Pekan Cina is the area where the Chinese first settled here in Alor Setar, and the roads are lined with distinctive Chinese shophouses. The Chinese were encouraged to come here in the 19th century by the 24th Sultan of Kedah (Sultan Tajuddin Mukarram Shah, ruled 1854-1879), and they went to work on the royal farms where coffee, pepper and cloves were planted.
This bridge across the Kedah River (the Goodwill Gates) highlights the community of the Malay Town (Pekan Melayu) on one side and the Chinese Town (Pekan Cina) on the other side of the river. Today those distinctions are less clearcut and I saw distinctive Indian features in some of the ‘Chinese’ shophouses. Interestingly, the street sign for Jalan Dato Doctor Cheah Toon Lok has the street name in three languages; this is extremely rare in Malaysia. Usually, you just have the sign in Malay but in Alor Setar there are three street signs where Malay, Jawi, and Chinese script are used, and this is one of those!
Our first stop on this damp morning was Cafe Diem; a coffee house which was once upon a time, a goal. I had the best cup of coffee on the trip so far, and the cafe provided drinking water without you having to ask. For me that is a good sign and I wish more cafes/restaurants would do this.
The restoration and repurposing to produce Cafe Diem shows what can be done with these old buildings which are otherwise being left to rot. There is another example below of a smaller cafe in a beautifully restored building, along with buildings who’s fate is uncertain.
The river runs behind this street, so that was where we headed next. We walked into what we thought was a Chinese temple area, but turned out to be a Chinese Restaurant.
Still, we got an excellent view of the river from just outside the restaurant, and I just missed getting a shot of a boatman alighting from this very old form of transport.
I did managed to grab a short video clip of the river, because the greenery on the river in the photo above was actually a floating raft of water hyacinth. This was a very large raft indeed. The river was high today because of the recent rains, so this moving island of greenery was moving very quickly past us; bound to cause trouble further up the river?
We ventured back to the main street where I was interested to see the ‘street furniture’ and wall art. Now that I am back home, I have discovered that I missed two huge murals of Alor Setar’s most famous sons: Tunku Abdul Rahman and Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
We found the river again where this watchtower was under re-construction. I have come across a photo of this on the web from 2015 where the watchtower was quite isolated, with no buildings either side. Not clear what is happening to it now. This watchtower is located at Tanjung Chali, which is a cape in Alor Setar where two rivers meet (Sungai Kedah and Sungai Anak Bukit). Tanjung Chali used to be a harbour used by locals and traders, and everything I can find on the web tells me to go up the tower for the view! Well it looks like someone has had other plans.
Anyway, we walked along the riverside back to the main bridge and this was a very pleasant area. There were plenty of trees for shade, and a bit of shelter from the rain, and I imagine this would be quite pretty in the evenings with the red lanterns glowing in the trees.
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