Weathered wooden houses stand on stilts over the water, linked by a narrow plank boardwalk lined with small shopfronts.
What Chew Jetty looks like
Chew Jetty runs out over the water on wooden pillars driven into the seabed, with planks laid between them to form the boardwalk. Around seventy five houses line up in a single row along its length, linked by walkways only a few feet wide. Walls and floors are mostly bare timber under roofs of corrugated iron or clay tile. The piles underneath are hardwood, chengal or balau. Some are braced with where the wood has worn through.
About a third of the houses have been turned into shopfronts, selling drinks and souvenirs from stalls built straight into the old timber frames. Paper lanterns hang overhead along the busier stretch near the entrance. The rest stay lived in, with laundry hung along the rails and potted plants crowded onto the decking. A paved forecourt and a welcome arch mark the landward end on , where scooters park against the first row of houses.
At the far end the boardwalk opens onto the strait, with standing just beyond it to the east. Small fishing boats tie up against the piles there, and sit among the last houses. stands immediately to the south, a separate clan settlement built the same way. Butterworth and the mainland are visible directly across the water.
Shot in Chew Jetty
Liebe und Tod auf Java, a German television drama set between 1939 and 1949, dressed one of the jetty's own houses as an opium den for a three week shoot in 2010. Ice Kacang Puppy Love, a Malaysian film from the same year, used the boardwalk itself as the home its lead character returns to.
Chew Jetty on screen
A German television drama dressed one house as a 1940s opium den, and a Malaysian film shot the whole boardwalk as a character's own home. Neither production built anything new on the jetty.
Liebe und Tod auf Java, 2013
A stilt house on the boardwalk
Played an opium den, Java, Dutch East Indies, 1939 to 1949
A stilt house along the boardwalk was dressed as an opium den for the production. Its interior was fitted out with period furniture and props rather than altered structurally, and no address for the house has been published beyond the owner's name.
Ice Kacang Puppy Love, 2010
The boardwalk
The boardwalk plays the childhood home the character Fighting Fish returns to while searching for her father. Filming ran along its length rather than at one address, and the house of Penang singer Eric Moo at 59A Chew Jetty was among the specific locations used.
What Chew Jetty can double for
Tai O in Hong Kong
Tai O's own stilt houses, called pang uk, stand on hardwood piles over a tidal creek on Lantau Island. The same single file layout and narrow connecting walkways give it a close match to Chew Jetty's own period. Tai O's piles are Belian wood, darker and heavier than Chew Jetty's chengal and balau. Modern high rises on the Hong Kong skyline need keeping out of a wide shot. Try searching stilt houses hardwood piles now.
Pulau Ketam in Selangor, Malaysia
Pulau Ketam's houses stand on wooden piles up to ten metres above the water off Port Klang. The settlement was built from the 1880s by Chinese fishing families, and no cars run anywhere on the island. Its main streets are concrete rather than plank. The older wooden bridge sections in the housing areas are the closer match to Chew Jetty's own boardwalk. Try searching wooden piles no cars now.
Kampong Ayer in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
Kampong Ayer's forty two linked stilt settlements run along the Brunei River, with older timber rows close in scale to Chew Jetty inside a much larger water village. Houses there can run to two storeys where Chew Jetty's stay at one. Government built sections are concrete and uniform. A tighter frame on the older wooden rows holds the match better than a wide view of the whole settlement. Try searching stilt settlements timber rows now.
