Taman Festival

Pulau Tikus is a neighbourhood in the north-west of George Town, built along Burmah Road, whose junction with Cantonment Road is its commercial heart. Its history is layered: the Dhammikarama Burmese Temple is dated to 1803, Eurasian settlers arrived in 1811, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception stands in a building put up in 1899. The Eurasian enclave of Kampong Serani is reported to be in a land dispute after land held in trust was sold to a developer in 2014.

Today the neighbourhood holds Thai and Burmese temples, a convent school, an international primary school, consulates of China, Indonesia and Thailand, and Penang Adventist Hospital on Burmah Road, which had about 84,000 patients in 2014, 40% of them foreigners. Local listings name two hawker centres and the Midlands One Stop and Axis Complex shopping centres, and say Gurney Plaza technically belongs to Gurney Drive.

Getting around centres on the shophouse stretch of Jalan Burma. Penang Island City Council put safety railings along it in late 2025, and in May 2026 a shop owner said business had fallen about 40% since. Free Rapid Penang routes serve the neighbourhood, and more measures, such as signal coordination and loading management, are under consideration.