Why this colourful island-city is a must-stop in South-East Asia

In Little India, in the heart of George Town’s heritage zone, trishaws festooned with flowers blare Bollywood bangers while plying their trade down Penang Street. Shop owners flog everything from jewellery to sweets to saris and the spicy aromas from street hawker stalls hang in the humid air. We’re taking it all in from our corner vantage point, a heritage inn housed in a grand old shophouse building that for more than a century served as a Chinese medicine hall. Within easy walking distance are the Chinese and Malay quarters and, up the road, the architectural reminders of the island’s…