We had a splendid day in George Town with all the garden guides (all but one – Raja) being taken on a tour by a very experienced and seasoned Teresa Capol. Teresa has been giving historical tours of George Town for 10 years now and her passion and camarederie with the many vendors and residents of Little India was warming to see. Teresa is one of those rare guides that truly cares for both her subject (historical George Town) as well as her visitors – ensuring they get a top notch tour every single time as well as being well looked after with piping hot samosas, kopi tarik and laddoos at almost every juncture.

Introduction to Little India

And our tour with the guides was no different. I thought it would be good for all of us to be taken on a tour of the city where the origins of the Penang spice trade grew from. It has always been super important to me that our guides and thus our visitors see the strong relationship of Tropical Spice Garden with Market St of Little India and it’s history of trade with India, China and Europe.

So we congregated at Kuan Yin Teng at 8.45am – although Teresa’s actual instructions was to meet at the samosa shop. (Food on he brain! – hee hee)

After the initial introductions, Teresa gave a run through of its early settlers and trading routes via Penang and a introduction of the founding of Penang and early migration. We all dusted the history books of our mind as we recalled the details of Kedah sultanate and Martina Rozells – Francis Light’s love.

Our first port of stop was actually the samosa man with his glorious array of freshly fried onion bhajis, tuna samosas, spiced chick peas, vadais and halwa. This man alone filled an Al-Jazeera slot for an entire month it was so popular! Teresa promised we wold return later to sample.

Minum kopi Makan samosa

We trotted down Queen St, the heart of Little India, and stopped to share stories of the Indian itinerant breakfast traders who all obviously knew Tersa well. She explained to us of their immigration and PR problems they face as long time dwellers, although being 2nd or even 3rd generation residents here in Penang.

She brought us to an authentic Indian vegetable grocer who would usually have stocked snake gourd, drumstick (murrungai) and green mangoes along with the other normal fare of markets. Next to the grocer was a butcher which had a carcass hung up with an inch of the goat’s tail still there, gleaming away.

Teresa invited us into the Mariamman Temple where we were able to witness a few rituals and prayers and meet with a temple head to explain why Duruga was painted a bright blue! (Of which he couldn’t really answer either)

Beatrice had the chance to sample the original betel nut wrapped in daun sireh. I thought we would lose Bea for the rest of the morning with that tightly packed knock out punch, but she withstood the explosion of taste and championed on.

Beware of this guide! (betelnut explosion)

Coming to the spice traders was like saving the best for last. The buckets of spices and lentils and powders and pappadums just make your senses go crazy. We were able to share our knowledge with Teresa as well as re-awaken all our senses again to nature’s special gold – spices!

We treated Teresa and everyone else to a great Nasi Kandar (Tajuddin Hussain) with what I think is one of the best fish curries I have tasted. We must have walked for about 3 -4 hours. So we were all pooped by the end of lunch.

Scrumptuous nasi tomato, fish curry and tender chicken curry washed down with sinfully sweet lime juice. We all thanked Teresa for her wonderful time spent with us and hopefully we all come back to the gardens that little more wiser.

More trips to come I hope…soon I’ll be getting requests to travel to Sri Lanka! I wouldn’t mind either boss…