Penang is a big island, and we wanted to explore a bit outside of George Town, so we decided to take a day trip and visit some spots that were too far to take a Grab taxi to, starting with Kek Lok Si Temple, the most famous temple in Penang. We had read about it but were not sure to add it to our itinerary. However, the day prior we visited the Straits and Oriental Museum, and the friendly staffer advised us it was not to be missed. We learned a lot of history at the compact museum, which was housed on three narrow floors, located in the heart of George Town.
The museum detailed the history of Penang in terms of trade and how important Penang was to international trade between the East and West. As I mentioned previously, Penang was famously a “free port” meaning anyone could trade through the city; the government ended this in 1969, when it opened up for high tech manufacturing (inviting companies like Intel, Western Digital, and Dell, among others, to build factories on the island).
The Chinese and Europeans traded thorough Penang for hundreds of years, and control of the island ping-ponged from the British to the Dutch and back again over the years since the first British settlement was founded in 1786. Japan ruled Penang during World War II. The Straits settlements even had their own currency.
Penang was at the center of sea trade, and there were many, many ships that passed through the port. Some also sank, and in the 20th and 21st centuries there were numerous shipwreck hunting expeditions for lost cargo. One of our favorite things about the museum was being able to actually touch old ceramics pulled directly from shipwrecks!
There were many items that had been traded through the port, from Chinese Porcelain under the Qing dynasty to Buddhist statues to weapons, headdresses, and clothing.
There was also a lot of Peranakan Porcelain, also known as Nyonya Ware, which was favored by the Peranakan of the Straits settlements (Penang, Melaka, and Singapore). It differs from Chinese porcelain in that it features floral designs, birds, butterflies, insects compared to strictly Chinese porcelain, which often depicts narrative scenes, human figures and historical subjects, which makes it unique. We even bought (the yellow one) for ourselves!
Back to our sight seeing day trip: We contacted our taxi driver from the airport but he was busy. He sent a colleague, named Man, who he called Mr. Man, so we did the same. Mr. Man was a smiling, stocky Malaysian driving a small red car. We climbed in the car and up the road to the Kek Lok Si Temple. This huge temple complex was built between 1890 to 1930 and combines multiple forms of Buddhism and traditional Chinese rituals, along with Chinese, Burmese and Thai architecture.
We were glad he dropped us off at the first temple, under the big gate below, as it was quite a hike up just to reach that point (there was more climbing to come).
The view of the surrounding area was green and mountainous.
We could not take pictures inside the main temple, but next door was a smaller temple with intricately carved, wooden shrines to three female deities.
We walked up, behind the first big temple, into a courtyard where there was a mini pagoda, small Buddha shrine, and we could see the temple we had just left, and the two bigger temples in the distance.
Up we continued, through a narrow path with many stalls, selling Buddhas, drinks, and other souvenirs, and oddly clothes, socks, and other every day items.
Off of this area was a colorful and serene flower garden, lined with Bodhisattvas, and we could see the city below.
We continued on, through more courtyards and temples and the four king guardians painted in gold leaf and guarded behind glass.
We eventually reached a big store with so many items…
…and there we bought tickets for the Funicular up to the top level of the complex. We were greeted by a large courtyard and open views of the city below.
The highlight here is the Guanyin Bodhisattva (the Goddess of Mercy) bronze statue, which stands 100 feet high, constructed in 2002. She is truly impressive and the pictures will struggle to convey her grandeur.
She is flanked by two king guardians, impressive in their own right.
Of course, there is another big temple up here as well, along with a pond and small pavilion.
The 12 zodiac signs line the walkway up to the temple, and Jessica and I took photos next to ours.
There were also ribbons that one could tie to a luck tree outside the temple, yielding a variety of hopeful outcomes. Some of the translations were quite funny, like “Beautiful and Good looking,” “Hurry Up” and “Listen to Mom and Dad.”
For a small additional fee, we could explore the gold domed pagoda and some more temples, so we carried on.
There was even a big bell that Jessica tolled to our delight.
We were tired and sweaty and decided not to climb the gold domed tower, and instead headed back. We bought a ticket to take the funicular down (there were separate tickets to go up and down, and the tickets were very inexpensive), and took the long walk back the way we came. To understand all we did here, it’s best to look at the aerial view of the complex.
Wow, right? It is truly amazing and cannot be missed while visiting Penang (and we would have if the museum woman wouldn’t have mentioned it).
Our next stop was up winding roads into the mountains to an aptly, yet simply named, place called Art & Garden. We learned of it when we stopped in an art gallery in George Town called Studio Howard, that housed art by local artists, including photographer and owner Howard Tan. This is his second location, the first is in the center of historic George Town, where we happened upon the art installation “Lily of the Alley” by Fuan Wong, which Jessica is standing underneath and the studio located to the right of her.
Fuan Wong specialized in stained glass and fused glass art and was featured at Studio Howard as well. The glass art in the gallery was stunning, and the gentleman working at the gallery was kind enough to take our picture in front of the gallery (and we asked to take his picture too).
He told us about Art & Garden, which featured glass sculptures and installations by Fuan Wong among a garden in the mountains. We arrived and were the only guests, and were led through the garden by one of the two men working at the gate. It was a quite interesting place to visit, and we had hoped it would be cooler up on the mountains, but alas it was not. That did not prevent us from enjoying the place.
The biggest surprise for us were the three huge, old, turtles living on the grounds. They even came to say hello to us as we geeked out.
It was a really special place and we felt lucky to have gotten to experience it. We kept up the nature theme at the next stop, called Entopia. The huge indoor butterfly garden was the star here and we had fun checking out the different varieties of tarantulas, snakes and lizards. A friendly staff member offered to let us hold translucent scorpions (which we declined), but did take her up on holding different varieties of rolly-pollies, which slowly opened and crawled in our cupped hands.
Our last stop was the Tanjung Bungah Floating Mosque, located on the north coast of Penang Island. It is a beautiful Mosque which could easily be located in Santorini.
The inside was just as beautiful, and we were welcomed inside by a friendly Muslim man, who encouraged us to take pictures and took pictures of us as well.
We were exhausted after our long day in the heat but so glad we were lucky enough to visit all these cool, yet distinctly different, places in Penang. More fun to come!
