After church we went to the botanical gardens of Penang. There are acres and acres of velvety green gardens, paved paths, jungle trails, and steep climbs up the nearby mountains. The botanical gardens are both protected and ruled by the small tree monkeys that live there. They have a great deal of entitlement, jumping from tree to tree like they own the place.
After the botanical gardens, we went back to Eugene's house for lunch. His family and extended church family was all there (we even got to Skype Stephanie!), and they had so much food for all of us! It was some of the best food I've had in a very long time. My favorite was the salad with egg, blanched veggies and potatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and more, all drizzled with peanut sauce dressing. Also, the blue sticky rice with coconut topping was amazing!
After lunch, we changed into our sightseeing clothes and loaded up the tourbus again. Eugene went with us, and we went to the Kek Lok Si Temple, which is also known as the "temple of a thousand buddhas". It looks like a giant layered cake, complete with elaborate frosting detail. On each layer sits a buddha from a different culture, and the walls of each level are covered in tiles painted with miniature buddhas. As you climb the stairs from one level to the next, the view of Penang gets better and better. The temple itself is the highest point on the greater temple grounds, and must be accessed by way of many flights of stairs, and winding through other temples and shophouses. I am really glad we got a chance to see it.
From there, we went to Penang Hill, another great place to view Penang! We rode the funicular to the top of the hill, which was much higher than where we had been at Kek Lok Si Temple. At the top, there are many viewing platforms, restaurants, museums, and carnival-type attractions. We went to a Hindu temple, and then followed a path to an abandoned cottage that has been completely overrun by the rain forest. It looks like something Indiana Jones might happen upon on his way to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. (In case any of you are fact-checking my movie references, Indiana visited that fateful temple whilst in Disneyland.) It was fun to go back to Penang Hill. It was one of my favorite attractions that we visited last year, and they've done a lot of renovations and additions since then. Now there are even more viewing platforms so you can truly get that panoramic view of Georgetown and the waterfront. Lots of tourists were there. We met a group from Australia and the United States who were traveling around as part of a floating book fair. Apparently that is a thing. Actually, I thought it sounded kind of cool. They take a boat around all over the world as a part library, part bookstore, and sell set up shop in all of the ports in which they stop. Crescensio and I introduced ourselves to a guy wearing an Enactus shirt. (Enactus is a global organization that encourages business ventures by students, with chapters at many universities including La Sierra.) He and his friends were students from Germany who were spending a semester in Singapore on an exchange program. Anyway, we got to meet some really interesting people at Penang Hill, which is one of my favorite things about traveling.
Soon it was time to leave, and we took the funicular back down to the bus. We went to an all-vegetarian restaurant of Nyonya food (a Peranakan culture of blended Malay and Chinese influence) with Eugene and his family. It was so delicious. I am usually not a fan of mushrooms, but I didn't know that I was eating a good deal of mushrooms until after the fact, and they were all amazing! I am continually impressed with all the different varieties of food an all-vegetarian kitchen can whip up.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We stopped at the 7-11 to get meds because LOTS of people on the trip are getting sick. They're dropping like flies, and Nikki is among them. I'm hoping that if I load up on my sleep and Vitamin C, I won't get it. Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment