Penang Off The Beaten Path Tips by kenyneo Top 5 Page for this destination

nside the ferry ...on our way to Pulau Jerejak

Just a bunch of accountants ..nope auditors to be exact , some armed with calculators while others equipped with abacus ...preparing to storm Pulau Jerejak ...
( all smiling , but apparently all busy calculating the return of investment of this trip )

The fare cost RM15 , which I think is quite pricey, and journey errr...should be about 1 hour...

From town take the Bayan Lepas causeway , all the way until you see Villas Mas ( a few orangey apartments on your left ) there is a turning right after this apartment , turn in.

you will find the jetty inside somewhere there lah ! They have a few trips to and from the island !

Hear their laughters ...feel their sorrow ..

I guess there is always a blessing in disguise...it was qouted that ....

The children of the island?s hospital staff or the island?s prison workers remember a lively beautiful island. ?The sea was clean and the people were very friendly,? recalled a retired civil servant who used to live there with her parents.

maybe you can hear their laughters and feel their emotions when you are there ..who knows ...

but couldnt agree more with the above statement when I look at those pictures I have taken...

Reincarnation of Pulau Jerejak

reincarnation

One of my fren informed me that the island is being developed as a tourist resort so a bunch of us decided to pay this island a visit.

My childhood memory of this place is that , we are not allowed to visit this place at all, only stories about the lepers being kept there and subsequently a prison for certain type of convicts. This trip is like walking into history , perhaps childhood dream to see what its like to stay in this island and to live in confinement, to feel what the lepers feel - totally cut of from outside world .

aren't we all very fortunate ? so I think we should all think of people in such situation when we are about to complain about this and that ...

Of course what we see now is hundreds of time better than what it used to be.

a beautiful and serene hideaway

A nice resort have been erected, with cluster of chalets/ bugnalows perched on the hill, a beautiful and clean swimming pool ( simple and of course more can be done to beautify it ) and a lovely beach to stroll and relax ....to avoid the major touristy beaches or island.

There is also a restaurant serving international buffet. We also spotted a bunch of girls practising traditional dance there ... traditional dance cool ?

The road are all well cemented or tarred , unlik yesteryears ....

Pulau Jerejak ..island of a sad past

What is it like , to be confined in an island

Pulau Jerejak, a small island just off the coast of Bayan Lepas, in Penang has a long and interesting history ? much of which has been characterised by neglect and confinement. In the distance Jerejak looks a mass of virgin jungle. On the shores palms and coconut trees abound.

Behind those natural beauty, it was actually a former leper colony where ?a thousand Asiatic lepers, largely Chinese, have learnt to smile in the face of the most awful visitation of Divine anger.

Subsequent to being a leper colony ? now moved to Sungai Buloh, Selangor ? the island was a centre for contagious diseases and later became a penal colony.

In fact Jerejak first appeared in colonial records when Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon in Waterloo) proposed it as a possible alternative to Fort Cornwallis as a naval base in 1797.

It is interesting to know that the lepers were segregated according to race. The biggest complaint of the Chinese lepers, he wrote, was the poor quality of opium they received from the authorities. There was also one white couple living with the lepers. The woman, most probably from Lancaster, England, lived with her Australian husband, When asked her what life was like on the island, she said: ?There is nowhere to walk except over the short stretch of sand you see in front of the bungalow. There are no roads on the island ? it is all thick jungle, and one cannot get from one part to another without using the rowing boat ? in the evenings I sometimes accompany my husband when he goes in the sampan to some of the other settlements. It is a little change. Perhaps we may be provided soon with a motor launch ? then the inspection will become almost joy rides.?

Penang Free School ( The Grand Old Lady )

Its the earliest school in South East Asia. Founded in 1816. Usually called the Grand Old Lady because of the grandeur of its Romanesque architecture.

Well I was a student there from 1991-1995. Proud to be an ex-Frees.

( will upload pictures when I snap one )

along Jalan Masjid Negeri

Heong San Association - King Street

Another chinese association which caught my attention ...stands out because of its snow white building just beside the Fiery red Tua Pek Kong Temple

Nin Yong Temple

just another cool temple that caught my attention ....wish more work is being done to make these temples more accessible to all travellers

" Mui " Clan Temple

Penang being an early settlement for the chinese from all over China ...is blessed with many chinese clan house or association representing different province or district of China ...while some are extremely famous like Khoo Kongsi ...some are not so ..but still are appealing and special in its own way ...one fine example is this Mui Caln House or Mui Family Temple at King Street ...

Something different from the usual bright red colour of most chinese temple. the greenish temple ...gives an unusual but interesting sight !

( somewher near Church Street )