A FULL DAY IN PENANG

Our room is quite comfortable, so after a good night's sleep we went to the breakfast buffet, met Chris, and off we went for our Penang city tour.

The building below is of government structures.  There are a number of colonial style buildings in the area (Georgetown).  Some have been refurbished, some have had the fronts as entry-ways to very modern structures (truly an awful combo), and some have been left to fall to bits.  The city of Georgetown was established by Colonel Light for King George III in 1880 something.  Light convinced a local sultan that he would protect him.  When the Siamese came and attacked the sultan, the British reneged (trade with Siam was more important than the sultan).  Eventually, they came to an agreement with the sultan, paying him a yearly fee to stay, and all was well.

A Church of England church.

This bird is like a starling around here -but it has a great song, myna-bird like markings, and is really hard to take a photo of.

We then visited a Thai Buddhist temple.

The fortune-telling broken machine struck me as very funny.

A Thai reclining Buddha

Across the street from the Thai temple was a Burmese Buddhist temple.  Buddha is standing in this temple.

Between two dragon sculptures was a globe which helpfully showed us where we were.  Charlie is pointing to Pulau Pinang (Pinang island).

The decorative palm above is common for gardens in Malaysia

Our next city tour spot was the Khoo clan compound.  Many of the Chinese clans had their own compounds.  Arguments led to clan riots at the end of the 18th century which the British put down with force.  These places were a little like Hutongs in Beijing, except there was a temple in it as well.

A view from the Khoo clan compound.  To the left are local city dwellings.  In the center is a modern building, and to the right a structure of the Khoo compound facing the street.

Next on our tour was a visit to a typical home of a Chinese man/Malay woman couple.  This combination was so common that these unions developed their own culture.  Below is the main entrance of the home.

We then went on to visit Fort Cornwallis.  The palm in the first photo below is a betel-nut palm (you can just see the red betel-nut fruits hanging near the trunk.  Pinang city's symbol is the betel nut.

A few photos below from the fort.

A Georgetown typical street.  The blue sign in the middle 78 cafe is where we had lunch.  It was even better than yesterday's lunch.  2 cokes - 2 mee sua (fish soup with noodles)  all for about $4 US dollars.

After lunch we shopped around a bit.  We found a store that had nicer stuff.  Some of the stores really have cheesy items.  Our most difficult problem here (beyond stomping around in 90°F and 95% humidity) is that it's really hard to cross streets.  They drive right-hand-drive like the British, there are lots of cars, and there are a few places to get across the road.  It helps to have two of us checking opposite directions.  Back to the hotel for a shower, and a rest.