A Chinese Restaurant at Lebuh Gereja Street in Penang

In Penang, specifically in Georgetown where the people are multicultural, a friend said the people live in their own social bubbles. She was born and raised here. At first, I was skeptical of their statement, but after living daily there, I started to believe what they said.  People from China, India, Malay, and Jetties are in their respective interactive areas. A unique community map in a small island.

This is a recording form when I was having lunch in a Chinese restaurant on Lebuh Gereja, Georgetown. That afternoon, the restaurant is filled with employees and locals eating. You can hear the noise, starting from people in the round tables, people cooking, waiters taking orders, and others.

What is interesting? Almost everyone there were Chinese, except two European tourists who did not speak much and myself. The dominant language there was Mandarin.

On the other hand, when I was in a eating dinner in an Indian restaurant, the sound was very different. From my observation, the people who eat in Indian restaurant varies from Indians themselves, Malay, sometimes Chinese people. Then, the soundscape in cafes are different from restaurants that are popular with tourists (Penang is a popular destination for Malaysian people). Georgetown is a very unique town in this small island. There is too much diversity to the point where I was only able to take very few ‘pictures’ of the soundscape of this little island.