Protestant Cemetery — Local services in George Town

Roman Catholic cemetery where many of the early colonial settlers of Penang are buried.

In hindsight, it is an odd place to go for a vacation but graveyards are high key fun to explore. There’s just something charming about reading gravestones and gleaning what you can from the inscriptions about their lives. There are a couple of interesting graves and engraved scriptures to look at, particularly those who died young. The graves of young mothers buried with their infants also ignite a sobering, sombre air. Occasionally we’d catch an old woman who lived beyond 60.

Do note, while you’re traversing through the graves that there are TONS of mosquitoes around, so take repellent with you. And look out for the cool...

This cemetery has been there for almost 200 years now. Captain Francis Light was buried with an ordinary grave and the existing grave was reconstructed and built after one hundred years after. There is another popular figure where Thomas Leonowens husband of Anna Leonowens who left Penang as this sorrow island to Siam and take a job as teacher to the children of the Siamese King Mongkut.

The Eastern Hotel was founded by the Sarkies Brothers in 1884. Within one year, the hotel had prospered and surged in popularity such that the brothers established another hotel, the Oriental Hotel, in 1885, leading to a merger of both hotels into the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in 1889. The Sarkies Brothers grave...

This should be a to-go spot for sociological and historical enthusiasts. It is a conglomeration of the pioneer colonial members in the island of Penang. The diverse group of permanent residents in this cemetery is an interesting evidence of the cosmopolitanism of Penang. You can complement your trip with the expensive 2-volume book by Marcus Langdon (available in bookstore around the town). You could develop better understanding after dwelling into the bibliography & historiography former Penang. Apart from Francis Light, the Scottish journalist JR Logan also caught my attention. Founders of heritage school in the island...