Photos - A day out to the Snake Temple

The entrance to the Snake Temple.

The alter inside the temple.

A cupola in the gardens.

 

One of the snakes, the only one we managed to get a photo of as the camera ran out of battery!

On our last day in Penang we decided to go visit the  Snake Temple  because - surprise surprise - it has snakes living in it and I really like snakes. It was located at the far side of the Island so we had to go to the bus station and find the local bus that would take us there. Luckily Malaysian people are very helpful to tourists so a conductor took us to the correct bus and told the driver to let us know when to get off. It took us hour to get there. We were quite happy with this as it was a boiling hot day and the buses are air-con. When the driver told it that it was our stop we got off to find ourselves at the edge of a very busy dual-carriageway and, of course, the temple was over on the other side. How we got across the road in one piece I'll never know. The temple was really small so it only took us 10 minutes to walk around it - not much after a one hour bus journey. Was worth it though as there were loads of snakes, all different sizes. They were lying in plants, hanging from picture frames and all sorts. There was a warning sign not to touch them as some are poisonous. Red rag to a bull - I had to touch one so I got a wee feel at the snake in the picture above. We got back out to the bus stop outside only to be told by a Malaysian lady that the bus would be another hour before it arrived. Finally we got on the bus for the one hour journey back and it was packed, squashed standing room only. A few stops later someone got off their seat to get off the bus. A few people started heading to get the seat but the Malaysian lady from the bus stop, put up her arms to stop them, shouted on me where I was standing at the front of the bus and motioned for me to come and take the seat. I was mortified but, after all her effort, I wasn't going to say no. I did get a few angry stares from others though. 

Photos - Hawker food stalls

 

 

 

 

The hawker stalls don't have menus so it's a bit of a guessing game when you are ordering food. You just have to look at what is in the stall and point. Colin often points to the strangest looking thing he can see, just to try it. At least the satay man had a sign even though he is probably the only one that doesn't need it, as it's pretty obvious!

Photos - Some other temples

 

 

 

 

Photo - A small temple

 

 

A small temple at the roadside. The big guy in the top photo is the Holy Man.

Photos - A walk through the streets of Georgetown

 

 

 

 

Photo - Pinang Peranakan Mansion

 

 

 

This is an old mansion in Georgetown. It was built at the end of the 19th century for a rich Straits Chinese family. It has English floor tiles and Scottish iron works.

Penang

Penang consists of 2 parts - mainland Penang and the Island of Penang - which are connected by a duel-carriageway toll bridge 13.5kms long. Georgtown, where we were staying, is on the Island of Penang. It is a really interesting place and you could spend quite some time there just walking around and taking it all in. It is a mix of old colonial buildings and new modern ones. As Georgetown is where most of the old colonial buildings and temples are found and, as it is a Unesco World Heritage Site a lot of the buildings are very well maintained. It is made up of a real mix of people but mainly Chinese, Malaysians and Indians.
The food is fantastic. In fact Penang is known as the food capitol of Malaysia. You can't walk more than a few minutes without passing an eaterie. It ranges from 5-star restaurants down to hawker street food. Obviously we didn't sample the 5-star food, but you really don't need to as the hawker stalls were delicious and have the advantage of being very cheap. (  hawker stalls  )
We only stayed 3 nights in Penang as our main aim was to get down to Kuala Lumpur to collect my passport. We really enjoyed it though and wished we could have stayed longer.

Photo - The Monkey Guest House

This was the reception. It had a sitting area with TV.

The building looked like it had been an old large Chinese warehouse that had been divided up to turn it into a guest house. It had all the old original wooden teak floors, outer walls and ceilings but the rest of the house was divided up by sheets of plywood. This was our room. As you can see the upper portion of the wall is only made up of slats so has the potential to be very noisey as there is no soundproofing. Fortunately for some reason it wasn't too bad - maybe that's because I sleep with earplugs in! Wasn't my intention to get a shot of the shared loos in the photo on the far right of the pic. Should have taken it from a different angle.

 

Our room inside. Was basic (and probably this photo makes the paintwork look a wee bit better than it was) but it was comfortable and airy and we quiet enjoyed staying there. 

Photos - Leaving Langkawi to Penang

Views from the ferry

 

 

We boarded the ferry to Penang at 2.30pm for the 2hrs 45mins sail. It was a really nice sailing as, unlike the ferry to Langkawi where you had to stay inside the cabin, we were able to go outside, sit on the upper deck and enjoy the sea breeze - not for too long though or we would have been the colour of tomatoes. When we were arriving at the port in Penang we could see the massive Queen Elizabeth cruise liner, that was launched in 2010, docked there. We thought about asking for the price of a room for the night - yeah right - but instead we got a taxi to the Monkey Inn. We had no idea what it was going to be like as it only opened last September and we couldn't find any reviews of it. We had only heard of it as we seen it on a flyer that was lying around and thought we would take our chances. It was in Georgetown, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site, on the southeast of Penang where there is loads of budget acommodation. After a wee bit of a drive around as the taxi driver didn't quite know where it was, or because he just wanted enough time to tell us all the tours that he takes tourists on and how cheap he was, we got to the Monkey Inn.

A trip to Gunung Raya and plans to leave Langkawi

We hired a scooter again to explore Gunung Raya, the highest mountain peak in Langkawi at 881m. There is a scenic 23km winding road up to the top where you can then see spectacular views of Langkawi and even Thailand on a really clear day. Unfortunately the higher we drove the darker the clouds became. Just before the top there was a viewing point to see the spectacular views but alas there was only clouds and mist to be seen. We decided to turn back as the sky was now really dark and we didn't want to be caught in a heavy downpour on the scooter. On the way down it became a bit clearer again and we stopped at a parking place to give our butts a rest as the road was really bumpy in places. My bladder wasn't going to hold out until we got to a toilet so I decided to attend to the call of nature at the parking spot.
Although the road was really quiet and we hadn't seen many other vehicles I climbed over a wall onto the grassy verge as I thought that no doubt, as soon as my shorts are down, a bus load from Wigan will appear! As I was undoing the buckle on my shorts I looked down and both my feet and ankles were completely covered in ants. I had landed on an ant hill. I was back over that wall in jig-time. I am so glad I noticed the ants before I squatted down. That would really have been a disaster.
We didn't take any photos because of the weather but if you click on the link that follows you will see some of the views we should have seen. Once you click on the link, scroll down to the bottom and click visit D'coconut Hill Resort. Then click on photo gallery. The views would have been really nice to see while we were there. http://www.gunungraya.com.my/
On 22nd March after 2 weeks in Langkawi the British Embassy in Kuala Lumpur contacted us to tell me that my new passport had arrived (just a few days short of the 4 weeks that I had been told it would take). We booked a ferry for a few days later to Penang. A flight was cheaper than the ferry but, with no passport, I couldn't fly. We were going to stay there for a few days and then head down to Kuala Lumpur to collect the passport. We had to decide what to do then as, once we collected the passport, both our passports were being sent back to the UK to get a new Indian visa stamped into them. We had to decide whether to stay in Malaysia or travel elsewhere - Thailand, Vietnam, Loas - as we had to be settled somewhere and booked into accommodation before both our passports could leave our possession as, once our passports have gone, we can't travel around until we get them back. (Oh, the difficult decisions you have to make when you are travelling!)
We are meeting friends from the UK in Thailand on 20th April so we thought we might just head there and courier our passports from there, but when Colin read about courier services on the internet it seemed that Thailand can be a bit dodgey as it is not addressed in Thai script. We therefore decided to stay in Malaysia. We would collect the passsport, head to Melaka to the Old Town Guest House, where we stayed before, and have our passports returned to the Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. We thought that would be the safest thing to do as passports are a wee bit precious when you are travelling. Although Melaka is fairly small and not a great deal to do after a few days, the Old Town Guest house is very a very friendly place to stay with loads of books and magazines to read, DVD's to watch and generally a very relaxing place. Also with the spacious, airey sitting areas it is a great place to meet other travellers and swap stories. The hawker stalls around the guest house sell cheap excellent food so it's not a bad place to go and hole up for a bit.

Photo - Pantai Cenang beach

 

This is the beach 5 minutes walk from our accommodation. A bit too busy for us and that is why we never went to it.

Photos - A day out on the scooter and a great wee find

We couldn't believe it. We were driving around the North of the Island, seen this sign and had to go and check it out. Yes, they did do proper battered fish and chips with salt, vinegar, ketchup and tarter sauce. It was great, especially when you have been eating rice and noodles for so long!

The view was pretty good as well. Better than any view you can see from a fish and chip shop in Scarborough.

Not a soul on the beach to be seen. 

 

Looking up the beach from the restaurant and only some bits of wood to keep you company. We decided it was so idyllic that we would love to stay there. The restaurant had 2 caravans for rent. I'm not a fan of caravans but the setting was so beautiful that we decided it was worth it. When we asked the price we were shocked to hear it was 6 times more per night what we were already paying in the Rainbow Lodge. So, we wouldn't be staying there then. 

Photo - Colin going for a 'swim'

 

Colin going in for a 'swim' as the beach was so nice. Didn't want to ruin his old faithful blue t-shirt that's traveled around Asia for the last 15 years though, so didn't get too wet! I'm still hoping for the day when that t-shirt falls apart.

Photos - A day out on the scooter to the beaches in the North of the Island

Deserted beach in the North of the Island at Tangung Rhu

Colin experimenting with a black and white version of the pic, with me in the water having a paddle.

Now experimenting with the fish-eye lens.

Paradise! No people, sunbeds, watersports and restaurants. Unfortunately no budget accommodation though.

Photo - A view from the top of the cable car

 

We never took many pictures from the top as the weather became a bit hazy. This one is a view down to Telaga Harbour Park where boats and yachts moor. We passed it on our drive up to the cable car and some of the boats were really impressive  (Telaga Harbour) . Further down the coastline Pantai Cenang beach were we stayed