We took the train from Kuala Lumpur to the Butterworth station, then took a short bus ride to the Ferry Terminal. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes and the ocean breeze felt quite good. This took longer than just getting a Grab Car and going across the causeway, but it was more fun.
We explored George Town, ate street food, walked around on Chew Jetty, admired the street art. We visited a museum called the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, formerly owned by a wealthy Straits Chinese family. The mansion has English floor tiles, Scottish ironwork, Chinese wood carvings, and as a museum, now contains a vast collection of handmade beaded items, gold and silver jewelry etc. Malaysia has a history of interesting ethnic immigrations and assimilations driven by the economy of the area. To learn more about the Peranakan, click here.
We also visited the Penang Batik factory and store. We watched the workers making batik fabric by hand, using the original processes, and then saw finished products for sale in their store.
Down the road a mile or so is the Penang Butterfly Farm along with its public attraction called Entopia. This includes a large enclosure with butterflies flying around as well as lots of other exhibits of creeping things: lizards of various sizes, millipedes, beetles, worms, spiders, mantises, leaf cutter ants, giant ants. We showed up at 5:30 along with a busload of Ukranians, and we had to talk our way into the exhibit as the workers there didn’t want to sell us tickets even though we had arrived prior to the 5:30 pm deadline for last ticket sales. There was a great display showing actual butterflies in their various stages of life as well.
I had a chance to visit a local hospital clinic (Gleneagles) to have my throat checked. Very modern, very efficient hospital, and I met with a Nose/Throat Surgeon who did a great job in diagnosis and prescription. It appears our travel insurance will reimburse the cost, so now I am working through that paperwork…
Susie attended the local LDS congregation (Dave was sick at home that day) and stayed for their after-church pot-luck. We’ll have the chance to visit them again next Sunday before we head for Thailand.
We found a killer deal for a beach hotel on the northern coast of Penang Island so we’ll be there until we head to Thailand on Jan 29th. It still seems really strange to be out here so long. Parts of this lifestyle are hard, but the benefits outweigh the costs. We’ll write about that sometime…
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