Today is the George Town Heritage Day. It is a special day to commemorate the awarding of UNESCO heritage status.
Most of the days events started at 2pm, so there was no rush to get 'out and about'. We leisurely left our hotel and went for roti cannai for breakfast in a cosy little Indian restaurant. We sat watching Tamil music videos and drank masala tea with the local clientele.
After leaving the restaurant we strolled the street and found an excellent Sunday market. Each stall was selling small crafts made from recycled material. The first stall we stopped at were making sun visors from old cardboard boxes and they very kindly gave us one each. Another stall was making small layered sand gardens by reusing small glass jars. Everyone was so friendly. We spent some time chatting to a local in a book shop who gave us some great tips on making the most of the day.
As the clock struck 2pm, we headed to the Kaptain Keling Mosque for our first workshop. Star lantern making. The lanterns are used to decorate the mosque at the end of Ramadan. We had expert help from volunteers wearing heritage festival t-shirt and we were interviewed for tv and Malaysian newspapers. It took a long time to make each lantern but the end result was spectacular! And, we got to keep them ... As we left the mosque, we were given blank postcards to draw on. We both took our time and completed some amazingly artistic 'stick man' images. We had our picture taken with our postcards in front off an antique post box and the volunteers even said they would add international stamps and post them to the UK!
Next stop was a Chinese temple. They were serving a special soup which the Chinese believe cleanses your body. Apparently it is made of lentils but it looked and tasted like sweetcorn soup!
As we walked through Little India, we couldn't resist a vegetable samosa from the 'Samosa Man' ...Eventually we arrived at our 2nd craft session. Rattan weaving. It was hard! Our attempts went a little haywire, even with the help of a friendly student volunteer!
We topped up on food once again at a special festival stall. This time we enjoyed a type of sardine curry and chapati before making our way to kite making. Our teacher (guru - Malay) was a wonderful lady from Penang. She was very patient with us and helped us make 2 wonderful kites. A little large for our bags, so we gave them to 2 little boys to enjoy.
On to the next stall. Thai lantern making from tissue paper. After a few neat folds, a quick snip here and there, we had multicoloured lanterns! So beautiful! Another activity we tried in the Thai area was another style of weaving with palm leaves. The volunteer helped Christine make an amazing fish. There is no way we could remember how to do it, it was so intricate!
There was many more stall to try different crafts but unfortunately time was up and it was now 9pm, packing away time. We left with our hands full and went for dinner. Another variety of curry each ... Food heaven!
Most of the days events started at 2pm, so there was no rush to get 'out and about'. We leisurely left our hotel and went for roti cannai for breakfast in a cosy little Indian restaurant. We sat watching Tamil music videos and drank masala tea with the local clientele.
After leaving the restaurant we strolled the street and found an excellent Sunday market. Each stall was selling small crafts made from recycled material. The first stall we stopped at were making sun visors from old cardboard boxes and they very kindly gave us one each. Another stall was making small layered sand gardens by reusing small glass jars. Everyone was so friendly. We spent some time chatting to a local in a book shop who gave us some great tips on making the most of the day.
As the clock struck 2pm, we headed to the Kaptain Keling Mosque for our first workshop. Star lantern making. The lanterns are used to decorate the mosque at the end of Ramadan. We had expert help from volunteers wearing heritage festival t-shirt and we were interviewed for tv and Malaysian newspapers. It took a long time to make each lantern but the end result was spectacular! And, we got to keep them ... As we left the mosque, we were given blank postcards to draw on. We both took our time and completed some amazingly artistic 'stick man' images. We had our picture taken with our postcards in front off an antique post box and the volunteers even said they would add international stamps and post them to the UK!
Next stop was a Chinese temple. They were serving a special soup which the Chinese believe cleanses your body. Apparently it is made of lentils but it looked and tasted like sweetcorn soup!
As we walked through Little India, we couldn't resist a vegetable samosa from the 'Samosa Man' ...Eventually we arrived at our 2nd craft session. Rattan weaving. It was hard! Our attempts went a little haywire, even with the help of a friendly student volunteer!
We topped up on food once again at a special festival stall. This time we enjoyed a type of sardine curry and chapati before making our way to kite making. Our teacher (guru - Malay) was a wonderful lady from Penang. She was very patient with us and helped us make 2 wonderful kites. A little large for our bags, so we gave them to 2 little boys to enjoy.
On to the next stall. Thai lantern making from tissue paper. After a few neat folds, a quick snip here and there, we had multicoloured lanterns! So beautiful! Another activity we tried in the Thai area was another style of weaving with palm leaves. The volunteer helped Christine make an amazing fish. There is no way we could remember how to do it, it was so intricate!
There was many more stall to try different crafts but unfortunately time was up and it was now 9pm, packing away time. We left with our hands full and went for dinner. Another variety of curry each ... Food heaven!
