QEII, Penang, Malaysia - On The Floor

Hi Readers,

Here are the videos captured at QEII, Penang recently for your entertainment. On the floor and let us party. So if you are in Penang for holidays, do have a great party time at you know where...

Push Push Dance anyone?

So you think you can dance?

 

You can dance the Hindi Bollywood style or you can do the Arabian belly dance.  Best of all, you can do Salsa On The Floor like Jennifer Lopez.

Hungry Ghost Roadshow Penang Idol sings out of tune at Church Street Ghaut

Well, here is one very sporting Penang Idol wannabe singing out of tune a golden oldie love song duet with the pretty and lovely lady singer like Paula Abdul of 916 Entertainment at the Hungry Ghosts Festival at Church Street Ghaut, Penang. Like the panel judges, we the Penang Simons(Simon Fuller the creator of American Idol and Simon Cowell) and local Paula Abdul voted out (XXX) and censored him.

By the way, if you are wondering why the streets name in Penang have so many Ghats which are spelt as Ghaut in English or Gat in the local Malay language such as Macallum Street Ghaut, China Street Ghaut, Acheen Street Ghaut and Chulia Street Ghaut. you can learn from List of Penang Streets Names

So the Ghaut or Gat is actually GHAT as you will know that Penang rich heritage can be traced to the Bengali and Gujarati from Indian Origins who were the early traders and migrants who came to Penang, Malaysia through the port in Penang Island, especially at Port Weld. These Ghats can be mostly found to line across the Weld Quay Road (or the local name Jalan Pengkalan Weld) as these are the steps leading to the seafronts for the disembarkation to the island for the ships and boats that called at the port with their cargoes and spices especially during the merchant East India Company reign in the South East Asian Regions in the 1600s.  Below is the little definition of ghat provided by Wikipedia.

As used in many parts of South Asia, the term ghat (Bengali: ঘাট ghaţ, Hindi: घाट "steps") refers to a series of steps leading down to a water body, usually a holy river. In Bengali-speaking regions, this set of stairs can lead down to something as small as a pond or as large as a major river.

For a little bit more of history of British India, I found this blog by Mr Vinay Lal very interesting for your reading pleasure and adventure into the Indian History, Cultures, politics and religions.Thank you Mr Vinay Lal.


So here Bigfoothill set sailed to Penang Island from Bukit Mertajam on the mainland of Malaya(old name for Peninsular Malaysia) and landed out of tune with the singers and sank steps into Church Street Ghat in my automobile driven through the Penang Bridge which was once being one of the longest bridges in South East Asia.

With so many ghosts parties in Penang during this Seventh Lunar Month of the Chinese Calendar, like the one nearby QEII  at Church Street Ghaut, let us go to Churches in and around Penang on Sundays to be with the Holy Ghost.

Penang Roadshow - Hungry Ghost Festival

Almost everywhere in Georgetown, Penang and the suburbs including Bukit Mertajam on the mainland where there are Chinese Taoist Temples, these are the places you can drop by to catch a  Penang Roadshow concert where pretty and sexy lady singers wriggling and dancing while singing their favorite and popularly requested songs for the audience.  They have quite a wide range of repertoire where one moment they sing you a Mandarin song followed by an English song and then a Hokkien song and even a Malay song.  I remember once there was this Roadshow concert at nearby temple celebration, I heard the singer sang a Lady Gaga's famous song "Poker Face" and then went on to render a popular romantic Hindi song "Tum pah Se Ayers" and even dressed up as much like the famous singing idols.

Well this time the Roadshow is at nearby the Central Business District of Georgetown Penang and by the roadside along Church Street Ghat or "Gat Lebuh Gereja" which coincidentally is nearby Chartis Place building which is the Penang branch office of Chartis Malaysia Insurance Berhad, a leading General Insurance company.  Not far from that Penang Roadshow concert is QEII the hottest and happenings place named after the Queen Elizabeth II similar to the infamous ship at Penang.

The Roadshow is held annually  for the Hungry Ghosts "presumably the lost souls" inhabited there to appease them since heritage and the days of the British India where there were many traders and migrants from the Easts, especially from China provinces such as Canton or Guanzhou, Xiamen (where most of our ancestors of Penang Hokkiens people originated), Shanghai, Hainan Island and many other places and from the West, especially from Ceylon or present day Sri Langka, India, East Pakistan(Bangladesh), and West Pakistan (Pakistan of today) and the Arabs from the Middle Easts and the Persians and Turkish.  Of course, the Whites from the far far away Europe such as British, Portuguese, Dutch and Romans. So many of our forefathers and "great-great grandmothers" must have labored very hard to make Penang the Pearl of Orient and an important marketplace and port that it once belong to part of the Strait Settlements together with Malacca and Singapore(before Singapore became a Republic and independence from Malaysia on August 9, 1965) during the British Empire.  You will probably want to check out the history of Penang from the museum archives for this place which is also founded by Captain Francis Light.  I love to study the subject history at school during my primary and lower school days as I am fascinated by the heroic sacrifices and wars and the conquests by Warriors and Kings, and, bravery and romantic Queens from France (Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette). I belief the history books me and my schoolmates read long long ago have been updated with more current local famous names as it is part of nationalists pride and an attempt to give credits to the so-called Malaysians.  I am not arguing about who deserved to have their names on the streets and bridges but rather it is important to keep our heritage (Penang is now listed under UNESCO World Heritage Sites together with Malacca) and to help us residents to receive our snail mails and to give directions to those foreign and local tourists and locals as to how to get from one place to another in Penang for visiting famous tourist spots or savoring famous Penang Foods.

I believe the existing streets' original names should be retained while the new roads and avenues can be used to name after the famous and very important Malaysians instead of petty politicking by politicians.  There are so many of our roads and avenues which are now named after fruits, animals, flowers, trees and what not including alphanumeric such as PJ for Pauh Jaya and not the Selangor PJ for Petaling Jaya or even SS2(Secret Service?) or Starhill in KL (Kuala Lumpur the federal capital for Malaysia) which we who grown up through the past 50 years and generations knew the place as Bukit Bintang ( Bukit is Malay word for Hill while Bintang for Star).  So you want to be famous and have your name, image icon engraved on Bintang Walk with  five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks at Bukit Bintang, KL which is like the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame?

When we ordinary folks have a stone to mark your demise, it is just a grave stone in the cemetery with your name and your family linage inscribed on it. Your were just a set of beginning numbers (Date of Birth) and a dash - followed by another ending numbers (Date of Departure). Your name has no distinguished Order of the BE (OBE) or the Malaysian Titles of Honor conferred by the Royal Highness on it  and is not named with those that had theirs on streets nor Walk of Fame.  What legacy have you left for your family if you have not left any for the state or country or the world?

So let me get to the Bpoint here, the Hungry Ghost Festivals are for those souls with nameless stones, streets or walks, who labored and fought a good fight before they laid underground in green pastures or their ashes strewn into the seas.  So be entertained and may their souls rest in peace(R.I.P). Those living souls are generous and shared the worldly entertainments in the form of Chinese Operas, Puppets shows or Live Concerts like Penang Roadshows to make peace with them and also offered prayers.

God Bless You.