Buses, Buddha & Boat's

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PENANG

BATU FERRINGHI
We jumped off of the bus at Butterworth with numb bum’s and headed down to the ferry, which was located at the end of the bus terminal, quite simple really! We had to get change for the MR1.20 fare (it is free on the way back!) as we needed to feed coins into the machine to get through the barriers. 10 -15 minutes later, after a quick sprite and a wee, we were disembarking in Georgetown. Nice and easy!

We left the ferry terminal and the bus stop was right outside, there was a 101 waiting, so we jumped on. Unfortunately we did not have any small change, so Liam ran off, leaving Charlotte on the bus with the bags to buy a sprite and get some change! The bus waited! Yeah, this was a good start.

We followed the directions from the Baba guesthouse and luckily as Charlotte has been to Batu Ferringhi before we made it to the hostel without a hitch, for about 50pence each on the bus! The hostel is about 50 metres from the beach as they had described, behind a row of very nice beach bars and restaurants.

We chilled in the blessed air con in the room for a bit and enjoyed the luxury of an attached bathroom before heading out for a walk along the beach. We walked all the way to the top, past the Golden Sands and Rasa Sayang, where Charlotte stayed about six or seven years ago.

Watching all of the millions of jet ski’s, para sailing and banana boating that was occurring! We slipped up a back road on to the main road and got a few funny looks from locals coming down to the beach from the other direction! Guess they wondered why we were not walking through the resort! Any way we walked back to the hostel along the main road, we were a little early for the night market, but they were starting to set up.

On the way back we spotted their famous food court, so we know where to head later tonight. We went back t the hostel to freshen up, before heading out to the food court after dark, when things were in full swing. We had a pile of Chicken and Beef satays to start, followed by Lamb Kebab and Chinese chicken noodles washed down with Tiger beer and a Lychee juice. Yummy. It was a bit like Benidorm though with many older Northerners, ladies minus there bras! And other westerners all over the place! Certainly not as it was when Charlotte was last here. We walked back through the night market, which lined the main street and Charlotte got a very nice pair of blue sunglasses for just 10 Ringgit (2 quid!) Bargain!

The next day we had a bit of a lazy day hanging around the beach, but there was no swimming due to the rather large Jellyfish that the lifeguards were constantly pulling out of the sea. We also saw a couple of poor soles with rather large sting’s, ouch!

We spent the next couple of days walking on the beach, eating at the food court, shopping at the night market, where we got some amazing bargains! Later we kicked ourselves as we could have picked up a few extra bits as it turned out to be the cheapest place in Malaysia.

We decided that as the sea was rather cloudy and the threat of Jellyfish was ever present we would head into Georgetown for a couple of days to see the sights. So we jumped on the bus and went to the Hotel Mingood, just off of Penang road.

GEORGETOWN
Wow, The Hotel Mingood was one of the best hostels we have stayed in! It is an old hotel, but the rooms are huge, with great air con, a full size fridge, TV with STARMOVIES, ESPN & the News! Along with free WIFI and a decent speed and free breakfast served until 11am, so great for us lazy buggers!

Off out in to town to find an ATM and some lunch, no ATM but we find a little pub called the Soho. An English pub don’t you know, so pop in for a bit of lunch and a refreshing beer. We then a stroll around the town, we find Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion but have missed the guided tours, although you can see its grandeur from outside. It is a magnificent periwinkle-blue mansion built in the 1880’s by Cheong Fatt Tze, a local Hakka merchant-trader who left China penniless and eventually established a vast financial empire, earning himself the sobriquet ’Rockefeller of the East’. It also doubles as a luxurious bed and breakfast, but too rich for our blood! We head on but as we start off the temperature soars and it becomes a bit uncomfortable so we head back via a shop for some provisions.

After watching some decidedly dodgy films on the telly we head out for dinner (yes, MORE food) this time we go to the food hall down the road The Red Garden. A little different than we expected as it had live music and dancing. We opted for the Japanese stall and had a drop of Saki with our meal, all washed down with the traditional Tiger beer. Back to the room to watch more movies not as dodgy but still questionable (Resident Evil Evolution).

Up for our free breakfast in the roof top garden then our mission today is Kek Lok Si temple and Penang Hill for a bit of relief from the heat! No such luck, as we head past reception, drop in our laundry and enquire about buses there, it turns out the funicular railway is closed for repairs, just our luck! We are not doing the three hour walk/climb to the top! So we jump on a bus and head to the temple.

We get off of the bus at the bottom of the hill and ascend through many hawker stalls on the way up to the temple. We come out in fresh air at the Turtle pool, a rather dirty pool full of millions of Turtles. The are there as a symbol of good health/long life. We opt to feed the turtles and buy some green leaves off of a lady and take great joy in throwing them in the pool, whilst watching the turtles climb over each other to get to them!

We carry on up and enter the main temple, which is still amazing, it is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and stands on a hilltop at Air Itam. Construction started in 1890, took more than 20 years and was funded largely by donations. We go around the a temple of buddhas, which had a gift shop in the middle, however they had added another level to this temple an incline lift to the bronze statue of Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin). It is still in construction, so you cannot go right up to the mile high statue and they are asking for donations all over the place up there. You can actually write your name on a tile for a 100 Ringget and they will use that tile in the building of the temple. It is very nice and peaceful up there, we sat for a while under a shaded area over a Koi Carp pool, next to a waterfall.

We came back down and went into the Seven-tier Ban Po Thar (Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda). The design is said to be Burmese at the top, Chinese at the bottom and Thai in between. We went up the steps and rose to the clouds.

When we finished there we headed back down through the stalls, stopping for a look on the way. We jumped back on a bus and went back to Komplexs Komtar. We had a look around, but it did not seem to be much in this shopping city. We grabbed a bite at KFC, which was about the worst Charlotte has ever tasted, to help her feel better she went for a foot reflexology whilst Liam sat and watched Kung Fu Panda with the staff!

Then when heading back we spotted a hairdressers that was offering 15 Ringgit junior stylist haircuts. Charlotte opted for a layered cut, first since she left the UK, although she did have to encourage the poor guy to cut it shorter! Liam had a short back and sides, not bad for £3 each.

Walking around the Komplex to get to the buses, we saw that there were some posh shops on the other side and also a rather nice looking Pizza hut, that we decided to come back and visit at a later point. We were going to head over to the reclining Buddha, but as it was getting on for 5pm, we felt we would save that for tomorrow. We waited for that bus for a bit before deciding to walk back along Penang Road to our hostel.

We found a marvellous cake shop on the walk home and purchased a few of the shops delights, in the form of a couple of triangles of sandwiched together sponge and cream in a sandwich carton. Liam opted of the traditional chocolate and Charlotte was a little more adventurous with a green Kiwi sponge.

We went home and washed up, before heading out for some dinner. On the advice of the hotel concierge we walked down Cambell street looking for a food court, but there were just a couple of manky looking restaurants and lots of closed shops. At the end of the road we found a very pretty mosque that was lit up. Realising we were on a lost cause and had ended up in the gold area of town, we started to make our way to the Komplex, which we knew had restaurants. En route we bumped into a older gentle man, just setting out for the night on this Tuk Tuk. Yes we would like a lift up the road, so we hopped in, Charlotte in the seat and Liam balancing on the top of the seat! He drove as along some hairy roads full of traffic and deposited us outside Pizza hut. Well we popped into the Komplex shopping centre for a quick mouch around and to see what other food was on offer. I turns out that it was more of the shopping centre we were looking for earlier in the day. There was a huge mobile phone fair going on and although we had a look around, there were no deals around.

Charlotte walked past a very nice sun dress and was wooed over by the girl on the stall who ran off to see if she had a bigger size! No, none to be seen, but she assured me that the dress on the hanger would fit. Dubiously she slipped it over her head (over her clothes) and amazement, she fit! After a little haggling over the price, the afore mentioned dress was whipped away into a plastic bag. She also tried on a few pairs of short trousers, but between the fisherman’s pants, drawstring and wrap around trousers, but none were suitable.

Not fancying the empty restaurant’s, I think that they are day time eatery’s or the McDonalds, we popped over the road to the Pizza hut and had a lovely meal before a gentle stroll home to our air conditioned room.

Today our mission was to go down to see the Reclining Buddha, we walked to the komplex and jumped on the 101 bus to the temple and with a nudge from the driver we got off at the correct stop. Air con buses are all well and good, but when you get off, the heat really get’s you! We wander around the temple complex looking at the various pagodas with other religious icons in, then enter the main temple via the four statues of wiggly dragons and walk around the huge gold reclining Buddha. There are a couple of gold coloured statues of monks in front of the Buddha and it looks like they have just covered the remains in gold, quite un nerving.

We head out and over the road to the Burmese but it is not quite as impressive and there are lots of beggars hanging around the entrance. After visiting the main building we wander around the grounds and get talking to a lady who tells us a bit about the big bell. We need to ring the bell with the big stick three times and make three wishes, one for the health of ourselves, one for the health of our friends and family and one for the health of everyone. Then she came with the sob stories of having breast cancer and actually being a Catholic, so can we help? Well at least she worked for her money, so we gave her a few Ringgit and carried on looking around. We saw the Koi pool with pagoda over and a wishing pond where you had to throw a coin to land in one of several spinning pots. We only had a couple of coins and missed each time!

We jumped back on the bus to the Komplex and went into the local Georgetown Coffee shop for a spot of lunch, we tried some of the local food and Charlotte ordered both a Lychee tea and a Chendol, both of which were not to her taste, so she swapped for Liam’s Iced Coffee.

We headed back into the shopping centre and had a walk around the floors that we had not seen. We managed to find some embroidery thread for Liam to make friendship bracelets from. Charlotte found some sparkly blue glitter eyeliner, then left Liam wandering around the centre whilst Charlotte had ‘The Works’. This involved a 30 min head, back, neck and face massage, followed by Hopi ear candles (strange feeling, but effective!) and a 45 min foot reflexology. Heaven.

Collecting our laundry that evening for packing we booked a ferry for the next day to take us to Langkawi and a taxi to take us to the ferry port. We popped over the road to Louis diner for dinner as it was our 10 month anniversary and had a very nice meal with a bottle of Red wine. Later we chilled out and watched a film that evening and got up in time for a little breakfast the next morning before heading down to the ferry terminal, passing Fort Cornwallis en route. We were soon settled onto the ferry, watching Avatar, yet again!, on our way to our next island.

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