Kek Lok Si Temple

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With perfect weather predicted for the day, some friends I met in Melaka and I decided to take a trip out to the Kek Lok Si Temple. It's a bit out of town but well worth the visit.

It's a peaceful temple with monks living there, so it's still in use. Sadly, though, it's also been turned into a tourist attraction with gift shops galore--and you need to walk through all of them to get in and out of the temple. While I found the mass commercialization and selling of tourist trinkets (not at all related to a temple of any kind) to be rather disheartening, the temple itself was wonderful.

We climbed lots and lots of stairs and saw beautiful architecture, paintings, and amazing views of the whole area. We'd been advised that this was a better stop than Penang hill; not sure if that's really true, but I do think the views were spectacular. It's amazing how far you can see from the top. It's definitely worth the climb up the narrow, tiny stairs.

There's lots to see. There's the actual temple, then up a hill there's a huge Guanyin statue, and off to the side there's a pagoda we almost missed! (I'm not sure how--it's huge.) We also relaxed by a fish pond, just enjoying the peace of the area. We were there almost all afternoon and probably could have stayed longer if we hadn't gotten hungry! We stopped for a bowl of the famous Penang laksa on our way back to the bus. A perfect afternoon!

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