So much has been heard about this amazing artist from Lithuania and his
street paintings around Penang. There
has been so much publicity about his artwork in the newspapers and in the
internet that I decided that I just have to personally see it for myself. I
discussed this trip with my family and at once everyone got as interested as I
am.
After doing some planning & a bit of research, we decided on a
weekday so as not to be caught up in the weekend jam. Our initial plan was to go by bus and then take
the ferry to Penang but we finally decided to drive to Penang instead, thinking
this would save time (so we thought). As it turns out, we ended up wasting more
time than expected, reaching Penang almost close to noon, double the normal
travelling time due to a massive traffic jam.
We parked our car at a private parking lot along Pengkalan Weld close to
Chew Jetty where we will begin our walk.( Parking charge was only RM3.00 for
whole day)
Our guide map ~ Ernest has a total of 8
street paintings around Georgetown
Our walk began at one of
the Clan Jetties of Penang ~ Chew Jetty, which is the most famous & well
known clan jetty in Penang.
Chew Jetty ~ declared as UNESCO World
Heritage Site
No. 1 ~ “Child on Boat” by Ernest Zacharevic
Handicraft made out from Pandan
Leaves(screwpine)
T-Shirt available for sale
Leaving the jetty we
headed towards Lebuh Armenian looking for his next artwork entitled “Child on
Bicycle”. This seems to be the most
famous & most photographed mural which is located at the corner of Lebuh
Armenian & Lebuh Pantai.
No.2 ~ “Child on Bicycle” by Ernest
Zacharevic
People come far & wide
just to make cameo shots with his creations
This is my shot….lol
The next street art is
just around the next corner along Lebuh Ah Quee. “Boy On Bike & Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur”
is another one of his popular artwork.
The famous walls of Lebuh Ah Quee
No.3 ~ “Boy On Bike & Little Boy With
Pet Dinosaur” by Ernest Zacharevic
A close-up shot of the murals
My girls getting amazed by his
creativity (^-^)
My girls cameo shot with Ernest street
art ~ “Little boy with Pet Dinosaur” =)
We noticed at just around
the corner, towards the back lane of this building, there is a sketch of
another dinosaur. Not sure if it’s drawn by Ernest or just a copy-cat drawing.
Then on the walls of the back lane, we found another mural done by another
artist.
Another beautiful mural done by a local
artist
We walked further up Lebuh
Armenian looking for Ernest’s next mural titled “This Old Man”. This was when we noticed that there are quite
a few different type of artwork ~ sculptures made from steel rods, all
depicting the old lifestyle of Penang.
The steel-road sculpture on the left is
named “The Hand Pulled Rickshaw” and on the right is the sculpture of the Tua
Pek Kong(A Chinese diety) float procession along Lebuh Armenian
This “Policeman on Bike” mural is just
beside the “Tua Pek Kong” steel-rod sculpture
An interesting bicycle shop with a
rickshaw parked outside its shoplot
Old houses along Lebuh Armenian. On the
right is some sort of arts & craft shop
We did not have the
opportunity to look inside as it was closed for the day
No.4 ~ Ernest Zacharevic’s “This Old Man”
mural on the corner of Lebuh Armenian & Lebuh Cannon
As you can see, weather
condition has taken its toll on the mural and it is fading away. We actually missed it earlier on and got its
location from the Tourist Information Centre along Lbh. Cannon.
The Yap Kongsi building at the junction
of Lbh Armenian & Lbh Cannon
Then turning left into
Lebuh Cannon, not very far ahead is the “Reaching Up” mural
Beautiful well maintained buildings
along Lebuh Cannon
The Aceh Street Mosque at the end of
Lbh. Cannon (The “Reaching Up” mural is just on the left)
No.5 ~ “Reaching Up” mural by Ernest
Our cameo shot, don’t think anyone can
resist taking photographs with this mural.
We were discussing if we
should end our walk here as the sun was so scorching hot. It was really a hot afternoon (but thankfully
at least it didn’t rain or we wouldn’t have come this far)
The next stop would be the
“Little Girl In Blue” in Lebuh Muntri and we will have to walk quite a distance
to reach.
We took a breather to cool
down under the shaded trees there.
Previously this place seem to be some sort of drinks café guessing
from the many empty
bottles stacked up & some abandoned tables & chairs
After some cooling drinks
from our flask & some biscuits to fill our rumbling tummies, we decided to
carry on.
Walking towards Jalan
Masjid Kapitan Keling, we headed left onto Lebuh Chulia then onto Love Lane
before turning into Muntri Street to look for the “Little Girl In Blue” mural.
The Kapitan Keling Mosque
My girls taking another breather under
one of the trees in front of the Kapitan Keling Mosque.
Along Lebuh Chulia, we
kept to the shaded 5-foot way along the shophouses to keep out of the sun.
The corridors of the shop houses along
Lebuh Chulia
From Chulia Street turning
into Love Lane to get to Muntri Street, we came across this mural which we
later found out that it was another one of Ernest Zacharevic’s artwork entitled
“Broken Hearts”
But someone had taken the
‘initiative’ to mend the broken hearts
The original did not have
strings with the wordings “Happily Everafter” attached to it.
Saw this creative house No. plate along
Love Lane
Another steel-road sculpture along Love
Lane ~ “Where’s My Husband”
Muntri Street
Love this creative lamp made from empty
biscuits tin at Moon Tree47 Homestay
I also found this interesting sketch
just outside Moon Tree 47 Homestay along Muntri Street
Hainan Temple along Muntri Street (Tien
Hou Gong)
Finally after close to
half an hour walk there it was ~ “The Little Girl in Blue”, painted on the wall
of one of the shop houses along Muntri Street.
No.7 ~ “Little Girl In Blue”
It doesn’t really look so
‘Little’ does it…lol
Walking along Muntri
Street, we found another sculpture……
Amahs of yesteryears from Guandong China
sclupture
Another steel-road sculpture depicting
how Muntri Street got its name
Another sculpture on the famous shoe
designer Jimmy Choo
From here we decided to go
all the way to Penang Road to see Ernest’s last mural entitled “The Trishaw
Man”
Junction of Muntri Street & Leith
Street with the Cititel Hotel in the background
Taking a right onto Penang
Road, we found Ernest’s last mural painted on the wall of a building just next
to a parking lot.
No.8 ~ “The Trishaw Man”
My girls with the mural
It was way pass lunch time
& we were all famished. Tummies
rumbling we walked along Penang Road looking for a good eatery. That’s when we came across Café 78, located
at the corner of Jalan Bahari and Penang Road.
As it turns out, we made the right choice
Lunch at Café 78, Penang Road
From top left: Hokkien Mee, Curry Mee,
Wantan Mee & Chicken rice
The verdict? Well the
Hokkien Mee was nice, but lack ingredients. Curry Mee was so so. The Chicken
rice was rather tasteless but the salted vegetable soup with chicken feet that
came with it was tasty. Their Wantan Mee
was really superb, one of the best I have tried. There was also a Yong-Tau Foo
stall & a Nasi Lemak Stall.
Their Nasi Lemak stall
seems popular considering the number of people ordering but did not want to try
it as it was such a hot day & eating something spicy would be really make
me uncomfortable.
After satisfying our rumbling
tummies & cooling down with glasses of cold drinks, it was time to head on
back to Chew Jetty where we parked our car, but that was not before stopping
over at the once famous Chowrasta Market.
Chowrasta Market was once
the most popular shopping complex in Penang way back in the sixties. Back then the ground floor consists of fruit
stalls & a wet market whilst the top floor was a supermarket. Presently the market still exists & so
does the fruit stalls but the upper floor is quite empty except for some small
shop lots selling mainly clothes. What
interests us was the HUGE second-hand bookstore located at the back portion of
the upper floor.
Books piled along the
corridors. From novels, school books and some that you may even consider
antique books and maps…all stacked up, right up to the ceiling!
View from the top floor of Chowrasta
market
One thing that we all
couldn’t resist was the huge variety of PICKLES!! This place seems to be famous
for its pickles, even way back then.
Shop selling pickles & all sorts of
snacks
PICKLES!! From top right ~ My Favourite
… Attap Chee (Buah Kabung), Buah Kerinchi (that has a slight bitter taste to
it) & pickled Buah Salak
It was a long walk back to
Pengkalan Weld. We walked through Campbell Steet, Lebuh Buckingham & passed
Lebuh Ah Quee where the “Boy on Bike/Dinosaur” mural was then walked along
Lebuh Pantai & Lebuh Armenian before reaching CF food Court for some
cooling drinks before embarking for our journey back home.
Taking a rest along Campbell Street
Buildings along Campbell Street
Rock World ~ which was a discotheque. It
was formerly one of the famous nightspots in Penang.
Campbell House Boutique Hotel
We had a smooth ride home
~ no traffic jam. We had a tiring but
productive & fruitful day.
We managed to see all of
Ernest Zacharevic’s street art, which was amazing and we got to enjoy the
beauty of the heritage zone of Georgetown from a different prespective. We always hear about his beautiful artwork,
but nothing is more fulfilling than to see it for yourself!!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!!
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