PENANG

6th March – Penang

SORRY STILL NO PHOTOS. WE WILL TRY AGAIN AFTER MUMBAI.

As we ate breakfast we watched out the window as our ship dropped anchor offshore Georgetown, the main town of the small island of Penang. Today’s trip was to drive round the island, which is only some 40 kilometres by 20 kilometres.

The day did not start very promisingly as we had to catch the ship’s tender for a ten minute trip ashore (needless to say Doreen did not enjoy the experience, especially as the young cadet piloting the tender had four attempts to berth alongside a very wide pontoon).

However, our coach and tour guide were waiting and we took a trip around Georgetown, where he pointed out all the old colonial buildings, some of which have been converted for odd usages (see photo and spot the change). We then visited yet another Buddhist Temple (this one Thai), which houses the fourth largest reclining Buddha in the world (108 feet long). The across the road yet another temple, this one Burmese. However, both of these temples were interesting in their own right.

We then left Georgetown and took the coast road to the north of the island, where we visited our second (and best) Butterfly Farm of our holiday. Doreen loves butterflies and was in her element in here. The butterflies where all shapes and sizes, the largest being 5-6 inches wingspan and the colours were out of this world. Geoffrey had made the mistake of wearing a bright yellow shirt (and Doreen a lime green top) and soon became very popular with the butterflies.

We then drove south, down the island up over the mountain pass, along an extremely narrow, windy road, stopping at a local spice market, where we learnt about the homeopathic uses of various spices and oils. After purchasing various potions for rheumatism and back pain etc (and tiger balm), we proceeded down the mountain to a traditional Malay village, built on stilts.

After another very nice buffet Malay lunch we then were taken to the biggest shopping mall in town (Georgetown), where Doreen had seven floors of retail therapy, before she had to face the 10 minute tender journey back to our ship. Surprise, surprise I must report that Doreen did not spend any “Ringgits” except for a bottle of sliced ginger (that Valetia introduced us to in Hong Kong).

We now have a four day cruise across the Indian Ocean to Cochin and Mumbai.