Tan Jetty Jitters

I visited Penang last week. The local hawker food is very famous and I'll write about it later. I love being outdoors and the best thing on my trip was my visit Tan Jetty. Tan jetty is one of the six clan jetties in George Town on the Penang island. These are traditional settlements built in the 19th century by Chinese immigrants. This particular jetty houses people with the surname "Tan", whose lineage back to the Tan village in Fujuian Province. (Other clan jetties include the "Chew jetty" and "Lee jetty").

It is a wooden jetty with no railings. There are broken and loose planks of wood in the surface, which is (somehow) held up by some unreliable structure underneath. The jetty wobbles with each step, like a man walking on stilts. I was genuinely terrified that the jetty would collapse and I would go down with it. But there  is an adrenaline that goes with that, that I enjoy. And when I had to side step a group of people travelling in the opposite direction, we had to take extra care that none of us slipped and toppled over the edge.

The tide wasn't in yet when I visited so I wasn't always walking above sea water. But even in the drier areas underneath the jetty, the land was swampy and uninviting, and I saw at least one rat scurrying about. It was not a place that I wanted to find myself falling into. 

View from Tan jetty

  My mother and sister chickened out from walking the jetty, but I was determined to make it to the end. In my home town, I love walking out onto piers to reflect, pray and relax with friends. This is without a doubt, the most non-relaxing pier I've ever been on but I loved the thrill of not knowing if the jetty was going to cave in. Every step was terrifying but I shuffled my way to the end of jetty and it was so worth it!

This will be my recommendation to anyone who finds themselves in Penang. If you like ocean scenery, cultural history and can find beauty and story even in the most run-down of places, you should walk the Tan jetty. I hope I'm not weird for liking this the most.