Penang, almost not!

Our next stop as we proceed north from Singapore was supposed to be a Malaysian port named Langkawi. But we are not going to go there.

Not because of high wind and waves in the harbor.

Not because the local authorities won’t let us in.

But because there is border skirmish with Thailand over a road that seems to be in dispute and the busses, etc. cannot get through. Such are the issues when a cruise is planned a year or so in advance. No one knows what may pop up in the meantime!

So… we’re going to another nearby port named Penang.

Penang is a province in Malaysia, consisting of two areas, one on the mainland, the other is an island. They are separated by the Strait of Malacca. Our destination is Georgetown on the Island. As you may have already ascertained by its name, Georgetown harkens back to the colonial days of Great Britain, having been settled (?) by Francis Light of the British East India Company in 1786. There were obviously already people living here, so Mr. Light made a deal with the local Sultan to give him the protection of Great Britain thus making the Sultan quite impervious to his rival warlords. In turn, the Brits were given the island part of Penang.

          Guess why Mr. Light and his B.E.I.C. wanted this place?

          Yup! Spices!

          Mr. Light made Georgetown a ‘free port’ (no taxes), trying to lure business away from ports settled by the rival Dutch East India Company. Georgetown became the busiest port around and was thusly name the Capital of this region under British influence, eventually becoming a Crown Colony. In fact, it was the first British trading post in the Far East. Even Singapore was under this regions Governor. But not for long! Singapore, with a more strategic location, soon outshone Georgetown, became busier, and the Capital designation was moved to Singapore.

          I’ll ‘cut to the chase’ here and leapfrog to the late 1950’s when this part of Malaysia gained its independence from England. It has since gained the status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its Colonial Architecture and its world-renowned “Street of Harmony” which reflects the influence of the many cultures that have made this little city their home. The citation for this designation was quite complimentary saying  “….. unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.”

 I guess that about sums that up!

                   All of this became readily apparent when we arrived. We were on a “Face Book” Tour. This is not anything organized by Mr. Zuckerberg, but by a group on board. We were informed about it by Harold and Sherry, and it was quite popular. About 50 of our fellow passengers were involved and the organizers on land worked Herculean efforts to bring this jam-packed day to fruition. First of all, it was supposed to be at Langkawi. Everything was in place, nice and neat. Then the “Road Revolution” began, skirmishes ensued, roads were closed, and all of a sudden, we’re pulling into a port 30 miles south.

                                      Brakes screeched to a halt.

                                      A flurry of activity followed, and Mr. Pak Abu and his staff totally changed itineraries and put together a day that will be remembered. We never stopped! We were whisked from one venue to another in our little vans with the precision of a military assault with Mr. Abu showing up at each place to make sure everything was proceeding accordingly and there were no loose ends, or passengers left behind! We arrived back at the ship drenched (it was really hot, but what should we have expected this close to the Equator?) and beat, but really pleased with what we had seen all day.

                                      I’m afraid that I took too many photos and you will be sorry for this because since everything was not what we normally see or experience, making them all special, so how am I to decide which ones to include?  😊

I know!

I’ll just put most of them in and let you decide!

Is there any way to not take a plethora of photos when the Buddhist Monks say it’s OK to take all the photos you want? (just take off your shoes please)

Gold trim everywhere!

Highlighting every color of the rainbow!

A photographer’s Paradise!

Street scenes!

Exotic places!

I do have to say that we could state here that Penang did not have the same littering rules (or punishments) as Singapore… in fact, we wondered if there was a reward for littering! Oh well, maybe it just added to the atmosphere!

We first went to an old Mansion, the Pinang Peranankan Museum that is now part of the UNESCO sites, which are scattered all around Georgetown and in their totality make up the heart of this area. This museum goes back to those Colonial days and the way that the upper crust folks lived.

          We then visited a Batik factory and store. This is a cool process and very simple to do. The batik factory was conveniently located next to a coffee and chocolate store which was air conditioned and maybe the only reason we stayed so long! Not that the coffee and chocolate weren’t good…. It was just that it was obvious why we were there and besides, the chocolate would have melted in about 3.7 minutes had we purchased any!

                   Did I mention that it was HOT!?

We then had our lunch stop at a Malaysian Seafood Restaurant.

We had the place to ourselves, and they kept coming out of the kitchen with more and more platters of different foods. There was a giant “Lazy Susan” (why is poor Susan so demeaned?) in the center of each table that we just rotated around for everyone to get served. I let the giant bug-eyed shrimp go by several times along with the squirmy squishy tentacle things. I stopped it when the chicken, rice, and rolls made an appearance in front of me. Paula did a little better than I did, she at least stopped the twirlerizer when the vegetables came around.

After lunch, our next stop(s) were two Temples that were conveniently located directly across the street from each other. One was a Thai Buddhist Temple, the Wat Chayamangkalarm, which means ‘reclining Buddha’ and the other was Burmese (now Myanmar) Buddhist. Shoes were required to be off in both places. I did observe some monks in the Burmese Temple, they were scanning their “Handheld Electronic Devices”.

Modern is as modern does!

One of the large statues in the temple also had a touch of modernism as radiating from his head was a multi-colored L.E.D. halo!

Now across the street to the Burmese Temple. The woodwork was very intricate, and the roof lines were magical as you will soon see!

We then went to the base of Penang Hill where we emptied out of our little bus and got in some smaller vehicles capable of making the climb to the summit without toasting the trans on the way up or smoking the brakes on the way down! The road was filled with switchbacks and extremely tight turns, which our driver took with skill and excessive speed! When I commented about some cyclists coming down “the wrong way” he corrected me and said that it was a two-way road! This thing was barely wide enough for one vehicle! The view from the top was impressive and it seemed as though everyone from town had taken the afternoon and went there!

                   After enduring the Death Ride coming down the mountain (where Moses was not, but we did almost meet Jesus a few times!) we piled back into our little bus and made our way over to the old section of Georgetown where we stopped in an alley and were given a concoction that we could not quite wrap our heads around.

It is a local favorite, a desert-type sort of mix of some green noodles and semi-frozen stuff that had, shall we say, an interesting taste. We smiled and nodded our thanks, turned and tried it, and then when no one was looking we deftly stashed them where they would find them upon clean-up time, if there is such a thing here. From the alleyway we went for our tuk-tuk rides over to Chew Jetty, the original Chinatown section of the city. Our tuk-tuks were bicycle powered. Think Rickshaw with the cyclist behind the sit-in part. The ride and the guys were a hoot!

 Cars? We don’t see no stinkin’ cars!

Trucks? We don’t see them either!

WEAVE, BRAKE, WEAVE, BRAKE, TURN, WEAVE, ok, we’re here!

Phewf! What a ride!

When we arrived at Chew Jetty, we had no idea what it really was. Back in the day, like way back, like in the 1800’s when a lot of Chinese came to town, they settled down by the harbor and built a wharf out into the water.  This wharf, or jetty, contained their businesses and their homes that were attached to them.

                   This practice of living and working here continues to this day, albeit to a lesser extent. But it turned out to be everyone’s favorite part of our tour and the perfect way to wrap up this whirlwind of a day!

Someone took a group photo of our haggard looking troupe that I will include in one of the “Random Pic’s from the Last Few Days” posts.

Thanks for getting to the end of this one!