We started this day visiting two Buddhist Temples in George Town, located across the street from each other. These weren’t Malaysian Temples, however, they were Thai and Burmese. First up was the Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Temple, bright and shining in the hot sun. Under the ornate entrance gate, we first saw the gold leaf stupa and the smaller temples to the left of the main temple.
We continued past the main temple with its two sizeable mosaic dragons (which we returned to later),
and went to a much smaller temple on the other side, where a man was sweeping. He introduced himself as Michael and he spoke with us a while; he was excited that we were from America and he told us about all kinds of other visitors he has met from around the world. He led us into the small temple and introduced us to the head monk, who was reading in a corner. We made a small offering and the monk was kind and gave us waters and a box of crackers.
We left them and went to the check out main temple. There has been a temple on this site since 1845 and is the oldest Siamese Temple in Penang.
Inside was a 33 meter (109 feet) long reclining Buddha, constructed in 1958.
Directly across the street was the Dhammikarama Burmese Temple, which was a bigger complex, as you can see. It is the only Burmese temple in Penang and is a monastery as well, founded in 1803. From above the size of the temple grounds is more noteworthy.
We entered and walked down a long, open air hallway with hanging red lanterns above.
We walked through the courtyard, passing a burgundy temple with gold leaf roof surrounded by a man made pond. We could not enter, but appreciated it from the outside.
The scenes around the rest of the grounds were very colorful.
The rear building was still under construction, especially the interior, but there was an elevator (the first we had seen in any temple) and we explored further.
We had a nice view of the temple rooftops and the Thai temple across the street.
The next day we wanted to get into some nature, and found it at the Penang Botanical Gardens. The Grab taxi could only drop us off a few blocks away from the entrance and then we had to walk (the road was blockaded for some reason), and while it was a hot day (again), it felt nice being amongst so much lush greenery. There are more serious hiking trails that begin at the park (like one through the Sun Gate Jessica is in front of), but we opted for the paved pathways of the park itself and took refuge from the sun where we could. Most of the exhibit halls, of which there were a few scattered, were closed, but the nature was the star here. We also saw some monkeys and a few stray dogs (there was a pack of three who guarded the bridge below).
Our last full day in Penang we did one of the most popular tourist attractions, Penang Hill. There is a funicular, our second in Penang (if you’ve been reading, we seem to take many modes of transport from lower elevations to higher ones) to the top of Penang Hill. The original funicular was built in 1923, and was re-done in 2010.
We took the tram up with fellow tourists and it was a pretty quick journey to the top.
The arrival station was a two-floor building which seemed pretty new. The views were good on the second floor but it was a really overcast day and thus we did not get the best, or clearest, of views.
There are lots of walking trails and even more vendors selling touristy things and food (that came to be a theme of almost everywhere we visited). There is a Hindu temple up some stairs not far from the entrance, and we walked up to check out the Sri Aruloli Murugan Temple, as it stood so brightly on this cloudy day.
We took off our shoes and headed inside, where it was just as pretty as the outside.
Around the temple there were more colorful statues, and many peacock ones too!
With the skies becoming darker overhead, we headed for the exit, and took the funicular back down, leaving at just the right time as it downpoured as soon as we reached the bottom.
Another day, we decided to take the commuter ship to the mainland. We didn’t have any destination on the mainland, we just wanted to ride the ship. We walked from our hotel to the terminal, paid the $1 ticket price, and boarded the big ship, which held many passengers, motorbikes, and even a couple cars. It was cool to see George Town from the water, and in barely any time at all we were on the mainland city, called Butterworth.
We walked around the station, and it was like a mini-mall with shops and a few cafes; we stopped at one and had some iced coffees, before heading back to Penang.
That evening we walked only five minutes to a Michelin rated Nyonya (Peranakan) restaurant called Auntie Gaik Lean’s Old School Eatery. We didn’t have reservations so shared a big table with some other diners and ate Nasi Ulum, Chicken Rendang and Lor Bak. It was so, so good!
We had such an awesome time during our two weeks in George Town/Penang, and we still didn’t see near as many things as we had planned to. We want to go back already! If you’ve never thought about visiting, definitely add it to your list, as it surprised us with how much there is to do and see. The last post from Penang/George Town is all the art we appreciated, from street art to paintings to tiles and more!
