Location: Penang island Malaysia
About:  Penang island, off the west coast of Malaysia, is an economic center and tourist destination for travelers from around the world.  Georgetown city and the surrounding area is the the focus of this travelogue.
Time of year visited: Early December 2003
Elevation:  Sea level
Locations photographed:  Dharmikarma Burmese temple, Wat Chaiyamangkalaram, Khoo kongsi, Penang Butterfly Garden

Travelogue:

My first trip to Asia was this business trip to Malaysia.  I was to be in the country for a week, most of the time spent working.  To get to Malaysia I arranged to have my travel route through Japan going both directions, with both outbound and return flights having layovers.  This actually saved my company some travel expense, even with the extra hotel stay and meals.  It also broke the very long flight up into two, more manageable, segments.

After the brief overnight stay in Narita, I caught an early seven hour morning flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.  In Kuala Lumpur, I had another layover before catching a flight to Penang, approximately 1 hour away.

By the time I reached Malaysia, it was dusk, so I settled down into my hotel room, and had a light meal before venturing out to try to find someplace to get some local currency.  I opted to not try to get too much money at the airport because I felt I could get a better exchange rate elsewhere.  The evening's search for an ATM that would take my corporate card, which is not a Visa or Mastercard, was fruitless and frustrating.  So I ended up getting some cash from the hotel reception, again at a poor rate.

The next day, to help combat the jet lag, I arranged to go on a tour of Georgetown, the capital of the state of Penang and named after England's King George III.  I inquired with hotel about any sightseeing tours that were available that would take me to see some of the city's temples and gardens.   A four hour tour was available for about $30 US that would take me to the Penang Butterfly Farm, botanical gardens, two temples in the city, a Chinese clan house, the Royal Selangor pewter outlet and Fort Cornwallis. 

Our first stop was the Penang Butterfly Farm, the first butterfly farm in the world reportedly.  Located on the northern coast of the island, the tour bus took us by several beachside resorts and nice looking white and light tan colored beaches.  We arrived at the butterfly garden, paid our admission plus an extra $1 photography fee if we wanted to take pictures.  Once inside you're free to roam about the garden, enjoying the various types of butterflies that roam freely about the gardens. 

Besides the live butterflies, the farm also had exhibits of other types of plants and insects native to Malaysia.   These included beetles, scorpions and other insects that were sometimes strange or beautiful.  In addition to the live insects, the farm has a small museum of preserved butterflies from all parts of the world.  This display was quite interesting, showing off some butterflies that were small and large, and many of them with amazing colors.  A small shop next to the farm also sells preserved butterflies for reasonable prices.  I picked up one sample of a butterfly from Chile that was the most incredible reflective bluish purple color I've ever seen.

After the butterfly farm, we were taken to the botanical gardens, or apparently as the locals call it, the monkey park.  The gardens feature a wide array of plants along several small trails, but for many the real attraction is the monkeys that roam freely in the park.  Despite the rules and hefty fines for feeding these monkeys, there were people tossing food to the monkeys that seemed quite tame and willing to approach humans rather closely.

Since I was there in December, there didn't seem to be too many plants in bloom, though the temperatures in Malaysia are quite mild to hot year round.  This day was no exception, as it was probably over 90F/30C and high humidity.  However, one plant that was blooming was the "Cannonball" fruit.  This fruit is a large melon, non edible to humans, that is about the size of a cannonball.  This is a photo of the melons still on the trees they grow from.

We then drove back into Georgetown to visit two Buddhist temples: Wat Chaiyamangkalaram, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, and the Dharmikarma Burmese temple which is across the street.  The Temple of the Reclining Buddha features one of the worlds largest reclining Buddha's, which is over 100ft/33m long.  The gold plated Buddha is placed in the middle of the room and is surrounded by fantastic statues and paintings depicting various tales.  Behind and underneath the pedestal holding the Buddha are thousands of urns containing the remains of devotees.  Unsure of the proper protocols, I did not photograph these urns.

The outside of the temple was equally impressive, with two large statues standing guard outside the temple.  Two long dragons lie at their side and in the middle is an incense burner where worshippers can add their offering to the burner.

Across the street was the Dharmikarma Burmese temple, which housed an approximately 20 ft/6m tall Buddha. I've read the the grounds contain fountains, and many other statues, including two very large elephants that guard the temple grounds.  Unfortunately I was only able to get a photo of this statue before we ushered back into the vehicle and on to our next destination, the Khoo Kongsi clan house.

The building is a temple for a wealthy Chinese family that started migrating to Penang in the 16th century.  The clan house was first built in 1836, but burned down in 1894 and was then rebuilt in 1902.  The temple has since become a popular tourist destination in Georgetown. 

The outside of the building is definitely Chinese influenced architecture, and is adorned with intricate carvings that mostly cover the roof line.  Outside the temple are two stone dragon statues that have inside their mouths, stone balls that are impossible to remove.  These stone balls were carved in place from the cavity of the dragon's mouth and are thus larger than the mouth opening. 

The inside is even more intricately decorated than the outside.  You can walk through several rooms that feature tapestries, wooden carvings laced with gold and other artifacts.

After Khoo Kongsi, we made a brief stop at a Royal Selangor Pewter store to see a demo on how they make the beautiful pewter dinner ware, picture frames, jewelry boxes and just about anything else you can think of.  Malaysia is known for some fine pewter manufacturing, and Royal Selangor is some of the best.  Before departing for home, I ended up buying several pieces as gifts for family back home.

After the pewter store, we went to Fort Cornwallis, which got it's name from General Cornwallis who was defeated in the American Revolutionary War and then sent to be the Governor-General of India, that included Penang under his jurisdiction.  By this time of the day, the jet lag had caught up with me a bit, and I was feeling particularly tired.  So, the walk around the fort was peaceful and mildly interesting but no real interesting photographs captured my eye. 

After that day, the rest of my week was spent primarily working.  I did manage to find a cash machine finally that took my corporate card.  As it turned out, it was one of maybe 3 cash machines in the whole island that would take my card.  The lesson here is when traveling overseas to Malaysia, you're best to leave home without it, my corporate card that is.

My co-workers from Penang were gracious and took us to great Chinese, Indian and Malay restaurants for dinner. However, one evening before dinner, we went downtown to get some Durian fruit, which the locals relish.  They make candy, ice cream and other foods out of the fruit.

This fruit, and another called rambutan, are actually forbidden to be brought into many hotels on the island because they are somewhat foul smelling fruit.  The fruit is a little larger than a cantaloupe with a very spiny outer covering. The edible parts of the inside are kidney shaped with the fruit covering large seeds the size of peach pits.  The fruit itself doesn't smell or taste too bad, but for me, the slimy, gooey texture was disgusting.  I was able to get two bites down before I had to stop, I could eat no more.  I didn't want to offend my hosts, but I really could not bear to eat another bite without fear of getting sick to my stomach.

After the end of my week stay in Malaysia I was off to Japan for a 2.5 day stay before coming home.  While waiting for my plane in Kuala Lumpur, I toured the very modern airport, looking through the shops and photographing the neat architecture found in the airport concourses.