Understand
Founded in 1786 by British trader Francis Light, Georgetown was one of the three Straits Settlements along with Malacca and Singapore. Modern-day Georgetown is one of Malaysia's largest cities with 600,000 inhabitants.
Note that with its combination of Chinese and Muslims, Georgetown takes its religious resting days seriously. Most of the town stops working for the latter half of Saturday, and all of Sunday. Many shops and restaurants are closed during these times and the streets are extremely sleepy and quiet, with little tourist friendly activity going on. Muslim prayer calls can be heard at the required prayer times, and it is not uncommon to see the Chinese locals burning incense for ancestor worship on the sidewalks.
The town seems quite relaxed, as restaurants, small shops, and mall shops don't fully open until around noon. If you're waking up early, be sure to look for Chinese Dim Sum stalls as they are only available in the morning. But don't bother looking for any other activities besides eating.
Today, the town is known for its well-preserved colonial core, with original shophouses dating from the 19th century to the 1930s still surviving, together with their trades of old. Street markets and hawkers continue to be a part of daily life, and the atmosphere is often likened to that of Singapore back in the 1960s and 1970s.
The town truly springs to life in the evenings, when most of the locals would head to the nearby street hawkers to have their meals and sometimes, a couple of drinks.
