Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Today the clan jetties are low-income areas with a jumble of dilapidated floating houses
and planks, and are becoming popular tour-bus stops. If you get here sans tour bus, it's a
fun place to wander around, with docked fishing boats, folks cooking in their homes and
kids running around. There is also a homestay (
Click here
)
option here.
FORT CORNWALLIS
(Lebuh Light; adult/child RM2/1; 9am-7pm)
For all its size, this fort isn't particularly impressive;
only the outer walls stand, enclosing a rather aged and spare park within. The fort is
named for Charles Cornwallis, perhaps best known for surrendering at the Battle of York-
town to George Washington, effectively ending the American Revolution. It was at the
site of the fort that Captain Light first set foot on the virtually uninhabited island in 1786
and established the free port where trade would, he hoped, be lured from Britain's Dutch
rivals. Between 1808 and 1810 convict labour replaced the then-wooden building materi-
als with stone. The star-profile shape of the walls allowed for overlapping fields of fire
against enemies.
HISTORIC SITE
PROTESTANT CEMETERY
(Jln Sultan Ahmad Shah; 24hr)
Here you'll find the graves of Captain Francis Light and many
others, including governors, merchants, sailors and Chinese Christians, who fled the Box-
er Rebellion in China (a movement opposing Western imperialism and evangelism) only
to die of fever in Penang, all under a canopy of magnolia trees. Also here is the tomb of
Thomas Leonowens, the young officer who married Anna - the schoolmistress to the
King of Siam made famous by
The King and I.
CEMETERY
