16th January
Moving hostels today. This one is OK but the room is a little small & dark & I'm on a trip tomorrow so wanted to be closer to the meeting point for that.
I chatted to a lady in my room yesterday who said she went up Penang Hill and the views were great & the walk was nice, although very steep, so once again I found myself climbing a lot of steps!!
I had eaten breakfast then checked out (leaving my backpack at the old hostel) and caught a Grab to the base, or what they call the Penang Hill Heritage trail which has been walked since 1890 and is now part of a UNESCO recognised area for environmental protection.
The top of Penang Hill is 833m above sea level and thete is a Funicular that runs to the top, but of course its 'under maintenance ' at the moment so not running. The only way up was to walk!
The only trouble is it was so hot by the time I started walking at a quarter to 10, and I was struggling & sweating buckets!!
On making it to the middle station, or halfway point, I decided to call it a day on that particular challenge. I was feeling too hot & dizzy, soaked through, and the view was pretty good from there
Plus it was a bit hazy so I cut my losses.
I got chatting to a Dutch lady with her two daughters. She had also decided not to go any further but they were keen to go on so I stayed & chatted to her for a while. They had agreed that we probably should have started the walk earlier.
She had heard that the Funicular was going to be up & running again on Monday.....but I'm not sure which Monday because, judging from the look of the carriage, it didn't look like it had run in years......
The cat had the right idea!
I made my way down and decided to visit the temple you can see from the hillside
The taxi driver had pointed it out in the way
Kek Lok Si Temple - A large buddist temple, the Pagoda of which has a huge statue of Kuan Yin (Guanyin), the Goddess of Mercy:
A towering 30.2-meter (99 ft) bronze figure completed in 2002, standing on the hillside and overlooking the complex, representing compassion and a significant pilgrimage landmark in Penang, Malaysia.
https://kekloksitemple.com/?page_id=5
It was free to enter and was pretty to look around. There seemed to be several 'souvenir shops ' within the temple grounds.
There were also this pool of turtles. They were so cute & so many!!
Some of them looked like they were just watching you with their heads above the water.....I did feel a little bit sorry for them, beautiful though they were.
The temple was highly decorative & colourful
The sign in the toilet made me chuckle
....although it doesn't apply to my shoes!
I found the lift which can take you up to the Pagoda & big bronze statue. It was 6 ringgit and as I was looking at the sign the guy said,
"You wan go up?"
Yes I said, but he pointed to another sign and said,
"You can walk if want! up road"
....it seemed I was fated to exercise as I couldn't resist the free option.
I was glad though because if I'd used the lift I would have missed seeing these beautiful delicately coloured birds flitting about
They looked like they were part of the decoration.
I took some video on the way down but they are hard to spot
The staute was impressive close up and the view was nice too. People were lighting joysticks and hanging 'wish' ribbons.
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