Penang, Malaysia – Mar 7
We were here in 2013 and I have included the photo link.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/j7YUkGhqfxzDdtuPA
We had an 11:00 arrival this morning and of course we
arrived a bit late. We ate our usual breakfast but went back around 10:00 and
made a small sandwich from the rolls, meets & cheeses that are put out for
breakfast. Lunch doesn’t start until 11:00. We chose not to have lunch on the
tour so we could spend the time touring the sites while they were open. We
opted for dinner instead after everything else closed.
Breakfast/lunch we met Shabam from Varanasi, India where we
are going from Sri Lanka. He is Tom and Cathy’s assistant waiter for dinner.
Very nice young man and so excited we were going to see where he lives. He
confirmed my choice on where to sit for the Arti ceremony.
What an awesome day we had with Lawrence with ToursByLocals
today. We were here 10 years ago in 2013 on our first World Cruise. So, I
planned a different day and Lawrence arranged it beautifully. Plus, we had such
a great group today that put their trust in me in planning this “surprise” port
when Langkawi was canceled. Today we were joined by Bob & Phyllis, Cathy
& Tom, Roberta & John, and June.
We first hit the money exchange for $RM for the day.
Lawrence paid for admissions as we went, and we paid him back at the end of the
day.
We started by driving past Fort Cornwallis and the Victoria Clock Tower. Our van was waiting there, and we loaded up and went first to the Khoo Kongsi clan-house - Probably the most beautiful Chinese clan house in Malaysia. We also went into a souvenir shop where I got my token magnet, and we tried some Red Bean Ice Cream.
We continued our walk on "Art Street" with old houses and the famous "Children on Bicycle" mural.
Pinang Peranakan Mansion was our next stop. Some of the museum was closed as they were filming something there. We also saw a photo shoot of a couple that were getting married or had just gotten married.
The Kek Lok Si Temple in the middle of the island is one of the largest temples in South-East Asia. To do the entire site would have taken half of our day so we chose not to do the over 200 steps. We drove and parked at the two most popular stops along the way. The tortoise liberation pond was our first stop and we bought some greens to feed to them. We walked around for a bit and Cathy and I did some quick shopping. I got a pair of pants with a skirt in front on the sides and Cathy got a long skirt. We can wear them on our trip to India. Then we went to the top for the main Prayer Hall.
Next up was the Thai Reclining Buddha Temple and across the street was the Burmese Temple.
We had made good time, so we went for an early dinner of
street food at New World Park.
I think the highlight of the day was our trishaw rides to Chew Jetty. Chew is the most famous and largest floating villages of The Clan Jetties. (7 jetties total) A waterfront society with Chinese houses built on wooden stilts. More shopping was done here. Cathy and I got sarongs (material we will use for something else) and I got a purse with the street art “Children on Bicycle” on it.
We were back at the port and once on board we dropped our things and went up to get some cold drinks and found an interesting pizza of pear, ham and interesting cheeses. Then we grabbed some ice cream. We skipped the juggler, Tibor Szabo tonight to get to bed early.
We stopped at the desk to see if we could find out what port
we were tendering to, and it had changed from the Deep Sea Port to Visit Panwa.
Hopefully our guide will be at the right place tomorrow.
We do get to set our clocks back tonight 1 hour which will
take the sting out of being at the tender ticket place at 6:30 tomorrow. (up at
5:15)
Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5bgMk2GGhaXyDfkB6
Always on the lookout for birds Greg spotted the ones below:
Rock Pigeon
Asian Koel
House Swift -- New
Black-naped Oriole
House Crow
Yellow-vented Bulbul
Common Myna
Eurasian Tree Swallow
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