Penang, Malaysia

November 12th - 17th 2011


We made the journey from Langkawi to Penang by ferry, once in Penang we got conned a little by a taxi driver who made out that our guesthouse was 20 minutes away when it turned out to be within walking distance so that was slightly annoying. The taxi driver's were all so lovely and reliable in Langkawi that we weren't expecting to be overcharged! Tim the manager at our Love Lane hotel/guesthouse was great and suggested a walking route to familiarise ourselves with the city of Georgetown which is the main hub of Penang. On our walk we saw the City Hall and Town Hall which due to the influence of the British and Europeans in this part of Malaysia were very familiar looking. We walked along the Esplanade and past Fort Corwallis and the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. After the grand architecture of one part of Georgetown we moved on to Little India  for dinner and to experience the sights and sounds of the bustling area.

For our first full day in Penang we ventured to the Botanical Garden's which was a bus ride away. The gardens were lovely and we enjoyed fresh pineapple on the lawn and watched the locals chasing the monkeys. After the gardens we caught the bus to 'The World's Largest Toy Museum'. It was actually a fairly small space but absolutely packed to the rafters with toys of all sorts from Barbie to Disney to horror movie memorabelia. Craig absolutely loved it and it definately entertained a few hours.

 

Toy Museum

The next day we went to the local art gallery and saw a retrospective on local artist Eric Quah. His work consisted mostly of painting and collage and reflected his life of travelling and connections to Penang and his family. After the exhibition we took the bus to the beautiful Kek Lok Si Temple. We climbed to the top through the dozens of souvenir shops and past the sacred turtles and finally reached the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the temple. We climbed up some stairs and found candles quietly burning and incense sticks filling the air with fragrance. There was a colourful wishing tree where you can donate money to put a 'wish' on the tree which is a piece of coloured ribbon with messages on it like World Peace or Health or Success.
 

Candles burning in the Temple

 We paid to take the lift to the top of the hill where there was a huge golden statue of Buddha and a beautiful outlook over the surrounding area and town below. There were statues of the Chinese Zodiac which were interesting and a pond filled with Carp fish. We took the lift back down and visited the Kek Lok Si Pagoda which we climbed to the top of. At the bottom of the Pagoda there was a beautiful garden filled with every colour of flower imaginable. A class seemed to be taking place in the bottom room of the tower but we couldn't understand what was being taught, no doubt something on the teachings of Buddha. The White Pagoda is noted as one of Penang's 'most beautiful architectural wonders' and features a Chinese octagonal base, a Thai middle tier and a Burmese crown.


The White Pagoda



Wishing Tree ribbon

 We made another bus journey, this time to the North West side of the island where we went to the National Park followed by the Penang Butterfly Farm. The park was lovely, we used ropes to climb over some parts of the muddy path and other bits were an easy walk over wooden walkways. We saw a very long line of ants walk from the top of one tree along the floor and onto a concrete wall, it was like something from Attenborough! We walked to Monkey Beach so named because of the wild monkeys that live there! We sat peacefully on a rock watching the waves crash down below and turned round to see the monkeys all around us, Craig had visions that they were working on pushing us into the water but they slowly wandered off. We had lunch at a street stall and walked to the Penang Butterfly Farm which was lovely athough the turantula's that they also had on display were not. 


Monkey's in the National Park

On our last day in Penang we organised our travel to the Cameron Highlands the next stop on our trip and went to the Penang State Museum which was cheap to get into and was very informative although the fee was worth the air conditioning alone as it was an incredibly hot day.

All in all we loved Penang and everything it had to offer. We were able to travel easily all over the island and saw lots of sights and met great Malaysian people too. The only draw back for me was the food as there was a lack of vegetarian choice so I lived off big portions of fries with ketchup and mayonaise and buttered corn on the cob all week, not healthy but actually delicious!