Penang (Not Langkawi), Malaysia

March 7, 2023

Our scheduled stop in Langkawi was cancelled due to strikes which had closed all the roads from the port. So, instead of exploring mangroves, we headed off to the bustling city of George Town, Penang.

George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and maintains a lot of its original character. The ship put together a slate of excursions in a very short amount of time. The tour we booked took us to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas (Kek Lok Si) and to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. We saw a lot of Buddhas!

Our drive to our first stop took us through George Town and out to the mountains. Our guide, Harold, was excellent and extremely proud of his city. He is of Indian heritage and was a Christian. He was especially proud of the fact that when the city was founded, one street was designated as the place all the houses of worship were to be built. The idea was that this would facilitate all the cultures mingling and not be so separated. There were Buddhist temples next to mosques, which were next to churches.

Our tour bus was very plush with valances over the windows which, while interesting, we’re not conducive to picture taking.

I was able to capture a few pictures of the city streets during the drive.

The Temple of 10,000 Buddhas is stunning. We had been told we’d have to climb a lot of stairs to get up to the second level and we certainly did! The very warm and humid temperature added to the challenge. As the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, it is an extremely big complex full of buildings, statues, gardens and gift shops to raise money for the ongoing maintenance.

One the way up be passed a pool filled with turtles and tortoises.

I turned around and looked down off the road and saw this.

A few more images from our trip up.

Can you see the elephant below?

We learned a lot about Malaysian specific Buddhist temples. Every country has its own traditions, but there were similarities that run across other countries, as we would later find. To enter the temples we had to remove our shoes and hats. The entryway into the temples are holy and have raised sills that shouldn’t be stepped on.

I took so many pictures on this level of the temple. There was beauty everywhere you looked.

Below is a picture of one of the carved decorations on the building. The light color is from the outside and the dark one is the inside view.

When we finished at the second level, we rode a funicular up to the third. Here there was a Goddess of Mercy statue, a lovely pond with a gazebo in the center, and many whimsical statues.

I also had my first, and hopefully last, experience with a squat toilet. I was not a fan. Seventy years of using a western toilet made learning this new skill difficult!

At least it was very clean!

After the funicular ride back down to the second level, we walked back down the hill and caught a few more sights along the way.

We were very hot and sweaty when we reached the bottom and we were happy to find cold snacks for sale. These cost us $3.00 total.

I don’t know if we saw all 10,000 Buddhas here, but we saw a whole lot of them and they were all different.

We hopped (or dragged ourselves) onto the the bus and headed to see the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is is fourth largest reclining Buddha in the world. The courtyard was very pretty with fierce statues and dragons covered in colored glass that sparkled in the sunlight.

Once again removing our shoes, we went into explore.

There was a lucky Buddha in the temple. You made a donation, rubbed the Buddha’s stomach in an inwardly direction three times, and them put you hand immediately into your pocket to store the good luck. Brian and I figured “it couldn’t hurt” and went with the flow.

After our time here, we could go across the street to see yet another temple. This one was built by a woman, so she had the Buddha designed to look female. This was my favorite Buddha of all. So serene and peaceful!

We enjoyed our time in Penang very much. We returned to the ship hot and sweaty, ready for a relaxing evening.