When Penang was first founded, the earliest markets were little more than a collection of itinerant vendors who displayed their offerings on little more than large leaves or in baskets and rickety wooden stalls for those who could afford it. Then the British built the first proper wet market. It's most likely the one at the corner of Carnavon Street and Campbell Street. The original building is still a lovely place, though seemingly cramped by today's standards.
Those hawkers who didn't manage to get stalls at the many markets built over the years, either simply set up their own stalls all around the fringes of the proper ones - either found alternative venues or created their own. The ever-enterprising Malay, Chinese and Indian hawkers swooped on any open area or unoccupied roadsides along he more popular avenues and set up their own little makeshift stalls. And this is where the pop-up market idea originated.
A little more than thirty years ago, the first state sanctioned night markets appeared on the island. These were called pasar malam or 'night markets' and comprised many hastily set up stalls of various kinds selling all sorts of things. Household goods, cheap clothes and food seemed to predominate.
There are still pasar malam of various kinds all over the isle, the most internationally well-known one being the Batu Feringghi Night Market just a few minutes stroll from the Bayview Beach Resort. It's not properly a pasar malam, many purists argue because of the lack of really cheap household goods like plastic pots, plates, cups, baskets etc. I suspect (ever-thrifty Penangites are famous for wanting everything cheap and good, after all!) but it makes more sense to think of it as an up-market version of an old tradition.
Nowadays, the pop-up day version has a modern and more up-market version, too. The first to become a regular event was the Little Penang Street Market at upper Penang Road, right behind the Bayview Georgetown Hotel. Held between 10am to 4 pm on the last Sunday of every month, there are stalls selling all sorts of things from potted herbs to hand-carved utensils, paintings, pottery, pre-loved books and crockery as well as local delicacies. There's also a live band as well as dance and handicraft demonstrations.
Another morning up-market pop-up market not too far from the Bayview Georgetown Hotel is the Occupy Beach Street Project which is held from 7am to 1pm every Sunday.. The entire area is turned into a car-free zone for those six hours and divided into four differently unique zones for various forms of stalls and activities.
Just around the corner at the other end of Penang Road (turn into Brick Kiln Road), the Hin Bus Depot Art Centre was once an abandoned bus depot but it hosts its own delightfully relaxed Sunday market now. The transformation of the huge semi-open air space began when Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic held his first solo exhibition there. The venue is still available for rent but from 11am to 5pm every Sunday, there's a small and growing pop-up market offering a somewhat more eclectic selection than at other similar venues.
Of course, the biggest difference between day and night markets in Penang isn't in the abundance or lack of sunlight but in the stallholders themselves
. Talk to them and you'll be somewhat surprised to find that those patiently hawking their stuff before sundown might very well be professionals moonlighting as itinerant vendors!
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