Week 3: A little exploration

This isn't the most scenic pic I could have led with for this post. Nevertheless I really dug the artwork for this logo, so much so that I've asked my family to refer to me by this new title, effective immediately. While it might not really fit now, based on my current ratio of noodle intake to exercise I'm well on my way.

I came across the fat cat on my walk through historic Georgetown this week. It was a national holiday Thursday for the prophet Mohamad's birthday, I had the day off, Jo had other commitments, so I took a Grab (Malaysian Uber) to the old British colonial section to check things out. 

I'm a history nerd so the starting point was the old English Fort Cornwallis. One of my favorite historical places of all time in Fort McHenry in Baltimore - the construction of this place reminded me of that - the same star-shaped footprint that was common in the colonial era. 

Of special interest was the resident magic cannon. I'll paraphrase the explanatory plaque found in the fort for the Sri Rambai Cannon:

Cannon was forged by the Dutch East India company and was stamped with the company logo as well as its born-on date of 1613. Fast-forward to 1871, a British boat carrying the cannon (not Dutch) was attacked by pirates and sunk.

Here's where it gets interesting - According to history, in 1880 the cannon was cursed by a prince who tied a thread on his finger and ordered the cannon float up from the briny depths. It was unclear what role the thread or the finger actually played in this miracle, but the cannon obeyed. Once the cannon made it's way to the fort, it became a hit with local women having trouble getting pregnant, who believed that placing flowers in the cannon barrel would aid in conception. Seems reasonable that if a cannon can float, there's probably still some magic left in it for other things too.

There's a lot too see in Georgetown - including a bunch of street art and cool alleyways

And some super campy museums. I resisted the temptation to visit these until I had someone to share them with. If Abbi elects to visit in December this will probably be our first stop together - she once planned an entire trip from Portland to Provo around Atlas Obscura weirdo stuff to see along the way - these will be right up her alley

Also, cool architecture. Fancy mansions built by Chinese merchants that moved to Penang in the early 1900s - took a tour of the Peranakan green mansion

Exterior reminded me of the Victorian row houses in San Francisco - interior was pretty amazing

Not sure about this chair thing - seems like a seating arrangement for two people that want to be close enough to talk but can't stand to look at each other

There was a ton of artwork, but none that made me laugh except this one. Not sure what this poor guy is holding in his hand, but his face seems to say "riding this super bumpy deer was a terrible idea"

Georgetown also has amazing food. Earlier in the week Jo and I went with our new friends Rochelle and Dale to an amazing Thai place. Here's a selfie from out front. Everytime I take a selfie of the two of us it results in a phenomena I like to call "big head - little head". I think it would be better if Jo held out her phone for the pic instead but her arm doesn't quite have the same range

Besides the Thai I found an awesome French bakery on my walkabout. Not just a banging croissant. One filled with pistachio white chocolate creme. Unreal.

 Finally, a couple of beach pics from the balcony/outside our apartment. Bold sunset last night, I gave it a whirl with the time lapse.

Also, there's a ton of shells on the beach just beneath our balcony, and a huge variety. Takes the fun out of walking barefoot when they get really dense.

Finally, our little beach has its own little shrine. Its cool to be walking along on a Sunday morning and catch a whiff of incense, take about 10 steps into the mangroves at the edge of the sand and find this

Finally finally, we learned this weekend that after much back and forth with the landlord, our offer on our permanent place here was accepted - more to come later on that, but plan now is that our time at this beachy high-rise will come to an end Oct 15th. 

Finally^3 - Joanna has a blog as well. She's as witty as she is smart and beautiful, check it out if you want to know what a real author can do 

https://joannawilbur.blogspot.com