Year 2- 3rd November 2025 - Penang Island
It rained again in the night and it was still raining when I woke and I wrote yesterday’s blog with some tea. We had arranged for a 9.00am collection by Mr Sun, the water taxi man, as we were to have another day in Penang. We had cereal and fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. Steve had decided to hire a motorbike for the day.
We were picked up at 9.00am and were deposited again on the Chew Jetty. Steve went off to hire his bike and the rest of us wanted to get a coffee at a coffee house we had seen the day before. The rain had stopped so we walked toward the coffee house and then the heavens opened so we ducked under some shelters and waited. We had to wait for some time and a lady came and opened up her clothes shop and said we could come and sit down. Ruth looked at the clothes and bought some shorts. The rain almost stopped so we put on our coats and went to find the coffee shop but it was closed. We therefore knew that the Black Kettle was round the corner so we went there and luckily it was open so we had some nice coffee.
We then decided to walk to the Blue Mansion some 20 minutes away and we walked through Little India and then Love Lane (which used to be where all the prostitutes were) which now had cafés and restaurants and clubs. We arrived about 11.30am and could not do a visit until 12.30pm so we went off and then came back at the right time.
The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is a government gazetted heritage building located on Leith Street in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The mansion's external decorations and indigo-blue outer walls make it a very distinctive building, and it is sometimes referred to as The Blue Mansion. Built by the merchant Cheong Fatt Tze at the end of the 19th century, the mansion has 38 rooms, 5 granite-paved courtyards, 7 staircases and 220 vernacular timber louvre windows. It served as Cheong's private residence as well as the seat of his business activities in Penang.
The mansion is eclectic, but mainly reflects Chinese architectural styles of the Imperial Period with some European elements such as louvered windows and metal balustrades. Features of the house include Gothic louvred windows, Chinese cut and paste porcelain work, Stoke-on-Trent floor tiles made of encaustic clay in geometric pieces all shaped to fit to a perfect square, Glasgow cast iron works by MacFarlane's & Co. and Art Nouveau stained glass windows.
The mansion was originally built with careful attention to the principles of Feng Shui. The domestic annexe is built in front of it to prevent any road being built to create a T-junction in front of it; it has water running through a meandering network of pipes that begin from the eaves of the roof, channelled through the upper ceiling, down the walls collecting in the central courtyard before being channelled away from the property via a similar network of pipes, in this case, underneath the entire flooring system and is built with a step in the middle to create a slope (to ride on the dragon's back). The distinctive blue colour of the mansion is the result of mixing lime with natural blue dye made from the indigo plant. The blue was very popular in the Colonial period and the dye was imported from India to Penang by the British. The lime-wash was very effective in a tropical weather as it absorbed moisture and cooled the house whilst dispelling moisture without damage to the structural integrity of the walls. Though white was the most easily available colour, the indigo-blue was chosen because it was highly prized by all communities, adding stature to the mansion.
The mansion was purchased from Cheong Fatt Tze's descendants in 1989 by a group of local Penang individuals to save the edifice from encroaching development and possible demolition. The property operates as an 18 Room Hotel-cum-museum as part of the adaptive reuse of an ongoing restoration project which has won awards from UNESCO. The mansion has been featured in various films including the 1993 Oscar-winning French film Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve, The Red Kebaya, Road to Dawn, 3rd Generation and the critically acclaimed The Blue Mansion in 2009 by Singapore director Glen Goei of Forever Fever fame. The mansion has also been featured in programs broadcast on various international television channels (CNN, BCC, The History Channel, Discovery Travel & Living). Most recently the mansion served as one of the locations for the Hollywood blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians.
We walked around the villa and enjoyed the architecture. It had been restored beautifully and I did not realise it is a hotel and I am sure it would be nice to stay there. It was certainly worth a visit. After this we walked back into town and Ruth had been recommended a street café by a friend called the Hock Poh Lie Café and we had to try a prawn and noodle dish called Char Kway Teow which is their speciality. In fact it was delicious and cooked fresh on a wok in front of us. The cost for 5 of us including drinks was £8.
Andy and I went to the supermarket to shop which as a bit of a walk but we needed to get some provisions. The others walked around and went to wait. We joined them about 1.5 hours later and we then returned to Stormbird to put the food away and have tea. We had really enjoyed Penang and had seen the main sights and got a feel for it. Steve returned a little later and we then had scrambled eggs on toast which was just what we needed.
We will move on tomorrow to Langkawi.
The picture of the day is a scene from the Blue Mansion.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com