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Published: February 19th 2007
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After the cool of the Cameron Highlands, the lure of the Malaysian FA Cup was enough to entice one of the party to return to Penang. The first round tie between FA Pulau Pinang ....(yes, the locals spell it, Pinang) and Shahzan Muda was played in front of a packed house at the City Stadium....well maybe not, but the fixture captured the imagination of two passing English. There have been many past reports of match fixing in this part of the world and the collapse of "Pinang's" unassailable 2-0 lead with the aid of two rather dodgy looking penalties near the end had John thinking that perhaps such things are still rife. The mighty Shahzan Muda went on to take the game to extra time and win 4-2 on penalties. The standard was difficult to guage...clearly not that good, but the players must have "good engines" to keep running around in the heat.
As on our last visit, we decided to forsake the usual "traveller's accomodation" in favour of a bit more luxury. However the plan didn't go according to the "plan" .....after a long day on the bus, the reintroduction to the scorching heat and the "excitement" of the
football, we could have done without the air-conditioning leaking on to the floor and the Chinese bloke trying to get into our room by mistake at 5am with his hooker. We were moved to even more luxurious surroundings on another floor the following day, by way of compensation.
The previous few days we'd spent in Penang were concentrated on the Hindu festival, so we set about a wider exploration. The first port of call was Fort Cornwallis, the old British garrison base from the late 18th century. The fort has been restored to a certain extent and contains much of the history of the establishment of the British East India Company trading settlement by a certain Francis Light, formerly of Suffolk - his son incidentally went on to establish Adelaide, so it obviously ran in the family. The area near the fort is all laid out in the traditional British manner, with the Town Hall and another impressive building facing the padang.
As a penance for indulging in Malaysian footabll, Miranda insisted we went to the Odeon to watch the latest Bollywood release. It was never like this at the Odeon on Corporation Road, Middlesbrough, but then it
Wat Chaiyamangalaram Thai Temple
Luang Phor Chiya Mangol - the 3rd largest Sleeping Buddha in the world was a long time ago that it was just over a pound to get in! We seemed to cause a considerable amount of amusement to our fellow cinema attendees by being there - it was all totally incomprehensible for 2 1/2 hours (which was longer than the footie even with extratime and pens), but there was the usual quota of singing, dancing and costumes which is what Miranda wanted to see!
The next day was a day of temples - namely the Burmese Temple and the Wat Chaiyamangalaram Thai Temple, which are conveniently situated over the road from each other in the Gurney Road area of town. The Burmese Temple has the usual array of Buddha's in all shapes and sizes, some of which are covered in a variety of swastikas. We'd always thought the the symbol was borrowed from ancient Hindu temples (where we've seen it potrayed all the time), but it clearly has played a significance in the Buddhist religion as well. The main draw of the the Thai Temple is Luang Phor Chiya Mangol - otherwise known as the Sleeping (or Reclining) Buddha. It is by all accounts the biggest in Malaysia and the third largest
City Stadium, Penang
The Bandaraya Stadium otherwise known as City Stadium, Penang in the world, measuring 108 feet long and 32 feet high.
The centre of Georgetown has many splendid old buildings, that unfortunately seemed to be preserved in a rather haphazard fashion. One of the finest examples is the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, which is sometimes referred to as the Blue Mansion. Cheong came from China as a penniliess youth and more latterly amassed sufficient wealth to become known as the Rockerfeller of the East. The house in Penang was apparently his favourite mainly due to the residence of his 7th wife and he therefore lavished money on it's construction, importing floor tiles from Stoke (presumably using his own ships and not a parcel carrier) and decorative ironwork from Glasgow. It's fairly impressive, but internal photography was not allowed. We learned quite a bit about the Penang Chinese attitude to money from the woman doing the tour of the house.
The Chinese influence was very strong in Penang....much more so than on the mainland...and this was reflected in the historical perspective on show in the Penang Museum. It was definitely worth the 1 ringgit admission mind just for the air-conditioning. There are numerous other temples, mosques and "clan" houses
Penang v Shahzan Muda
Malaysian FA Cup Round 1 packed them in at the City Stadium to wander around, which are all good to escape the perpetual heat.
The previous football experience did little to dampen the enthusiasm for another excursion to see the "Panthers" in action on the Saturday night. The western element in the crowd is obviously not a regular feature, judging by the greeting from our new best friend in Penang i.e. the ticket salesman. He'd advised us before the Shahzan Muda game that a bigger crowd would surface for the first game in Malaysia Cup......they'll be having a Full Members Cup next(!)...and he was right, as it must have topped a 1000 for the visit of team called ATM (or Armed Forces). Whilst there are plenty of police present, fences and copious amounts of barbed wire, there wasn't one away fan at either of the games. The match was a re-run of the previous Tuesday night with a slighty different score......Pinang take a lead and look as though they are cruising to victory, but the opposition score dubious equaliser and the game fizzles out into a tame 1-1 draw.
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