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Published: February 5th 2011
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Ship docked in Penang. We went on shore on a tour. Getting off the boat is like a military operation with something like 2,500 people trying to find their way Firstly we went to the Khoo Kongsi Temple. This is the one of the most celebrated can temple in Penang. Khoo is the name of the Chinese family that set up the temple. The word “Kongsi” means partnership or guild, I guess that it is like the Chinese version of the masons?. The building was built in 1906 and is very ornate. Members of the Khoo family who have “done good” have plaques erected inside, some were lawyers in London. It’s other claim to fame is that it was used in the film “Anna and the King” starring Jodie Foster and the Hong Kong actor Chow Yuen-Fatt.
Next was the Trishaw ride through the traffic of Penang. The guy that was peddling the trishaw was pretty brave as he nosed into the rush hour traffic, till you realized that we were in the front and it was our bodies that were being put at risk. The ride took us through the old section of Georgetown through the “Little India”
section of the town. We made friends with some young Korean ladies. They took some photos of us and we took pictures of them, unfortunately we were not able to exchange photos.
Having survived the Trishaw ride we were then taken to Wat Chayamankalaram. Which is a local Buddhist temple and houses the fourth largest reclining Buddha.We were given our buddha based on date of birth, Diane was the Rabbit, and I wax the Ox.
I always have some misgivings about places of worship being made tourist attractions, I guess it happens the whole world over and the faiths possibly appreciate the income. Still it does not seem right.
We were then taken to a local hotel for refreshment Diane and I had liquid refreshment, but gave the food a miss.
We then visited a local handicrafts workshop where Batik printing of shirts and other garments takes place. at the end of the tour Diane acted as a model as the owners attempted to sell garments to the tourists
We then went to the Clan Piers Chinese water village. This is essentially a village built on stilts, extending out to sea. Essentially the early Chinese settlers
found that land was in short supply, so they built out to sea. This place is now known as the Clans pier, because each of the piers is name after a different Chinese Clan. It is a residential area for the Chinese with a very strong community feel. Most of the residents are Chinese fishermen or labourer’s. Seven fishermen communities’ clans have lived on the wooden jetties for a number of generations. Nowadays these properties are home to hundreds of harbour workers and their families who cannot to move anywhere else due to the high cost of land. Although some of the accommodation was quite good, in general it was heart breaking to see how some of the people lived or just survived. Both Diane and I felt that it was very patronizing to wander as a tourist through these people’s humble homes. This is one of the dilemmas of tourism that it does bring some revenue to these people, but as with the places of religious worship mentioned early – it doesn’t seem right
We then returned to the Cruise Ship to have dinner in an environment quite alien to that which we had visited
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