Penang
I first visited Malaysia on my 5-week Bangkok to Bali trip with IntrepidTravel in April-May 2008.
(Melbourne – Bangkok – Southern Thailand - Malaysia – Jakarta – Java – Bali - Melbourne)
After 9 days in Thailand, we crossed the border into Malaysia and about
an hour later we were on the ferry to Penang.
Fort Cornwallis
In 1786, Captain Francis Light founded the British colony of Penang,
erecting a fort constructed of riband palms at the tip of the cape.
Convict labour was used to reconstruct it of stone and it was finished in 1793.
Fort Cornwallis was the first military and administrative base of the East India Company.
It was previously surrounded by a 10m wide and 2m deep moat,
but it was filled in about a century ago due to concerns about malaria.
The next stop in our tour of Penang was at the "Stilt Houses".
They were built out on long piers over the water by the Chinese to escape
the land tax imposed by the British East India Company.
There was quite a village on stilts - shops, temples, houses.
They had water, electricity and sewerage connected.
On to the Snake Temple also known as the Temple of the Azure Cloud.
Built in 1850, it is the only temple which houses poisonous vipers.
The smoke from the burning joss-sticks makes the snakes sluggish.
Originally the snakes came from the surrounding jungle, but they breed them here now.
They were coiled up in the bonsai trees in the temple and in the trees outside.
Penang Hill Funicular Railway
It took two trains to get to the top. You had to change to a second train half way up the mountain.
Kok Lok Si Temple
Building began in 1886 and this complex is one of the largest and finest Buddhist temples in South East Asia.
It sprawls over a number of levels, and from all appearances, construction really has never stopped.
And it's still going on.
A massive decrocative pagoda is being constructed together with a huge enclosure to house a gigantic Buddha.
I loved these outdoor seats.
I first visited Malaysia on my 5-week Bangkok to Bali trip with IntrepidTravel in April-May 2008.
(Melbourne – Bangkok – Southern Thailand - Malaysia – Jakarta – Java – Bali - Melbourne)
After 9 days in Thailand, we crossed the border into Malaysia and about
an hour later we were on the ferry to Penang.
Fort Cornwallis
In 1786, Captain Francis Light founded the British colony of Penang,
erecting a fort constructed of riband palms at the tip of the cape.
Convict labour was used to reconstruct it of stone and it was finished in 1793.
Fort Cornwallis was the first military and administrative base of the East India Company.
It was previously surrounded by a 10m wide and 2m deep moat,
but it was filled in about a century ago due to concerns about malaria.
The next stop in our tour of Penang was at the "Stilt Houses".
They were built out on long piers over the water by the Chinese to escape
the land tax imposed by the British East India Company.
There was quite a village on stilts - shops, temples, houses.
They had water, electricity and sewerage connected.
On to the Snake Temple also known as the Temple of the Azure Cloud.
Built in 1850, it is the only temple which houses poisonous vipers.
The smoke from the burning joss-sticks makes the snakes sluggish.
Originally the snakes came from the surrounding jungle, but they breed them here now.
They were coiled up in the bonsai trees in the temple and in the trees outside.
Penang Hill Funicular Railway
It took two trains to get to the top. You had to change to a second train half way up the mountain.
Kok Lok Si Temple
Building began in 1886 and this complex is one of the largest and finest Buddhist temples in South East Asia.
It sprawls over a number of levels, and from all appearances, construction really has never stopped.
And it's still going on.
A massive decrocative pagoda is being constructed together with a huge enclosure to house a gigantic Buddha.
I loved these outdoor seats.
