Penang has been a meeting place for a very long time. Malay fishing villages dotted the coast, then traders and laborers came from southern China, from the Tamil coast of India, from Aceh and Arabia, and each community built its temples, mosques and meeting halls within a few streets of each other. This walk crosses that crowded, fragrant old town. It starts at Komtar, the tower that looms over the city's bus hub, stops for a bowl of Penang's most famous cendol, visits the temple of the Hainanese sailors, then follows the Street of Harmony past a Chinese temple and an Indian mosque to the grandest clan house in Malaysia, and ends on the stilt houses of the clan jetties. It runs about 2.8 kilometers, under two miles, and it is one of the most flavorful self-guided walking tours in Southeast Asia.

Before you set off

The walking takes about 40 minutes, but give it two and a half to three hours, because the temples, the mosque and the Khoo Kongsi all deserve time, and you will want to linger over the cendol. The route is flat, on pavements, narrow lanes and the covered five-foot ways that run along the shophouse fronts, which keep off both sun and rain. Penang is hot and sticky all year round, so go early in the morning or later in the afternoon, wear a hat and keep drinking water; there are coffee shops and convenience stores everywhere. Sudden downpours are common, especially in the afternoon, so carry a small umbrella and wait out the worst under a five-foot way. Dress for places of worship: shoulders and knees covered. Take your shoes off where others do, step over the raised wooden thresholds of Chinese temples rather than on them, and never photograph people at prayer without asking. The Khoo Kongsi charges for entry and the mosque welcomes visitors only outside prayer times, so check before you go.

Komtar

Start at the foot of Komtar, the tall cylindrical tower that rises above the old town and works as a compass for the rest of the walk. Look straight up at it. The full name is Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak, after Malaysia's second prime minister, and the 65-floor tower was finished in the mid-1980s, briefly the tallest building in the country. It was meant to be the bold modern heart of Penang, with government offices, shops and the island's main bus terminal at its base, and it still is the place where most buses start and end. It came at a cost. Whole streets of old shophouses were cleared to make room for it, and the loss helped spark the conservation movement that later saved the rest of George Town. In 2008 the old town just beyond this tower was listed by UNESCO together with Malacca as the Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca. The top of Komtar now holds an observation deck with a glass-floored walkway hanging out over the drop, and if you have a head for heights it is the best way to see the whole island, the strait and the mainland in one sweep; check before you go. From the tower, walk north along Penang Road, the busy shopping street, for about four minutes, then look for the queue on the right at Keng Kwee Street.

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul

The clan jetties, George Town Here is the most famous sweet in Penang. The Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul stall sits at the Penang Road end of Keng Kwee Street, and you will know it by the line of people waiting on the pavement. It is run by a Teochew family, part of the community from the Chaozhou region of southern China, and it traces its business back to 1936. Cendol is found across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but this one draws people from all over the country. Into each bowl goes a mound of shaved ice, soft strands of green jelly made from rice flour and scented with pandan leaf, red beans, rich coconut milk and a generous pour of dark gula Melaka, the smoky palm sugar of the region. It is cold, sweet, salty and creamy all at once, and on a hot Penang day it is close to essential. Most people eat it standing right there on the pavement or squeezed onto a stool in the coffee shop opposite, and the queue moves faster than it looks. The coffee shops on this corner also serve Penang hawker classics such as asam laksa, sour and fishy and fiery, if you want something savory to go with it. When you are done, walk north along Penang Road for about five minutes, turn right into Leith Street, then right again into Muntri Street; the temple stands a short way along on a quiet street of old shophouses. About seven minutes in all.

Hainan Temple

Stop across the street from the Hainan Temple and take in its swirling, upturned roof ridge, crowded with dragons and figures, and the stone pillars at the front, each wrapped by a carved dragon coiling upward. The temple belongs to the Hainanese, people from the island of Hainan off China's southern coast, who were among the last Chinese groups to reach Penang in large numbers. Many found work as cooks in British households, on ships and in hotels, and later opened the coffee shops and bakeries that are now part of Malaysian life; Hainanese chicken rice is their best known gift. The community founded its temple in the 1860s and moved to this site on Muntri Street in the 1890s, and a renovation for the temple's hundredth year on this street in the 1990s gave it the flamboyant front you see now. Inside, the main altar honors Mazu, the sea goddess, protector of fishermen and sailors, whom seafaring Chinese have prayed to for a thousand years before setting out across dangerous water. For a people who arrived by sea, she was the obvious guardian. Step in quietly if the doors are open, over the threshold, and do not point at the images of the gods. Walk east along Muntri Street to its end, carry straight on along narrow Stewart Lane, and you come out on Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling beside the smoke of the next temple. About six minutes.