Lebuh Chulia is the long shop-lined street that runs roughly east-west through the heart of the old town. The name comes from "Chulias," an older Malay term for South Indian Muslim traders, and the street was historically the centre of their community. For travellers it has become Georgetown's main backpacker district — most of the cheaper guesthouses are here or in the lanes immediately off it.
By day the street is a working commercial road with traders, money-changers, sari shops, motorcycle workshops and several of the city's best small temples and mosques (the Kapitan Keling Mosque anchors the western end). Come evening, the Chulia Street night market spreads down the eastern stretch — dozens of food stalls cooking char kway teow, satay, nasi lemak, oyster omelettes and freshly pressed sugarcane juice, with plastic stools and folding tables filling the side streets. Cheap, busy, and as authentic as Georgetown street food gets.
Most travel agencies, currency exchanges and walking-tour offices are clustered along Chulia Street as well. The Komtar tower (the city's main bus terminal and shopping mall) sits a few blocks west.