The Sharp Turn from Tourist to Traveller
5 min read
HAVE YOU SEEN bus-loads of tourists disembarking at places where you, as a local, wouldn’t personally patronise? It usually has some tell-tale sign: an obscure...
The Crag Hotel: The Beginning of Penang’s Medical Tourism
6 min read
CONTRARY TO POPULAR belief that regards medical tourism as a product of the modern healthcare system, the beginnings of medical tourism in Penang can be t...
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How We Now Holiday, Post-Covid-19
6 min read
TRAVELLERS ARE SEEING green after the Covid-19 pandemic ‒ no, not green with envy, but in the literal sense with nature. When international borders shut after t...
George Town Festival Tests the Digital Waters
4 min read
Teochew Puppet and Opera House is a long-time performer for GTF.PENANG WOULD HAVE been a hive of activity last July, with preparations in full swing for t...
The Troubled Malaysian Book Trade and its Possible Recovery
8 min read
2020 WAS SUPPOSED to be a robust year for the Malaysian book trade, but that is not to be. The Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair (KLIBF) was postponed by sev...
How the Medically Ailing Survive the MCO
5 min read
PEOPLE LIVING WITH health anxieties and existing medical conditions had enough to be anxious about without Covid-19, but the Movement Control Order (MCO) brough...
MCO Highlights Malaysia’s Lack of Mental Health Services
5 min read
THE PANDEMIC HAS been a bewildering time for most of us; and some have also experienced a decline in mental health. In response to this new crisis, mental healt...
Keeping Alive Penang’s Reputation as a Jewellery Design Centre
9 min read
RETURNING CUSTOMERS ARE always welcome, even if they arrive to the little shop at the corner of the KOMTAR Gold and Jewellery Centre with a list of detailed spe...
Penang’s Gold and Jewellery Trade: A Generational Shift is at Hand
6 min read
THE SUDDEN MARCH rush to buy gold took even Penang’s seasoned jewellers and goldsmiths by surprise. A few timely factors had converged, such as the loosening of...
Anecdotal Accounts of Chinese Women Migrants to Southeast Asia
5 min read
In Penang Monthly’s Campbell Street-themed issue, we explored how the street gained infamy as a prostitution hub (see August 2021, A Red-light District Worthy o...
The Poetics and Politics of Main Puteri
5 min read
WITH TROUBLED THOUGHTS, Din Puteri leans against a corner post of the balai, next to a row of trays filled with offerings of eggs, yellow glutinous rice, banana...
A Literary Festival Celebrating Cosmopolitan Confluence
5 min read
Mikro-cosmos, an enduring connection forged through language, literature, words and ideas, informs the theme for the George Town Literary Festival this year, ha...