Penang

---

So after Langkawi, we headed back to Georgetown for three nights. Staying in the same hotel made us feel as if we were coming home, seeing all the old stains and smelling all the familiar smells that make this part of Georgetown so very memorable.

After disembarking from the thankfully seaworthy ferry, we hustled through the crowds to the roadside to get a cab, only to be told that the cab to our hotel would cost 30 MR! Seeing as we paid 12 MR to get the ferry terminal originally we decided to leg it instead.

Up bright and early the next day, we headed out of Georgetown to a little tourist trap called the Spice Garden. This is a Garden of Spices. We saw all the spices, and tropical herbs you can think of, and then some. After a personal tour and a walk around, we headed to the cafe, which overlooked the ocean and had a nutmeg juice while perusing the very overpriced "Asian Tapas" (fried things).

The next day we headed out early again to investigate two temples. After alighting at the wrong bus stop this turned into three temples; two Thai and one Burmese. The Thai temple has an 130 meter long reclining Buddha (or was it feet?) Anyhoo it was big. That in itself was really not that exciting, but the detailed aspects of the temple were. The temple walls and ceiling were covered with intricate carved and painted motifs, which when combined with the use of gold statuary, really created a strong statement of quite fabulous interior decoration. I want our next house to have gold leaf, on everything, even everyday utensils like the kettle or the toilet. Sparkle!

It was the middle of Chinese new year when we got back to Penang, so the place was heaving and most of the decent restaurants were closed. However we did make it out to Gurney Drive to a renowned food market set amongst the bumper to bumper traffic of this part of town. Amongst the sound of fireworks and car horns we chowed down on Penang's famous version of Laksa, which does not have coconut in it, but does have saw-tooth coriander, pineapple, mint, tuna and many other things. Breathtaking. And not just because it was spicy (which its was). Never had we had something that intricate tasting. We tramped back down the dark sea wall for home, while Chinese lanterns and fireworks soared into the air and Malay teen-agers touched each other inappropriate places, all the while dodging what we hoped was dog turds on the pavement . Ahh Malaysia!

---