Fruit trees, temples, and snakes falling from trees

We spent two nights and three days on the Malaysian island of Penang. Penang or Pinang means betel nut. A short 1-hour flight from Singapore, Penang is on the northwest coast of Malyasia, not too far from Phuket, Thailand. Georgetown is the main city on the island. It has a colonial history, with the presence of the English still evident in small ways.

One can imagine that Penang today is much like Singapore was 40 or 50 years ago. Georgetown has small narrow streets with makeshift food stalls, shophouses in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, and a strong Chinese influence. The wonderful thing about Penang, like Singapore, is that each street holds historical treasures such as the Clan Houses of the generations of Chinese families. Clan houses were familial places of worship - where the deceased were honored and sacrifices made to appease their spirits.

There are also many temples - Chinese, Thai, Burmese, etc... they were extremely colorful and reminded me of a theme park, with colorfully painted and playful looking buddhas.

In the Burmese temple, representations of buddha from around the world were on display. The one from Pakistan definitely looked the most masculine!

One of the most interesting sites was a small community called Chew Jetty. Chew Jetty is a fishing village right in the city where, since the mid-nineteenth century, fisherman and their families live in wooden houses on stilts in the water. It seemed like a way of life that has disappeared from most urban areas. Houses were built on stilts that rested upon cement-filled paint cans. Amazing.

To our surprise, Penang was much hotter than Singapore - it was about 95 - 100 degrees each day. I never thought SIngapore would feel cool! We were in need of some cooler air and headed for an afternoon to a resort beach club. The water (which is part of the Straits and Indian Ocean) was beautiful to look at, but unfortunatly too warm to be refreshing. So we took to the pool. We had a nice lunch outside (in the shade).

This is Peter writing now: Lunch was in a beautiful setting under coconut palms. As we were enjoying our lunch, we heard a thus and saw Lauren propel herself onto her chair to avoid a snake that had fallen out of the tree onto the floor next to her. It was the quickest I've seen a person move! Next all the waiters were chasing the snake around the restaurant and at the same time they were afraid of it - they treated it as if it was a cobra but it was just a harmless garden snake. Lauren then proceeded to devour her lunch. Always a Herko!

Lauren back now: It was quite funny - and I freaked out more than mom did. Now I never want to sit under trees when eating! Who knew a snake could be clumsy enough to FALL out of a tree!

Because of dad's obsession with all things fruit - especially pointing out every fruit tree whether you are in New York, California, Mexico, Dubai, or Singapore - we took a morning trip across the island to a tropical fruit farm. Because the farm was up in the hills it was a cool way to spend the morning, and it actually was very interesting. We saw dragon fruit, mangosteen, figs, bananas, guava, pineapple, milk apples, jack fruit, rose apples, papaya, mango, among others. And then we got to taste all of the ones that were in season. Dad was like a kid in the candy store (although I think I ate more than he did)! The good pix are on his camera (my battery died) so you will have to wait to see those.

We also had a superb dinner at a fancy restaurant called 32 The Mansion. Excellent food and ambience - we almost forgot we were in Penang!

Biggest disappointment - Fort Cornwallis. Can't imagine this fort protected anyone from anything! Skip it if you ever find yourself in Penang. Maybe that's why the Brits named it after the guy who lost the American revolution.

All in all a good trip. Not sure I would recommend it when there are so many other places to go, but we had a great time nonetheless.

Now...on to Cambodia! (See next blog)

Love,

L, M, M, and P