Where to start? Penang

Photo album of Kek Lok Si

Maybe best to start where I am and talk about where I was, and then where I am going.  Hope you can keep up!  First of all, this is my second trip to Malaysia.  The first time I visited only Penang, then took the sleeper train to Bangkok.  I thought it was an interesting trip, but a little bland.  We stayed in a area called Batu Ferringhi, which if I remember right means foreigner's rock.  All in all the area is overdeveloped.  The small beach is nice enough, but there isn't much there.

This time, I decided to start the voyage in Kuala Lumpur and then make my way to Penang via a cheap Air Asia flight.  The flight was under 30USD and was less than an hour.  Instead of staying in Batu Ferringhi I stayed in Georgetown with its wonderful selection of food and proximity to temples and shopping.  I mean I can walk out of my hotel to the temple of Quan Yin, then turn eat breakfast, or have coffee and head out to the beach or sightseeing.  All on the bus route from Komtar center.

So the first day in Penang, that is exactly what we did.  We woke up and had porridge.  What - porridge?  Yup, porridge, Chinese people have a thing for porridge apparently, so me and the lady had some porridge, it was pretty darn good rice porridge too.

She cracks me up when she says porridge, it is more like porridge aye.  But same thing.  I mostly eat vegetarian, but Chinese tend to have to cut up some meat and put it in everything.  Since this is a Cantonese joint, they cut up chicken and put it in the porridge, more or less just for flavor.  It is a pretty delicious dish.

In my opinion, and I suspect I am in the minority, Kuala Lumpur kicks Penang's butt insofar as food, but the food here is pretty good too.  You just have to hit the small places and avoid bigger places.  Anyways, after we ate we walked to the temple of Quan Yin and made offerings.

Yesterday we visited an Indian temple when we visited Penang Hill.  The thing most interesting about Penang is that all religions are represented here and they all manage to live in peace.  This is a mostly Muslim city though, so you hear the call to prayer throughout the day but there are plenty of Chinese who are mostly Buddhist or Taoist.  Then there is a Christian population, not to mention all the Godless heathen tourists that come through for thrills on the way to or from Bangkok.

Me, I am here waiting to travel onwards.  All the cheap flights flow through Malaysia right now.  Air Asia is a savior for budget scrapped travelers like me.  So thanks to Quan Yin and Buddha and Jesus and Allah and Jehovah for that.  Anyways, besides the temples there is the food, but I will talk about that on another day.  Good food, good temples and monkeys... back to the temple of Quan Yin.

There is a bigger temple in the middle of the island that I went to earlier today.  It is the largest buddhist temple in Asia, from what I read.  This temple Kek Lok Si has a huge statue of Quan Yin, this one is like a neighborhood buddhist temple.  After that we went to Penang Hill and Monkey Cup Garden.  I will have to make a photo album of that trip.  For now, enjoy a few pictures of Malaysia and Georgetown in Penang.

Photo album of Kek Lok Si