Threats and Intimidation

Penang is a really interesting place. It is the only city we've discovered so far with a Little India, huge Chinatown, and plenty of mosques, all mixed together. But, it's more of a potpourri than a melting pot; they're all here, but they don't water down their cultures. It's really more of a stew: each ingredient adds to the flavour, but you still have your potatoes, carrots, beef, and so on. (confused yet?)

Apparently the public transit situation in Penang has gone WAY down hill since the last time I was here 4 years ago. There used to be a blaring loud mini bus everywhere you looked and the main terminal downtown was filled with buses and commuters, and honking/yelling bus drivers. But something has changed because we've had to chase buses around the city when we're lucky enough to spot one. After a very frustrating afternoon of bus chasing, (I took out my frustrations at the arcade. See above.) we walked to the edge of town to find a tourist info station, where we were told that the buses have had to move their stops "due to the threats and intimidation". The police here are notoriously corrupt and such things are very common here. Yesterday we were stranded at the Botanical Gardens for 3 hours, waiting for and eventually chasing down this bus. It's official, Penang has the worst public transport of any city we've been to so far.

Kek Lok Si Temple

This huge Buddhist temple is built up in stages covering a small mountain.
It's a blend of Chinese, Thai, and Malay architectural style.
Unfortunately, the GIANT bronze Goddess of Mercy statue at the top is currently having a million ornate pillars installed around it, so to us it was just a big scaffolding tower.

Penang Hill

After a long hot walk from the Kek Lok Si Temple, we arrived at the base of Penang Hill. We took the 1923 Swiss built tram up to the top, 800m above sea level, which you can see from the top. The hill station was created by the Brits (meaning that they payed the bill and watched the locals build it by hand for them) so they'd have a nice quiet place to escape the heat of the town below. We also went on this canopy walk while up there, which was a thrill. We don't know how they built this system of walkways 100 feet off the ground.

Back in Penang

The food here is DELICIOUS!! Here we often get what the restuarant workers tell us to get. This time, curry chicken, some kind of spicy cabbage, and vegetable korma, with a few other unknown tasty sauces over our rice. Mmmm! And, we're sorry to say, the Indian food here is better than any we had in India. Go figure. On the streets there are hundreds of hawkers selling all kinds of Chinese, Thai, Malay, Middle Eastern, and even good ol' hot dogs for those less adventurous or homesick travellers. There is also your standard global fare, such as KFC but with a twist: they proclaim that all their food is HALAL, even their nuggets.

Penang at Night

The adventures never cease,

T.