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Day 1 - 14/02/09
Took the boat from Suka Suka after bidding goodbye to Aziz, Asiah and Azzam, we went into the town in Perak state and had a tour of the royal mosque, learning about the Malaysian Monarchy, the religion and culture. We saw the Sultan's house (current King of Malaysia) and hung around the market till it was time to get the bus. After a 2 hour bus journey and a 20 min ferry crossing from Butterworth into Georgetown, we got into the hotel. We went to the mall nearby after having a quick walk down the street where Scott pointed out the key amenities and had lunch at the food court. Evening we had drinks on the rooftop of the hotel as Scott had managed to bag a room leading to the rooftop. Got some gorgeous views of sunset over Penang. We then had dinner at a food court and enjoyed a 'few' nightcaps at the Banana cafe!
Day 2 - 15/02/09
Joined Tania, Katie and Marc at the Chocolate Boutique, where they gave us so much chocolate to try (chocolate for breakfast, I was in heaven!!!) and then we went to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion - a UNESCO award winning property that was built in the early 19th century by the man called the 'Rockerfeller of the East'. It was an interesting tour where we learnt about this man, the Chinese influence in Penang and Feng Shui. This house was used to film Anna and the King and Indochine. After the tour we were cultured out for a while so everyone went their seperate ways till we met up at 2pm for the Penang city tour.
We went to the Fort Cornwallis - being a Sunday the fort was shut for tours so we had a look at it from outside. The fort had never been used defensively, it's function was more administrative. Then we went to the Chinese stilt houses, this has a rather funny story. There are approx 8 jettys each has a name, and only the families with that surname can live here. the 8th is for mixed surnames. As they are so close to the sea shore, they are built on stilts. At either points of each jetty is a temple, where we were explained the significance and a bit about Taoism. Then we went to the snake temple, when this temple was built lots of snakes came into the temple and since then it has been known as the snake temple. There were snakes draped on the lanters, fruit bowls, picture frames etc all drowsy cos of the burning incense. It was strange as at first the didn't look real until you see the small movements they'd infrequently make!!! From here we went to see the Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, it was very grande. We wandered around exploring and admiring it.
After the wandering around all day, we got back to the hotel and got some samosas from the street stall down the road. They were delicious but not a match on my mum's!!! We all went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, which was really good, and even managed to get a cup of masala tea as good as you get in Mumbai!!!! We then ended the night at the banana cafe having a few drinks and sharing lots of stories.
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