Malaysia Day 10

---

Day 10 Today we went on a half day afternoon tour to Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple and the funicular railway up Penang Hill overlooking Georgetown and the whole eastern side of the island.

In the morning we spent a little time around the pool while David and Amary also went for a walk along the beach. In the evenings we tend to get back rather late after going to the markets so we tend get up later each morning than we would at home.

Our first stop on the tour was the temple and we warned by the guide there was a lot of steps to get up the hill. It didn’t look to be to bad to start the climb but it progressively got harder. On the way up the narrow lane is full of vendors wanting to sell similar types of clothes and ornaments that you also see at the night markets at Batu Ferringhi.

About half way up, there is pond with over 400 turtles in it called the Pond of Longevity. Apparently the Buddhist monks purchase the turtles from the markets and set them free from ending up on someone’s plate.

We climbed further up the mountain to the temple itself. The temple, or the total complex, is the largest Buddhist temple in south east asia and is continually being expanded. Currently they are building a 40 metre high statue to the Goddess of Mercy.

The temple is built in a town called Air Itam and is primarily a Chinese area, and there appears to be a lot of small alleys and many shops.

We then left the temple and travelled a short distance to the funicular railway up to Penang Hill. Penang Hill was used as cooler area for the British and officers were also sent form India to convalesce. The British originally tries to build a railway up the hill in the 1880s with convict labour but the steam trains were unable to pull the cars up the hill and the project was abandoned for over 30 years.

In the 1920s the idea of a railway up the hill was revisited and engineers visited Switzerland to inspect rack railways there and the funicular railway was established as the most economical way to construct the line. The line is split into two sections as the cable length would be too long to traverse the total distance, so you need to change cars at that point. The original four timber carriages were used for 50 years and were replaced in 1977 by new carriages made in Switzerland.

The view from the top is amazing, giving a view of almost the whole eastern side of Penang across the Malacca Straits to Butterworth and beyond on the mainland of peninsular Malaysia. You really do not have any idea of how built up a city is until you get a birds eye view and you certainly get that form this hill. The day was clear, but as most days here, there is a haze coming from industry and the cut and burn methods of farming in Indonesia.

We had noticed a stage being constructed about 500m for our hotel and we enquired some of the local people as to what was happening. We were told that a Chinese opera was to be performed in front of a small Chinese temple. The stage was built opposite the temple to enable the Gods to watch the performance. We watched the performance for about 10 minutes but I’m afraid the wailing of the actors in high pitched voces became too much and we just had to get out of there.

Once again we have had a wonderful today and tomorrow we plan to go to Georgetown to have a look at the wonderful colonial buildings that still exist in the World Heritage listed city.

---