Malaysia: Georgetown's Kek Lok Si Temple & Penang Street Art

On day 3 of the cruise, we ported in Penang Malaysia, and stole an opportunity to enjoy a moment with just the adults. As any parent can attest, a moment where you can steal away without crying, mandatory requests every hour for snacks, sudden bathroom emergencies and meltdowns, is worth it's weight in gold, and this experience was just that. We teamed our small day trip here with Mica Foster, who just retired from the Navy, the Rusts, and the Schwartz's.

We started our day by securing our driver, and started our day first at the Kek Lok Si Temple in Air Itam, Penang. This is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.

As we arrived I didn't fully appreciate before the 7 story Pagoda of Rama VI (which is translated at the Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas). Now to be honest, we didn't see 10,000 Buddhas, but we did see the most breath taking grounds of beautiful flowers, accenting colors, and deep red lantern lined walk ways. The walls were carefully carved with Buddhist writings, which I don't know what they mean, but it seemed to me to simply be a carving machine stuck on repeat.

Now of note, you see also in Asia that there is always as blend of cultures, since most of these countries undergo transitions of rule from a certain flavor of one ruling body to another. The large seven story pagoda of Ban Po Thar (the really large edifice in the back) is actually a combination of both a octagonal base with Chinese influence, with a middle tier of Thai influenced design, and then a Burmese crown on the top (the spiral dome). It's supposed to be a representation of the blend of both Mahayana and Theraveda Buddhism.

As you tour Asia it's easy to see that most of the religious edifices are found are usually on mountain tops, which in Christianity is common as well in scripture. As we left the grounds and pagoda we went up the small mountain on a tram (thankful for that) and then went to what I completely missed in our planning, the 120 foot tall Bronze statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, surrounded by a 200 foot tall pavilion.

The literal translation of Kek Lok Is is the "Heavenly Temple" or the "Pure Land Temple" or the "Temple of Supreme Bliss." I translate it simply as the Temple of Heather. This temple has been around since 1905, the location was originally chosen because it faced the sea, and is built on what was called them the "crane mountain." The area was beautiful, and helped up appreciate that no matter where we go mankind tries to reach to their maker for connection. Glad to know how easy that process can be through prayer and modern revelation.

At this point we needed to get back to grab the kids, so the the guys in the group went back to retrieve the young ones while Heather and the girls did one last stop, the Penang Street Art!

PENANG STREET ART

In 2012 Penang's municipal council hired London-trained Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic to breath new life into the Chinese shop-houses around the inner city of Penang. He took on the task, focusing primarily on the 4 most popular streets of Jalan Penang, Muntri Street, Weld Quay, and Lebuh Leith streets.

The city art was incredible, highlighting beautiful little shops, lined by unique art of real motorcycles and bikes that are attached to the walls lined by paintings.

Heather, Holly and Corianne loved finding the art around the streets.  Some of their favorites were the kids on the bike, where Heather got swept away.  They also loved the motorcycle.  It was so neat, because the motorcycle was in the wall.

Heather was able to have lunch with the local wall art children and all the girls enjoyed playing on a swings with kids. The art was beautiful and very realistic.

After a afternoon of fun, all the ladies felt extremely guilty that they had left their husbands to take care of the kids (right...) and then came back to the ship to enjoy the rest of the afternoon in the pool and hot tub with the families.

We then ended the night by getting together for a late dinner with our peeps on the cruise, the Rusts, Jones, Schwartz, Strommer, and Mica, another stolen moment without kids. It was an amazing day!

-Kevin