DAY 482: Samuel L. Jackson once said in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, "Personality goes a long way." Although the Olive Spring Hotel where I stayed for my first night in Georgetown, Penang's main city, was colorful and clean, it had no personality -- probably because most of the staff was off for the Chinese New Year long weekend like most of the businesses in town. After shopping around for a new place that morning, I found a place that, although not as colorful, had personality. Personality goes a long way (and so did my money since it was cheaper).

"Have free tea or coffee," said Amy, one of the cheerful owners.

"Have an orange. It's Chinese New Year. For prosperity," said Jimmy, the other owner of the Love Lane Inn, named not for being a honeymoon resort or a motel with an hourly rate, but for being on Love Lane, a street on the outskirts of Georgetown's Little India named after the Chinese matchmakers who once lived there.

"Love Lane" was just one street name based on Penang's history, like most of the others streets in town did. Many streets were named after places from all over the world -- Rangoon, Kensington, China, Madras, for example -- reflecting the multi-cultural past of what was once a popular international trading port for textiles, spices, tea, and other goods.

As explained by the main exhibit at the Penang Museum, "They came to Penang from all over the world." By "they," the museum meant the Nyonyas, Chinese, Eurasians, Indian Muslims, Siamese (Thai), Europeans, Burmese, Malays, Punjabis, Indians, Arabs, and Japanese. This hodgepodge of culture is exemplified in modern Penang through its mix of people, cuisine, and architecture.

Walking around Georgetown (named after the King of England when the British took over in 1760 under command of one Francis Light), I saw the juxtaposition of different architectural styles. Just down Love Lane was the Cathedral of the Assumption, a Catholic church set up by the Eurasians from Keduh in 1786, which was not too far away from some Chinese temples and Muslim mosques. Two blocks away was the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion -- the UNESCO-recognized former residence of a Mandarin industrialist who hit it big in Penang in the late 19th/early 20th centuries -- a true hodgepodge of architectural styles with Art Nouveau stained glass windows, Venetian shutters, Victorian cast iron work, and Chinese roof elements.

Most of the streets were deserted as I continued to walk around Georgetown; most people had the day off for Chinese New Year and had boarded up shop -- unless they were getting a prosperity blessing from Chinese drummers and traditional lion dancers. Georgetown's usually vibrant Chinatown was pretty much a ghost town; even the Khoo Kongsi Temple in the center was only visited by handful of Western tourists marveling at the intricate craftwork -- craftsmanship that attracted the film crew for 1999's Anna and the King. Walking up the road, I saw where most of the Chinese descendants had gone: to the 19th century Kuan Yin Teng temple to pray to the Goddess of Mercy for good luck and a prosperous new year.

The other neighborhoods weren't so dead, particularly the non-Chinese dominated ones like Little India, a bustling market area that brought me right back to my time in India, with Bollywood hits blasting on speakers, restaurants emitting the smells of curry and roti, and numerous saree stores. The legacy of Hindu Indians was seen not only in culture but also in architecture, as I saw when passing by the Sri Mariamman temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Indian Muslims were also represented along with their other brethren of the Nation of Islam. Georgetown boasted many mosques, none more spectacular than the Masjid Kapitan Keling, originally built in 1801 when the East India Company found the presence of a mosque necessary with all the Indian merchants in town. Cauder Mohuddeen, an Indian Muslim merchant nicknamed "Kapitan Keling," proposed to have it built and it soon was -- it is still in service today as evident when I heard the mid-day call to prayer coming from the minaret.

Non-Muslim visitors were not allowed inside, so I hopped on a bus to travel the twenty minutes to see other cultures of Penang represented architecturally, namely the Siamese (Thai) and Burmese (Myanmaran), as seen in two temples across the street from each other. In true Thai style, a huge reclining Buddha was enclosed in the Wat Chayamang Kalaram for tourists to see and devotees to pray with offerings of incense sticks and lotus-shaped candles. Across the street, devotees of Burmese Buddhism prayed to an upright Buddha in the Dhammikarama Temple, the only Burmese-style temple in Malaysia. Burmese architecture differed from Thai a little bit, with a different style of stupa surrounded by a turtle moat, and statues of sacred boys and the Panca-Rupa, Guardian Protectors of the globe (picture above), each with the powerful qualities of the elephant, horse, lion, deer, fish, and bird.

A TOWN NAMED AFTER AN ENGLISH KING is not without its English influence, and England was thoroughly represented architecturally as well in Georgetown, from St. George's Anglican Church, to the Victorian-style Penang City Hall, to the Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. The British settlement on Penang (then called Prince Edward Island) all began at Fort Cornwallis, the military base set up by Francis Light in 1786 to defend the island from the French, the Siamese, the Kedahs, and booty-hunting pirates with cannons pointed out to sea. With the pirates at bay, trade business prospered and European maritime architecture surfaced on the historic and Beach Street.

BUSINESS CONTINUES TODAY in modern Penang. As Let's Go points out, Penang is "more powerhouse than paradise" with multinational corporate offices and five colleges. With that said, the inevitable American influence was also present in Georgetown, with a big modern shopping mall with American products from The Body Shop and Apple computer (iPod Shuffles all sold out!). On the speakers I heard a DJ playing Britney Spears, Eminem, and that Linkin Park/Jay-Z song that I've heard just about everywhere since the Philippines.

The American pop mix came on as I sat with my feet soaking during an ion cleanse, this new treatment to relieve your body of toxins by osmosis through the feet. Different toxins exit your body by some reversal of ions or something that they said was safe (according to American and European doctors), and after a half-hour session, my clear water turned to brown -- mostly from toxins extracted from my liver.

It probably didn't matter that the toxins of my liver cleared out, because I soon just clogged it up again in true American-influenced fashion.

SPEAKING OF FOOD, Penang boasts a very unique cuisine that blends cuisines from all over the world. There were no Penang-specific restaurants in town that I saw or read about; all the Penang-only treats were cooked up in the many groups of food stalls scattered around town. Amongst the Penang specialties that I had that day -- yes, I did venture beyond McDonald's -- was assam laksa, a spicy fish and noodle soup with pineapple, red peppers, ginger and mint leaves (which was complemented a bottle of Skol beer, one I had not had since my days in Brazil); and curry mee, a spicy curry noodle soup. Curry also came in the form of junk food when I had a bag of curry doodles as a snack.

WITH ALL THE DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS of the people of Penang, there might have been some tension, but there was definitely a unity in diversity on the island. Chinese New Year was celebrated by faces of all backgrounds at a small outdoor concert that I ran into that night, down the pedestrian mall from the fancy Eastern & Oriental. Three Chinese musicians performed for a crowd of Indians, Thais, Chinese, Europeans et al. -- with a cover of Rob Thomas/Santana's "Smooth" of all things.

Yup, with influences from all over the world in Penang, the American influence was bound to come sooner or later.