought there was a big performance or something but turns out they were all watching this little puppet show that was being held on a small stage.
We were kinda surprised that a puppet show would gather such a huge crowd, but didn't question it too much since we're not locals. The puppet show was unfortunately in Malay so we couldn't understand it either.
After that we were kinda in a dead end and there were plenty of cars in the road outside the temple so it was a little unsafe. And after all that walking we needed a break somewhere cool where we could relax so we started making our way to this gelato place for dessert in the hopes that it would have space for 2.
The cafe is called ciao gelato and was the only cold dessert place in the area that we hoped would be air-conditioning and thankfully it did!
We don't really eat gelato much but since it was really warm out and we wanted to rest we decided why not.
The cafe was pretty minimalist with some stone steps in the back for benches and a couple of tables and stools. It was pretty simple and had an industrial look to it.
It was pretty fitting for their gelato since it was served in these simple aluminium cups and kept in these stainless steel containers.
Turns out this storage method is called the pozzetti and was imported from Italy! It helps keep out light, oxygen and maintain the optimal temperature for gelato to ensure the quality doesn't get compromised.
It was pretty interesting and unique, but the stainless steel cups did make it really cold to hold, although it was pretty welcome given the warm weather.
They had plenty of fruity flavours but also had some chocolate and nut flavours. But since I wanted something refreshing we chose mango and strawberry flavour. The gelato was quite sticky to scoop out of but thankfully the actual texture was nice and smooth. The fruit flavours were very prominent as well it felt like we were eating actual fruits but pureed and frozen.
They said that gelato had less air in it which is why the texture is more dense than ice cream and is more flavourful too. I initially thought it was the fruits they used but I guess it was just the gelato itself!
It was actually pretty amazing, and after we finished our gelato we felt very refreshed. We sat there for a while and felt like we could doze off anytime before we saw more people coming into the store. We gave up our seats and decided to leave.
We could hear quite a hubbub from a hawker centre just down the street from the gelato place so we decided to head there since it sounded like there was some music.
We ended up in this huuuuge hawker centre that had plenty of pretty fairy lights overhead and many stalls lining both sides with numerous tables in between.
There was also a huge TV screen playing Chinese karaoke songs on the wall and a stage with two singers singing in the middle!
I guess this place is called The Jetty Food Court and we did indeed see a male and female singer in the middle of the stage singing and dancing! They were taking turns solo-ing and dueting songs in Mandarin and Chinese dialects. I think you could go up to them and make requests as well.
We sat there for a while enjoying the ambiance and the huge ceiling fans were generating huge gusts of wind that felt really good too. We took a look around the stalls but we were pretty full from the gelato and dinner earlier so we promised ourselves that we would come back here the next day before we booked a car to drive us back to our hotel.
The drive was actually pretty short it took us less than 10 minutes to go back by car. It felt like we had walked quite a ways but then again we walked through many different alleyways.
It was quite a long day so we enjoyed a nice night relaxing in bed after a nice cool shower that was definitely the most refreshed we felt since we landed.
That finally concludes our first day of our 3-day Penang getaway! There's a lot more to see and do so I hope you'll tune in next week for more!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #199 (Penang): Exploring Street Art and Food in George Town! 😋
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