January 24 - Penang, Malaysia

So far my favorite place in Malaysia has been Penang.  Our first stop was Chew Jetty. The Clan Jetties of Penang are historic Chinese villages built out over the water on long jetties. Typically, each Jetty belongs to a single family clan, with dozens of wooden houses on each. Located in George Town, Malaysia, they are UNESCO sites.

Home on the Chew Jetty

A view of the Lim Jetty

I think the Lee Jetty

The next stop on the tour was the Khoo Konsgi - this is a Chinese clan association it is a collection of buildings and the really cool clan house Leong San Tong. Here is an outline of the clan buildings.  I wish we would have spent more time here and a discussion of the architecture.

Here is a photo of the clan house and a close up of some of the stone cravings.  The link provides a lot of information

With Chinese New Years coming up… and the streets are being decorated.  These areas were particularly lovely

Then it was on to a Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple for the reclining Buddha… and not to be outdone off to the Buddhist Temple Wat Buppharam standing Buddha - right across the street.  Oh… and the reclining Buddha had some kickass dragons out front, my tour guide took a photo of me…. Proof of life

Reclining Buddha

Standing Buddha

Liz with Dragon

Finally we visited a Batik Factory - this was fascinating.  All done by hand - I’ve attached a couple of videos one of hand painting the design, and the other of hand coloring… and yes I did buy some fabric!

I think you can tell from all my comments… this was a good day…. However, because of the traffic… we were a hour late getting back to the boat….20 minutes past the all aboard time… last people on the boat !!!