Penang, Malaysia

We went to Penang, Malaysia for the weekend. One of the reasons for moving to Singapore was the opportunity for travel around South East Asia. Singapore is a great jumping off location for these sorts of things. With only three-hour flight time, you can get to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia; all of which can be a quick weekend getaway. We took an after-work flight on Friday and were home in time to do our laundry on Sunday evening.

Penang is a state in Malaysia, consisting of an island and a short strip of the mainland facing the island. Self-described as the “Pearl of the Orient.” Penang is a bit like Singapore, as it was also under the British rule as part of the Straits Settlements. Also like Singapore, the largest ethic population in Penang is Chinese. I think I read somewhere that Penang is the only state in Malaysia that is not majority ethnic Malay.

Since we only had one weekend, we acted like good tourists and tried to cram as much as possible the short trip. We hired a driver to take us around both days. A couple of highlights were:

The Snake Temple - I wanted to go here first, but it turned out to be much less exiting that it sounded. I think we spent about the same amount of time at the souvenir shops than in the temple. There is a large garden outside behind the temple where allegedly there are poisonous snakes living freely. We didn’t see any. We did see a couple snakes in aquariums. Deanna posed for a picture with two of them. But mostly it was just a small Buddhist temple.

The Penang Bridge - The Penang Bridge connects the island it to the mainland. It is 8.4 miles-long, which our driver told us makes it one of the longest bridges in the world. It is certainly the longest bridge in Malaysia.

The Penang Bird Park - A park with birds. It is a 5-acre park on the mainland portion of Penang. They claim to have a collection 300+ species of birds from around the world. We saw dozens. Maybe hundreds. I got bit by one. They had more than birds. They also have turtles, fish, and monitor-lizards.

The Penang Ferry - Since we already drove across the Penang bridge to get to the mainland, we took the ferry back to the island. The Penang Ferry arrives at Weld Quay in the city of George Town in Penang. Around Weld Quay there are all these old colonial-era jetties going out into the harbor. Each one is named after one of the old Chinese families that originally settled there and constructed the own jetty. Today some of been sold on to other families, but many are still owned by the descendants of the original families. Much of George Town is still made up of colonial-era shophouses, which are protected from development by heritage laws.

Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple - On our second day we went to the Kek Lok Si Temple. There were no gimmicky snakes here, just the largest Buddhist temple complex in South East Asia. Its main building is a seven-storey pagoda containing over 10,000 Buddha statues. And its not just one big temple, but a series of halls and temples within temples. And its still growing. They accept donations to have your name glazed onto ceramic tiles and bricks that will make up their next expansion, which is apparently is 16 carved dragon pillars.

The Penang Hill - After the Kek Lok Si Temple, we had out driver take us to the Penang Hill. There are only two ways up the hill. You can take the “funicular” railway tram to the top, or you can hike it. The tram takes about 1/2 hour. The hike (I read) takes 4-5 hours. There is also a one-lane 4-wheel-drive trail that they use to take stranded tourists off the hill one-jeep-load at a time when the tram breaks down. Unfortunately, we didn’t leave ourselves sufficient time to explore much of the top of the hill before we had to head back down to get to the airport.