Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Bookstores in Town: George Town, Penang

Shu Children Bookstore

Penang, as most people who knows this place, would always be regarded as a food haven. The place is famous for its local food such as Char Kway Teow and Laksa. I enjoyed their Char Kway Teow. It’s not too oily but still very tasty. Aside from its very famous food, Penang is also known for its capital, Georgetown, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town itself is filled with shop houses dating back to early 1900s. I love old towns and Georgetown is indeed mesmerizing and filled with an old feeling that you can hardly see now. Georgetown is also famous for its street art scattered all over the cemented and brick walls all around. As most travellers would go to Penang and see all these spots in and around Georgetown, I myself tried to search for more, some parts of the town that are sort of less travelled. When I visit a place, I try to find bookshops. It can be any bookshops like a big one or those small one that sells second hand books or just any ordinary books. Lucky for me, I found a children’s bookshop just along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Georgetown and the shop is called Shῡ. Shῡ is a Chinese word for Book. The shop is located in one of the traditional shop houses in Georgetown. The owner, Mr. Teo (if I heard and spelled it right), is a local and a retiree and converted this shop house into a small bookstore.



As you enter the shop, you will see a lot of children books in English, Chinese and some in Malay. The shop also sells postcards from local artists that only Shu bookstore is selling. You will be pleasured with the paintings and murals done inside the shop. As Mr. Teo’s love books is very visible from his shop, he asks his first-time visitors from different countries to write down the word book in their local language in a certain part of the wall inside the shop. Fortunately for me, I was the first Filipino to visit his shop so I managed to write “aklat”. It was a privilege for me to be his first visitor from the Philippines as he said not many from our country visits Penang.


Here you can also see some of the painting inside the shop which you will definitely enjoyed by the kids.








So when in Georgetown, Penang, do visit Shu Bookstore and enjoy the children's books and the artistry painted within its walls.

How to get there? Click the link below:



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jigomeister
11.07.13

J Gerald C Legaspi is the Filipino author of pinoyjourneys.blogspot.com and is currently working and travelling in and around South East Asia but spends most of his time in Jakarta, Manila and Singapore.



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