Friday 15 August

The pagoda of Rama VI

Roswitha's birthday. I'm missing her lunch.

There was torrential rain at breakfast today to add to the condensation here at the Holiday Inn in Penang. Breakfast wasn't great. There were many Muslim families here, holidaying after the end of Ramadan. William picked us up at 9.30, and I started coughing in his bus. We drove to Georgetown but he decided to skip Fort Cornwallis.

We first went to the Kek Lok Si temple with the pagoda of Rama VI. We climbed up some steps, through the lush gardens, then took the 'first inclined lift' in Malaysia to see the statue of Kuan Yin, goddess of mercy. All quite impressive.

The Thai temple - we didn't step inside

Then we drove to a Thai temple, the Wat Chayamangkalaram. We decided against removing our shoes to go inside but took a few photos outside in the rain. My camera card is nearly full up.

Thirdly we visited the Chinese temple and clan house of Khoo Kongsi in the centre of Georgetown.  We stepped inside the temple, and also went into the museum to read about the family history.

The Chinese temple was also a museum

Then we headed to another Indian restaurant, this time for mutton biryani. Quite tasty. We drove past Fort Cornwallis just to get a photo. Bit disappointing not to go inside as it was fine by now. We went back to the hotel, where they were still mopping up the water.

In the tropical spice gardens we saw many exotic plants

Later we took a taxi from the hotel to the nearby Tropical Spice Gardens. There we saw palms, bromeliads, heliconia, spice plants and coffee and cocoa plants. They also had a nice cafe and gift shop. A lovely place.




In the evening we found a very romantic place for dinner- Ferringhi Garden. They even had wine - Rosemount Chardonnay.