Always the heart of Penang Island, Georgetown was the original English settlement on the island, and continues to be the nexus of social energy to this day. It is a vibrant city of many races & cultures, as the city has long been at the crossroads of humanity for hundreds of years. Today the city is a healthy mix of cultures and religious, including native Malay, Arabs and Acehnese (all Muslim), Indians and Bengalis (Hindu), Chinese (mostly Buddhist), as well as Dutch and English (Catholics & Protestants). Money has flooded to Georgetown for a long time, and the city is modernizing rapidly. Much like the city it often gets compared to, Singapore, Penang has seen rapid growth in the past 50 years, and housing projects similar to the Lion City's have resulted in numerous high rise apartment blocks rising from the various local areas. The result is a city that is at a crossroads, both from a cultural standpoint, as well as a socioeconomic one as well. With a burgeoning street art scene and a peaceful racial situation, it makes a fantastic place to visit.
Today Georgetown is a fairly big place comprised of many neighborhoods Although the actual downtown core isn't that large, the numerous suburbs that surround make it a hodgepodge of various ethnicities and economic levels. Sprawling areas cover the northeastern part of the island, in suburbs such as Air Itam and Jelutong. Neighborhoods of large high rise buildings lie not far from poorer areas with simple housing. The old city has been preserved quite well, and even today the ethnic neighborhoods remain, and there are Indian quarters, Chinese towns, and even an Arab quarter. There are Malay neighborhoods mixed throughout. There is even an area that is populated by a good population of foreigners as well, in luxury high rise condos and swanky villas, surrounded by shopping malls and restautants. There are large areas of commercial developments as well, especially hotels along the beach, and infrastructure associated with tourism.
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Georgetown today is a bustling place. A large shipyard and container port ensures it is the crossroads of business and commerce in the area. A vibrant cultural explosion is also taking place, and in addition to the aforementioned street art, the city is also known around Southeast Asia as a haven for food lovers. Street food vendors, local food stalls, restaurants, and food carts abound with a wide variety of tastes. We ate a whole array of restaurants, from Western to Chinese to Indian to Malaysian, and all of them were fantastic. One day we had Malaysian noodles for breakfast, Indian thali plates for lunch, and TGI Friday's for dinner. Some of the best food of our whole Malaysian trip was eaten right here in Georgetown. The old town Georgetown core is also fairly compact for walking or motorbike touring.
Fort Cornwallis, Old Town & History of the Island
The English first landed in Penang in the late 1780's, by Sir Francis Light. Although native Malays had been living on the island for a long time before, and local Arab, Chinese, and Southeast Asian traders had been visiting for some time, this marked the first time that European powers had come to the island. The island became a British colony through rather shady means. When Light first settled on the island and built Fort Cornwallis, the local Sultan of the Malayan kingdom of Kedah agreed to give control of the island to the British in exchange for military protection from Siamese aggression, and assistance in fighting with other Malayn kingdoms. Of course, Light never told this to his bosses. So when the Sultan of Kedah found out he had ceded the island for nothing, he tried to claim if back. He was rebuffed, and forced to formally cede the island to the British in exchange for a monthly payment of gold.
The key to the British power in their early control of Pulau Pinang (the original Malayan name for the island) was Fort Cornwallis. This large structure, made of bricks and reinforced with earth, was substantial in size and overlooked the shallows off the northeastern coast of the island, on the point of land the British had claimed. Over the years a small town, and then a sizable one, and finally a city, grew up around this bastion of British strength. Today the Fort has been restored and rebuilt and is worthy of a quick hour visit.
With Penang formally under their control, the British turned the island into a free-trade zone, and commerce exploded. Within a period of a half-century the island rose to prominence as one of the primary focuses of power, prestige and commerce in Southeast Asia. Rivaled only by the Portuguese-held Malacca and the Dutch-controlled Batavia [modern-day Jakarta], and before the island of Singapore turned into the ASEAN powerhouse, Penang was the epicenter of western Southeast Asia. Interestingly, despite the jumble of races and nationalities on the island, harmony has more or less prevailed over it's whole history under British rule (and now Malaysian), a rare occurrence for such a melting pot of ideologies.
Just like many other area cities, the various cultures and races fell into roles throughout the city and it's society. Chinese immigrants and powerful family clans took control of many business interests, banks and parts of the shipping infrastructure. To this day their clan jetties are a popular stop on the tourist trail. Arab traders brought their wares and their religion (at least to the native Malayans). Indians fell into a middle class of restauranteurs, tailors, civil service workers, landowners and bankers. The white British formed the elite upper class and were at the top of social pyramid. Add in a mix of Acehnese (Muslims from the island of Sumatra in modern day Indonesia) as lower class workers, as well as a small mix of Siamese, Filipino, Japanese and others. During the