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Captain Francis Light once fired a cannon full of silver coins into the Penang scrub in order to motivate his reluctant workers to clear the land. It worked, and the island of Penang (off the north-west coast of Malaysia) became the British East India Company's first trading outpost in the Far East.

Penang's main town, George Town has colonnaded streets of Chinese and Indian shophouses that demand thorough exploration by foot or trishaw. For a start, check out two establishments here that I consider sufficient to ensure a well-watered and well-slept holiday, all at bargain prices. They are the venerable Hong Kong Bar and the Cathay Hotel on Leith Street, the former mansion of a Hakka Chinese tycoon.

The Hong Kong Bar (371 Chulia Street) has been a watering hole to generations of travellers, sailors and servicemen since it was established in 1920, and has been run by the Tan family since 1955. The bar possesses an extraordinary archive of visitor autograph books and a 77-volume collection of photo albums. On most evenings, the late Tan Phong Kee took several group photos of his clientele. His daughter Jenny Tan is continuing the tradition, and there are now over 27,000 pictures in the collection.

Well known to generations of George Town visitors is Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), which has now been joined by an elegant new Burmese Temple (of standing Buddhas), both on Burmah Lane. Also firmly on the tour coach trail is the elaborate Chinese clan house, Khoo Kongsi. Within is a collection of gilded funerary plaques that commemorate Khoo clansmen gone hopefully to heaven with (as the plaques inform us) "B. Dental Science (Adelaide)" or "Barrister-at-Law (Middle Temple, London)".

To really understand this fascinating port, buy a copy of Khoo Su Nin's guide, "Streets of George Town". Ms Khoo's love of her home town's complex cultural mix - of Straits Chinese, Indian Muslims, Armenians, Arabs, English, Thais, Jews, Malays, and more - and its colonial-era architecture is infectious.

"We are moving very slowly on preservation and heritage strategies." Khoo Su Nin tells me. Her almost single-handed campaign to remind Penang's 1.2 million dwellers of their unique architectural heritage has resulted in her fascinating book "Streets of George Town".

Su Nin's book will take you well beyond the tourist shrines, for instance to Dr Sun Yat Sen's former home (in Armenian Street), to tiny Love Lane (off Chulia St), or to the 1833 Mahamariamman Hindu Temple (in Little India bazaar). The streets you wander echo with distant dialects and with the fortunes of early traders in tin, rubber or spice. Several crumbling mansions also echo the misfortunes of wastrel sons who blew their patrimony on (as one local tells me), "fast women and slow horses".

At every turn, George Town's traditional architecture can astound. Sadly, its modern cousins - condominiums, malls and the shabby KOMTAR tower - can appall. Nevertheless, the view (if you can see through the dirty windows) from the 58th floor observation deck of the KOMTAR puts Penang into dramatic perspective. Below you are thousands of terracotta roofs interspersed with tiny lanes, all fanning back from the seafront and its traditional clan jetties. In the distance, on the Malaysian mainland, is the industrial sprawl of Butterworth. While you're on Penang, take a three-hour drive around the 280 sq km island, for both the scenery and the contrast. The east coast is carpeted with electronics factories, not to mention their workers' housing, while the west coast - still green and villaged - has not yet been "malled" by the pit bulls of progress.

En route you'll pass the Malaysian version of a tropical resort paradise, a string of tiled hotels at Batu Ferringhi and Teluk Bahang on the northern coast. No need to linger too long on this Happy Hour strip; instead stay a few nights in the heart of things, George Town. It's one of those walking, talking cities that invites you to prowl for days, poking into places like "Little India" bazaar. Here, Hindi "fillum" music wails and fogs of incense entice you into Tamil temples or shops that sell saris, shirts and kitchen sinks. All of a sudden, you're hungry. Try some Tamil food, like "Mutton Mysore" (about A$2) at Dawood Restaurant, or sample a vegetarian murtabak breakfast at Restaurant Jasmeen (corner Chulia St and Penang Rd).

Then sluice everything down with a coffee tarek. The street hawker pours his brew between cups held wide apart; a stream of coffee becomes airborne and, for an instant, none of it seems to be in either vessel. After the applause comes the flavour.

Finish your rounds at the Hong Kong Bar. One night, with a friend George, I thumbed through hundreds of pictures of sailors, tourists, RAAF flyers, blow-ins and die-hards. Finally, we found it, a shot of George taken 19 years ago in the Hong Kong Bar. Jenny Tan snapped a picture of us at the task. I'm determined it won't take me 19 years to get back to see it.

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