In Malaysia, Tourists Are Lured by George Town’s Colorful Past
By ROBYN ECKHARDT
BEHIND the Goddess of Mercy Temple in George Town, the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang, a rebirth is under way. For as long as anyone can remember, the eastern end of Stewart Lane, which runs behind the temple, has been marred by the blackened shells of seven historic terrace houses. Several years ago a suspicious fire left the houses roofless. But inside, allusions to a grand past remained: skeletons of timber staircases, bits of terra-cotta tile, indigo patches of lime wash on walls rising 25 feet.
In June, symbols of revival appeared: scaffolding, corrugated metal hoardings and a large construction permit sprouted up in front of the structures. Soon, work began on a costly restoration that will see the buildings reincarnated as a luxury boutique hotel called Seven Terraces, scheduled to open by mid-2011. The project is being undertaken by Chris Ong and Karl Steinberg, co-owners of the Galle Fort Hotel in Sri Lanka. They are also restoring George Town’s historic carriage stables, which they plan to open as another boutique hotel and cafe.
George Town, on the east coast of Penang Island, is undergoing a renaissance of sorts, and Seven Terraces is just the latest sign. In 2008 the city was named a Unesco World Heritage Site, and now there is a palpable energy on the streets, particularly in its historic inner city — an orderly grid of streets and narrow lanes lined by mostly low-rise structures in a range of architectural styles reflecting its history as a British colonial city and trading post.
The terrace houses were built in the late 19th century, when George Town was enjoying boom years as an export center for northern Malaysia, but were later abandoned and fell into disrepair. Their derelict status was part of the general decline of George Town in the latter part of the 20th century. That deterioration was brought on by a series of events, including the city’s loss of free-port status in the late ’60s, the development of a rival port near Kuala Lumpur, and a population exodus to the suburbs.
Despite all this, George Town has long been a magnet for Malaysians and Singaporeans hip to its vibrant food scene. It has also attracted the type of world traveler for whom street culture and charmingly decrepit period architecture trump the availability of a well-made cappuccino. Encouraged by the Unesco designation, entrepreneurs like Mr. Ong and Mr. Steinberg are embarking on ventures set to broaden the city’s appeal.
For Mr. Ong, who was born in Penang, left in 1978, and returned only three years ago to live in George Town, the key is building on the city’s historic past. “For me it’s about creating beauty in this town and getting people to appreciate these old buildings,” he explained one recent morning at Kopi Cine, a smart cafe and bar cater-corner to the future location of Seven Terraces. “It’s about showing people that you can come back and have a life in this city.”
Seven Terraces is just one of an impressive number of new hotels and other projects that anticipate the city as a more popular tourist destination. Three boutique hotels have already opened this year, and at least six more, including the Seven Terraces and the converted carriage stables, are scheduled to open in 2011, along with two luxury hotels and a mixed-use development space on the city’s long-neglected waterfront that will host offices, retail shops and furnished full-service apartments. The Eastern & Oriental Hotel — George Town’s colonial-era grande dame — is adding hotel rooms in a neighboring 17-story tower. Work was recently completed on the restoration of almost three blocks of magnificent late-19th-century commercial buildings, to be leased as retail space, in the financial center. And small shops, restaurants, and cafes — like Soul Kitchen, a laid-back Malaysian-German venture with an Italian-influenced menu, and the quirky, four-table Amelie Cafe — are beginning to pop up in old shop houses.
These developments are unfolding within the context of two large infrastructure projects: a 250 million ringgit (about $59 million) upgrade of Penang’s international airport — the first phase of which will be finished by early 2012 — and the construction of a second bridge to the Malaysian mainland, scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.
The city’s revival is getting a nudge from the state and national governments as well. In 2008, Think City, a subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance, was established to disburse 20 million ringgit in grants for conservation, beautification, documentation and other projects, including the just-completed restoration of the 180-year-old Toi Shan Association, a Chinese ancestral hall and temple in the city’s Little India, and the repair of cracks in the dome of the 19th-century Kapitan Keling Mosque. Think City is also working with the state government to beautify George Town’s cityscape; a pilot project, planting trees the length of busy Carnarvon Street, is scheduled to be completed by the end of December. “Our goal is rejuvenation within the inner city,” said Neil Khor, a Think City program director. “This city has got to be alive.”
So far, so good. George Town “is buzzing these days,” said Narelle McMurtrie, owner of Kopi Cine, who opened Straits Collection, a boutique hotel, in two rows of shop houses last February and, last month, a furniture and clothing shop in another refurbished structure. “But it’s not just tourists. I’m seeing more locals on the streets. Penang people are taking back their city.”
A sign of that effort is locals returning to the area as residents. In May, Ocean Teh, a Penang native who grew up in George Town until he was 13, opened Sri Malaya, a bistro serving a mix of Western and Malaysian food, in a restored George Town shop house; he lives right upstairs. “It’s a real city,” he said. “I came back for the culture.”
Just a few years ago, many islanders would have considered George Town too unsafe a place to visit at night, let alone live. Now Penang locals outnumber the tourists dining after dark on wonton mee and curry laksa on hawker-stall-lined Chulia Street. There’s always a line around the corner at Teksen, even though the Chinese restaurant doubled its capacity in April. And Sri Malaya’s dinner clientele is predominantly local.
“There’s been a leap forward this year,” said Rebecca Duckett, a Malaysian artist who opened 29 The Gallery in Little India this year. “Locals are more aware of George Town as a place of interest.” She credits events like the Little Penang Street Market, on the last Sunday of the month, and the annual George Town Festival. This year, the government-funded event, staged to mark the city’s World Heritage designation, ran for the month of July with a packed schedule of open houses, art exhibitions, film screenings, and theater, music and dance performances by local and international artists. Every ticketed event sold out.
“It’s the energy of this city that enabled everyone to work together,” said Joe Sidek, the festival director and a local industrialist and arts patron. Plans are in the works for next year’s festival, as well as for a daylong event called City Day to be held on Jan. 1, the day Queen Elizabeth II declared George Town a city in 1957.
George Town’s arts scene, though, is lagging behind other types of development — “more for lack of spaces than anything,” according to Ms. Duckett. But that’s changing, slowly. Ms. McMurtrie, the cafe owner, has partnered with a Kuala Lumpur art gallery to stage exhibitions from that city in a gallery above her shops she plans to call Studio; the first, comprising the works of 14 artists, is scheduled for late December. And a local theater practitioner, Sek Thim Chee, is set to begin converting a former shop house into a guesthouse and performance space, starting in January.
All of this builds on a unique multi-ethnic and multi-religious heritage. The legacy of waves of immigrants from Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia over several hundred years is writ large in the city’s architecture and the seemingly constant street theater of its religious festivals and celebrations. The muezzin’s call from the Kapitan Keling Mosque is answered by bells rung across the street at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple; the clack of mah-jongg tiles drifts from the doorways of Chinese clan and trade associations, and small-scale trades like tinsmithing and incense production are still practiced.
City organizers know that this rich history is a large part of George Town’s appeal, and that a balance needs to be struck. “We need the touristy stuff,” acknowledged Ooi Geok Ling, the global tourism managing director for Penang, “but we don’t want to lose what is true and raw about George Town.”
What this means for travelers is the best of both worlds: sticks of satay from a street-side hawker’s grill followed by an espresso martini at Kopi Cine; a bit of boutique browsing after a tour of Little India’s temples and clan halls.
“There’s still that sense of travel about George Town,” said Mr. Steinberg, the hotelier. “It’s just more comfortable than it used to be.”