Temple of no less than 10,000 Buddhas

North of Ipho by a 4 hour train ride is Penang.  Penang is the smallest state in Malaysia consisting of two parts, one part is in the peninsular Malaysia and the other part called Polau Penang or island of Penang.  Penang is the only predominantly Chinese state in Malaysia with the most important city being Georgetown.  Because of it's location, in the important straits of Melaka, it used to be called the Perl of the Orient because of it's port.  Now a days there is still a port that's busy but it's really known for it's beaches and good food.

This is one of the major tourist destinations in Malaysia for the colonial Georgetown which is designated as a UNESCO world heritage site and the fantastic beaches.  I really had a good time walking around the colonial Georgetown and you can tell right away why it's a world heritage site.  Georgetown consists of a lot of narrow streets that are lines with buildings that are Victorian in their design which are now being renovated because of the world heritage site designation has brought the tourists.  Because it's old the streets are narrow and it's the only place in Malaysia that I have witnessed traffic jams.
 

Renovated Town Hall

Fort Cornwallis established in the 17th century.

Chinese Temple where they are burning incense.

    
Gastronomically speaking, my trip so far has been a success and Penang was no exception. Good food at a very cheap price, you can't get much better than that.

The best part of Penang that I really liked is the visit to the Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple (The Temple of Supreme Bliss)  which literally has at least 10,000 Buddhas and is set of a large hill overlooking parts of Georgetown.   If that wasn't enough they have a 100 ft tall Bronz statue of Kaun Yin who is a Bodhisattva known for her compassion, this was gift by the King of Thailand.  Most of the statues in the temple are of the many Bodhisattvas who are people that ascended to Nirvana.  I couldn't get good pictures because Kaun Yin was closed off due to construction.

This monument combines the Buddhist traditions of Chinese (bottom), Thai (middle) and Burmese (top),

All the walls are covered by these mini statues of Buddha.

I also caught a cold in Penang so I couldn't go to the beach like I had planned but just stayed at the hotel and tried to hydrate the cold away.  I bought the ticket to Bangkok and after the train getting canceled all last week it's finally running so I will update when I get there.

Ipho but pronounced Epho

I arrived in Ipho by train on Monday, it took about 3 hours and it's north of KL.  Ipoh is in the state of Perak, it's know for its colonial era buildings and it has a big Chinese population which has played a disproportionate role in development of Malaysia.

The hotel I stayed it, called The Grand Station Hotel, is still actively used as the railway station with the upper floors converted into a budget hotel.  Locally it's called The Ta jMahal which becomes self evident if you look at the picture. To be honest the hotel isn't so grand, the rooms are OK but they don't provide internet, you can feel the springs through the bed, and there is not phone in the room.  With a nicer bed you can see the appeal of staying here when phone and internet didn't matter.  It's got a great view to sit and so I enjoyed sitting here having my morning coffee (Ipho white coffee) on the veranda.   

The second day started at 8:30am which was later than I had hoped but there was nothing I could do since they had no phone in the room thus no wake up call so I inadvertently slept in.  I had to get some laundry done, this is was the first priority since I had only one weeks worth of clothing and it had been about a week.  I couldn't use the hotel laundry service since they would could 100 ringgits which is abut 33 dollars so I did what the locals do.  You droop it off at a laundromat where they wash and dry it by the kilo so my cost was 15 ringgits.  Next cash some travelers checks;  note don't bring travelers checks as most banks have ATMS which allow you to withdraw money from your own bank account; this took a good 45 minutes.  I was hoping that I would have enough time to get to the bus station to catch the bus to a city thats 2 hours north of Ipho which was a city built by the Sultan of the region and contained royal palaces and stuff.  The idea was to spend the day there and come back by night but I didn't make it to the bus so I kind of wondered around Ipho.

OH NO Nazi's in Malaysia...No...it's a Chinese/Indian temple?  I know the swastika was an Hindu peace symbol  taken by the Nazi''s with the ends sharpened and rotated 45 degrees.

local Mosque

Across from my hotel, it's a colonial building which now houses the local court.

Old colonial era neighborhood.

Malaysia is full of old colonial era renovated buildings that are now banks or offices.

On the 3rd day in Ipho I got my laundry back and caught the bus to Cameroon Highlands.  Cameroon Highlands are 2 hours west of Ipoh and not in Perak and it's up in the mountains.  The big attraction here is the weather, which stays between 52 and 75 Fahrenheit all year round, and the great view.  So this place is in perpetual spring so crops like strawberries, cabbage, and other spring only crops grow year around and the flowers bloom all year long.  After being in 88 Fahrenheit weather with high humidity for over a week it was refreshing to have some nice cool weather.

I really should have skipped Ipho and just stayed here.  The highlands has some of the most picturesque views that I have ever seen, large mountains covered in steamy jungles with wild flowers and water falls everywhere and down in the valley there is gushing stream running through the rocks.  Deep in the jungle also grows the largest flower which I think has a diameter of 2 feet, it takes two hours of trekking through the virgin jungles to get there.  Man I should have stayed here for a couple of days.  I went with a travel company so we visited a strawberry farm, a butterfly farm, a bee farm, and a tee estate.  I hope the pictures do justice to this place.

Tee as far as the eye can see.

Tee garden.

I wish that I could show these pictures in it's original size but it makes the blog look ugly so this size will have to do.

Well I am off to Penang which is 4 hours north of Ipho so that makes me 16 hours north of Singapore and 8 hours north of KL.  Getting very close to the Thai border, now if only the flooding stops then I can take the train to Bangkok.

Next 3 days in KL

After my first 3 days in KL, I decided to stay another 3 days because of the continued flooding in Thailand and I was inflicted with the so called "Travelers Tummy" to really enjoy KL.  I think during the long plane ride I got dehydrated combined with the oppressive heat in South East Asia it took me a little while to get adjusted but know I feel great.

On day 4 in KL, I took the LRT and spent the day in and around KLCC.  KLCC is where is where the Petronas towers are located along with a shopping mall at the base of the towers, a large park outside the towers, and also convention center next door to the towers.  First off the artistically the Petronas Towers are amazing with it's Moorish Islamic influences that look like minarets  but I couldn't help get the feeling that they looked smaller than some of the skyscrapers in NYC but maybe 10 years ago (or less) they were they tallest towers in the world.

Suria KLCC is an upscale shopping complex with stores like Parda and expensive store/brands with huge posters of semi-nude models, you know... the kind of stores I never go to.  But it did have a lot of nice restaurants and I definitely went to those. Right outside Suria they had a very well maintained and large garden with lots of shaded seating area.  This is where a lot of locals will come during the weekend to shop and relax while it's always a busy tourist area.  In general, KLCC is what Malaysia wants the world to see, that it is a modern country that has a developing economy with a diverse people.

I also explored the surrounding area to KLCC which is basically the financial district with lots of other skyscrapers and they are building new ones.

Day 5 in KL was spent going to the Lake Gardens area which is what it sounds like, it's a large garden/park with a lake in it, it's essentially KL's Central Park.  Within the Lake Gardens area there is an Islamic Arts Museum and a Bird Park.  The museum was ok but I was really impressed with the Bird Park.  It's quit a large park with most of the area netted so as to allow the birds to fly freely with in the park.  They also built a stream that runs through the middle of the park to accommodate birds who's natural habitat are in streams.  In general it was the highlight of Lake Gardens for me.

Lake Gardens area

On day 6 in KL, I needed a rest from all the exploring so I spent the day in Suria KLCC and the garden area catching up on some novels.

My one regret about KL was that I didn't get to go up into the 42nd floor of the Pertronas towers.  They offer a limited number of tickets and you have to get in line and get them at 8:30am.  It wasn't a problem to get up and go to KLCC to pick them up but the wake up call for my room wasn't working so everyday it didn't go off  when I wanted it to so I didn't get up in time to get the tickets, I was really annoyed.  It's off to Ipoh which is 3 hours north of KL.