Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
And it seems another must do for CNY in Penang is to ascend Penang Hill to almost 800 meters above George Town. One can ride the funicular or walk up. Guess which one we did? ;-)
So we hopped on a Rapid Penang bus on the 3rd day of the New Year.
And started up the trail with the locals and tourists; singles, couples, and groups. Along the way there are "rest stops' outfitted with running water, toilets, cooking facilities and fitness equipment.
The trail is in pretty good shape.
Halfway up, the trail runs into a road which even steeper.
Lots of folks at the top. Most took the funicular as road access for vehicles is restricted.
The view back to George Town was hazy but decent.
After a swift decent (750 meters lost in 4.5 kilometers) completely on the road, we walked by the Penang Masonic Temple.
A "must do" in Penang over Chinese New Year is seeing the lights at Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple. So on the 2nd day of the New Year, we took a bus out to Kek Lok Si.
The temple is spread over the side of a hill and features a pagoda with 192 steps, and a statue of Kuan Yin reached by mini-funicular.
Unfortunately, on-foot arrivals get to walk up to the base of the temple through a noisy, smokey, tacky souvenir gauntlet. Luckily we spotted a shortcut on the way up; then avoided it all together on the way down.
The guide books call the lights "fairy tale" but "kitsch" was the first word out of Sun-Ling's mouth. ;-)
Well the wait was worth it. The lights came on about 7:15 pm and we enjoyed them from on top of the pagoda. Not only were the lights pretty cool, but the view back to George Town was pretty good as well. I'll agree the the Kek Lok Si lights are a "must see" for CNY in Penang.
But before we head out to the temple, some veggie eats at Lily's Vegetarian Restoran.
The temple seems a work in progress; ever expanding.
Souvenir gauntlet.
A view back to George Town.
Pagoda.
Having some fun at the top of the pagoda while waiting for the lights to come on.
Traveling during Chinese New Year in Asia is always problematic. A lot of people from China travel abroad as the national holiday period is six to seven days long. Not to mention here in Malaysia it is a two-day national holiday making it a four-day weekend. I was paralyzed by the prospects. At John's prompting, we had to make some commitments, back in KL. We decided to skip beaches in the south of Thailand and train directly to Bangkok. The earliest train we could get was Tuesday 2/24. That put us in Penang for CNY, not the best place, but not bad. Since all hotels raise rates, and some double, we prepaid for four nights of hotel sight unseen. Thank goodness of online ratings. I find them particularly helpful. We have pretty much ditched guidebooks when it comes to hotel recommendations.
Hotels are tight in Penang over CNY, just because of people have off from work, not because it is a particularly good time to visit. 90% of businesses are closed for an indeterminate number of days, though eating has not been a problem for us. In fact, if they were all open, there are so many vegetarian places, we wouldn't know where or what to eat. Almost all the celebration takes place privately. There are public celebrations in the streets scheduled for next weekend, which would be a better time to visit. The same is true for Singapore. I had puzzled over their calendar when we were there. Now it finally made sense.
While there were the familiar sights of families gathered for New Year's Eve dinner, fireworks and firecrackers, incense burning at temples, I saw CNY lion dancing for the first time. Since it is not a tradition in Shanghai, I had only heard about it. The idea is for teams to go around to businesses to perform and well-wish and get red packets ????? in return. We saw the lions spitting out oranges for the audience instead.
On the other hand, we were very disturbed by a scene that we witnessed at the Kuan Yin temple, the oldest and most popular temple in town. As we approached the temple, I was immediately puzzled by the number of Indians (non-Chinese) people in the courtyard. Before I could think, a scene broke out. A man was handing out a dozen red packets. People started to swarm around him. An Indian man began shouting "Paidui" (means queue-up in Chinese). Not to mention organizational reps from various charities were also standing around for alms. There were so many issues distilled in that one tableau. I couldn't take it and walked away quickly.
What a mixed bag of a CNY!
Let's go right to the Lion Dancing video (about 45 seconds long).
And the link to the video is here if the embedded does not display or play.
A benefit of being in Asia for CNY, one can watch the New Year's Eve fireworks while lying in bed; just remember to keep the window curtain open.
Chinese temples were busy on CNY day with literally tons of incense and candles burned. There were also AM church services at one Chinese Methodist church near our hotel.
The beggar's camp at the Kuan Yin Temple.
The beggar's queue...Note the guy at left standing behind a stack of bird cages. One can pay to "set free" a pair of birds which is both and act of kindness and a way to gain merit.
Many Asians follow the tradition to eat vegetarian on Chinese New Year, thus the vegetarian restaurants were busy to over flowing like this self-service place near our hotel where we ate in peace and quiet the night before.
While in Taiping we made a day trip to nearby (about 35 kms) Kuala Kangsar, the so-called Royal Town of Perak; the Sultan of Perak still has his residence there. Kuala Kangsar was the actual Royal and Colonial Capital of Perak until the British moved the capital to Ipoh in 1876.
The 9 AM local bus from Ipoh to KK rumbled southeast along the old road North-South road picking up and dropping off ladies returning from market, the odd school boy or girl with parent, older folks with small bags (visiting friends?), and young men with backpacks who leap on on off the bus with ease.
The ticket taker was a genial, spry, efficient Muslim lady.
View from our seats during the 1-hour trip.
Kuala Kangsar's iconic clock tower is near the river confluence. Note that kuala means "river confluence".
We walked along the Perak River for a couple of kms towards the Sultan's Mosque and Sultan's Palace.
The Sultan's Mosque is a beautiful building inside and out. Our guide books said there was no visiting by non-Muslims but the rules must have changed as we were welcomed by a female greeter, signed the visitor's book and roamed around. Notable inside the mosque is the custom floor carpet which matches the roof, chandelier, and dome.
The Sultan of Perak lives in his palace so it is closed to visitors and hardly visible from the road. But here's a glimpse of the Indo Art Deco stylings.
One of the former royal palaces is now a museum housing artifacts and memorabilia from the previous sultan who died in 2014. We spent about an hour checking out his stuff - no photos allowed inside.
There are several British schools in KK. Most prestigious is Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK). More on it here.
