Penang | Butterworth | Rope Walk

I was at Sungai Dua, Penang and was getting ready for a convoy to Perak for a wedding and got a few hours to run away before the rest of the convoy arrived. So I took that good chance to visit another flea market at Butterworth, which is just about 10km away.

If you come from the Butterworth bus station, you can walk to this area as it is only 800 meters away. Just ask the direction for Rope Walk at Jalan Selat.

The flea market starts at 9am until 2pm daily. I arrived a little bit early as I thought it starts as early as Rock Walk flea market in Penang Island. Most of them were about to open up their tables to start the business.

My first stop was a kids jeans stall. They are new jeans brought in from Thailand. The materials and make are good. The price is reasonable too.

It looked like nothing much from the outside but as you walk further in you'll see that there is a bigger space behind the buildings and there are many more stalls selling rare & unique items that may catch your interest.

I stopped at another stall when I was on the way in and got to chat with the owner known as Rosli. He has been doing the business together with his wife and kids for 12 years.

From him I learned that the current flea market spot is the third spot since the market first opened 12 years ago.

There are plans to extend the markets business hours until late night and it is under considerations as their first attempt was not so succesful.

  

 

I left him and his family and then continued to walk further in while seeing more stalls are being opened.

  



  

  

   

Attracted by some unique stones, I approached a booth of a ring-maker belongs to Ghazali.

They were in fact fossil stones came from India.

Most of the stones he used for making rings are stones from mountains of deep jungles and some are actually made from rare species of bird's beak. He also had made rings from rhino's tooth.

  

 Some are also made with woods or fruits such as kokka wood or it's fruit that came from Middle-East.

He also showed a tin ore that is claimed to be growing on its own, layer by layer from time to time.

You might find some rings to fit your finger and they have good health effect to your body if you wear them.

Some can be used in time of emergency, such as being bitten by poisonous snake or  insects like the centipede or even scorpions. The ring can suck out the venom when put at the bitten area.

Moved to another booth, I later met Mamu Kassim who don't want to expose about himself too much but willingly to let me snap photos of items he's selling.

  

 

Some of his collections came from Indonesia and some are locals which are quite old items such as an American souldier's combat helmet used during the World War 2 in Malaya.

You can also see some really old collections of clothes irons made of bronze and some are even first time for me to see.

There are more interesting booths for you to see but I was running out of time to see them all as I had to rush back to join the wedding convoy.

Penang Island | Lorong Kulit | Rock Walk

Weather was not good the day I went to Rock Walk in Penang Island.

I started my journey from Butterworth bus station at the mainland and took ferry into the island. Ferry's fare is only RM1.20 for an adult and you only have to pay for entering the island.

   

The ferry trip took about 15 minutes and you can enjoy the view of the straits while on it.

    

 Once landed on the island, I tried asking taxi (red & white coloured) fare from jetty to Rock Walk and the driver asked for RM15. There is another cab which is metered but I just went to ask the bus fare.

Well… better off with the Rapid Penang bus at the station next to the jetty. The fare is just RM1.40. You can either get on bus no 201, 202, 203 or 204. I sat next to the driver and asked him to drop me once reached the area.

   

It was still drizzling when I reached the spot. It is actually situated at Lorong Kulit.

You won't see any signage mentioning the word "Rock Walk" but somehow that is the famous name for this area. It is open daily from 9am to 1pm on weekdays and starts around 7am on weekends.

There were only few sellers left. Maybe they've packed-up earlier due to rainy weather. I was lucky enough to meet some of these unique sellers. As I entered the fence area, I approached the first seller on the right. I stopped and snapped some pictures of the goods they sold.

   

    

 

Next, I stopped at another spot right in-front of the previous seller and then got to know the owner.

He called himself "Mamu Razak" and claimed that he had stayed in Indonesia for quite some time and also in Thailand for 20 years.

   

While chatting with him, a Chinese man approached and conversed in Chinese. Amazingly, he speaks the language fluently as if that's his mother's tongue language. He later talked with his son in Siamese as if they are real Siamese family.

  

He also has a regular customer who happens to be a seller at the Amcorp Mall, in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

  

I snapped some photo of his items but he said that he has something with price of more than RM40 thousand and kept it safe elsewhere.

One of it is the antique Rolex watch. He'll only bring it out on demand. He also publish his items through the Facebook Page called "Mamu at Lorong Kulit".

Then I moved on to another table nearby and walked around the area until some of these sellers started to pack their stuff to go home.