TRAVELANDLEISUREASIA.COM / AUGUST 2019 23
towering walls stocked with a curated selection of non-
fiction, monographs and coffee-table volumes. At the back
of the house is a relaxed café that extends into open-air
courtyard space for alfresco and unplugged music. That’s
where patrons can flip books, blend in, and converse over
excellent brews.
ON THE FIRST FLOOR, HIKAYAT’S luxe Blue Room, strewn
with comfortable couches and lounge chairs, hosts
cinema screenings, yoga sessions, writing workshops,
book launches and other cultural events. “It’s almost like
Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement,” jokes Chua
Abdullah. “It can change to whatever we need it to be,
fitting the needs of any activity and event.”
Hikayat’s other great perk is the podcast recording
station, the very first in Penang, that visitors and guests
can book and use to record interviews and broadcast their
own radio shows. “It’s an extension of what we are
already doing,” Chua Abdullah explains. “We want to
create content and make it available even to those who
can’t physically visit Penang and our space.”
Richards is equally excited about this multimedia
aspect of Hi kayat: “The genius of podcasts is t hat t hey
give the listener a sense of control over what is
downloaded and when it’s listened to,” he says. “Radio
Hikayat will produce three types of materials: an archive
of interviews; high-quality content for broadcast on
different platforms; and commissioned work for partners
such as Wawasan Open University and Think City, a
Penang-based think tank.”
But the best way to take full advantage of this cool new
hub and the neighborhood of which it is a microcosm is to
sleep there. Hikayat’s dark-hued studio apartment is
tucked at the back of the first floor, and was conceived to
host two six-week-long artist and writing residencies
every year. It’s the perfect bohemian haunt: think dark
wooden floor panels and old-world furniture, dim lights, a
spacious working desk and a king-sized bed wrapped in
cotton linens. Next to the studio, a vintage pop kitchenette
is perfect for self-catering on long-term stays.
Right in the center of the town’s unesco World
Heritage core, and within walking distance to street art,
famous hawker food and plenty of vibrant cafés, the pied-
à-terre offers casual travelers a chance to parachute into
the pulsating heart of George Town’s cultural life,
rubbing elbows with the local movers and shakers who
constantly drop in and out of Hikayat.
“What distinguishes Hikayat,” Richards says as we
amble downstairs through the multi-colored spines that
bind hundreds of different literary worlds, “is not the
form, but the quality of content. And that depends on
intelligent, thought-provoking programming. We think of
Hikayat as a moveable festival, or feast of ideas, driven by
the telling of stories and the sharing of wisdoms.”226 Beach St., George Town; bit.ly/2VcMk5n; doubles from
RM280, minimum two-night stay; Podcast Pod open by
appointment between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., RM80 per hour.FROM TOP: Hikayat’s bookish studio
apartment; a pop-up book with local
flavor; more than a bookshop, Hikayat has
become a magnet for cultural events.
OPPOSITE, FROM TOP: Shelves here are
lined with curated Penang-appropriate
titles; never too young for a good book.