Malaysia – Penang

By Rough Guy’d

Come the Monday, I decided to go visit the big temple of Penang. Probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in Penang, it is visible from most of the island (due to the fact that it is on a hill). While I had seen my fair share of temples so far, this one did impress me and not just with the size of the place. The basic design of the temple was aesthetically pleasing but it was the picture within the picture effect that I appreciated more.

What this meant was that when you saw the temple or a part of it from afar, it looked impressive but then when you got close to it, the panels that you saw and thought were flat were in fact hand-carved with images and contained a level of detail that meant you could have spent all day looking at the story they were telling you. The only downside about the temple was the level of construction work that was going on as they were expanding the temple even more.

The next day the entire family and my auntie that came with us to Penang took me for a tour of the city. I was very appreciative of this, not only because they took me to places that my guidebook didn’t mention but also because I didn’t want to be a nuisance to them. One thing that I learned is that while you may be travelling with no real time limit in place, the people that you stay with usually have to work or go to school. So at some point you may overstay your welcome and it is always a good idea to move on quickly before that happens. It is better to leave a day early when they didn’t quite get to do everything they wanted with you than it is to stay a day longer.

So we went out to visit a number of the museums, churches, temples, colonial buildings and even an old graveyard around Penang, picking up a lot of the history of the area both as a trading port and how the city flourished under British colonial rule to the present time. It was a really fun time as this was one of the few opportunities where I was looking at these types of places with other people that were local and just as enthusiastic as I was.

Following the full day yesterday, I ended up having a rest day today with the only time I went out being when we went out for dinner. We went out to a fancy restaurant and had a local Penang delicacy that I can’t even name but could roughly be translated to fatty pork rice. Despite the name, it was pretty good and after dinner, we went out to the night market and tried a few different snacks. As I’ve said earlier, night markets are some of the best places to go to for trying some of the local foods and Penang was no exception.