I went up to Penang Hill today aboard what must truly be the world's slowest Swiss-build funicular. It took 30 minutes, interrupted by a change of trains halfway up. But the view was worth it. It is hard to see the detail when the picture is this small, but that is Georgetown to the left.
The other major attraction I saw today was the Kek Lok Si temple (translates to Temple of Supreme Bliss). It is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. I took a view from the hill to show the size of the overall complex. There is also a smaller portion further up the hill, which is still under construction.
Here is one of the lower courtyards...
the main prayer hall...
lanterns with cards bearing names of people being prayed for...
and a cute little pagoda at the top of the hill. Up here, there were also taking donations of RM30 (less than $10) for the temple. In exchange, they will put your name on a tile that will be part of the roof over their giant Buddha statue. I noticed that in the lower halls, the signs written in Chinese and Malay only asked for RM20.
And a special picture for my Mom: This is one of the cats that was sleeping on the cool floor of the temple prayer hall.
In the small world department, I was eating at a stall outside of my guesthouse when I felt a tap on the back. It was one of the backpackers, Scott, that had stayed in the same hostel as me in the highlands, so we had dinner together and chatted about what to see/miss in other countries.
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