The Peranakan Mansion
Today we walked to the Peranakan Mansion, It was only a few hundred metres from our hotel. An easy walk with our umbrellas.
The admission is reasonable at 25 MYR a mere $7.40 CAD each. We have been here on a previous trip so we opted to not take the guided tour. We wandered around refreshing our memory of this really cool place.
The Peranakans, also known as the Baba’s and Nyonya’s, was a prominent community of acculturated Chinese unique to this part of the world, especially in the Straits Settlement referring to the Straits of Melaka Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) hence its other name, the Straits Chinese. Adopting selected ways of the local Malays and later, the colonial British, the Peranakans had created a unique lifestyle and customs which has not only left behind a rich legacy of antiques but its cultural influences like cuisine and language are still evident in Penang today. If you look at a map of Penang on the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula you will see the proximity of Penang, Melaka (Malacca) and Singapore. The Straits of Melaka have been a huge shipping route for hundreds of years. Over 94,000 vessels pass through the strait each year (2008) making it the busiest strait in the world, carrying about 25% of the world’s traded goods, including oil, Chinese manufactured products, coal, palm oil and Indonesian coffee.
At the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the typical home of a rich Baba of a century ago is recreated to offer a glimpse of their opulent lifestyle and of their many customs and traditions. With over 1,000 pieces of antiques and collectibles of the era on display, this Baba-Nyonya museum is also housed in one of Penang’s heritage mansions of eclectic design and architecture. Built at the end of the 19th century by one of local history’s famous personalities, the mansion features a Chinese courtyard house. It was much like a typical large Baba home of eclectic style, incorporating Chinese carved-wood panels and English floor tiles and Scottish ironworks. Having survived the many decades of neglect and decay, the mansion has now been restored to its former glory of a stately home. It is truly an impressive building!
When we were all done it was starting to spit rain so we took shelter in the adjacent coffee shop which has a balcony overlooking the mansion. By the time we took cover in the coffee shop balcony it proceeded to dump rain! We ordered two Nyonya coffee, they tasted great! We paired that with the recommended Pandan square. While we were enjoying our coffee on the sheltered balcony we watched the rain pour down in real tropical style. It finally let up after 45 minutes and we paid our bill and made a dash for our hotel which was about 4 blocks away. The rest of our day was spent indoors looking at the rain.
We headed out for supper with umbrellas in hand, thankful that the rain had let up some. We ate at a restaurant named Bhai Biryani Authentic Indian Muslim Cuisine, a big name for Indian food with no beer. The food was better than expected and we had real fresh mango lassies. Our waiter was from Pakistan, lived in Dubai for 4 years and now works in Georgetown Penang. He spoke very good English, and we chatted lots about his dreams to get to a better country. Malaysia is just a means to and end for him. He is looking to get to Australia, Japan or Canada.
After supper we walked back to the hotel without needing our umbrellas!