Penang Hill and on to Melaka

March 16 2017

After breakfast when it was pouring tropical rain we took a taxi to Penang Hill, 821 meters above George Town. The clouds were heavy but we still were able to get some good views of George Town and the mainland. It is 5 degrees cooler up there due to the attitude. 

It wasn’t hot since we had a cloud cover. We took a funicular up the hill and it was the steepest one I had ever ridden on. I enjoyed seeing some of the infrastructure on the way up that helps to carry water down the hill during a rain storm helping to prevent erosion or worse landslides due to the steep terrain. There were various activities available up top but nothing that interested us. We enjoyed just walking around, looking at the beautiful plant life and watching some dusky leaf monkeys (spectacular langur) making flying leaps around in the trees. The plantings were quite beautiful and Ron took lots of photos. After an hour we came back down to town.

Our friends became native

Bill stayed at the hotel as he likes to skip lunch and the rest of us headed to a restaurant that is popular with locals. It was crowded. They had tablecloths and plastic stools. They changed the tablecloths after each group finished…we were always amazed when we lived in Sri Lanka how many places washed the tablecloths infrequently making dining rather unpleasant. This place is laughing all the way to the bank. It is large and was packed. We ordered twice baked pork and an asparagus dish with shrimp and chilies. Rice is a standard part of a meal in this part of the world. The pork reminded us of PokPok in Portland that has the best chicken wings you have EVER eaten. Ron headed back to the hotel and Kay and I headed to old town for shopping. All I found of interest were some arty greeting cards and a tee shirt. I did see a gorgeous piece of silk but could not imagine what I would do with four meters so passed. One shop had some of Barefoot’s products and it made me happy to see them this far away from Sri Lanka. It is my favorite store with lots of colorful textiles.

Back to the hotel and Ron and I left for a foot massage. It was a treat after being on concrete all day. We met Kay and Bill for happy hour before heading out to dinner OMG what a meal. We returned to China House and tried another recommended restaurant there. Ron and I had the sea bass and it was out of this world. I also had a salad of green mangoes, tomatoes, candied cashews, slivers of ginger blossom, and cukes. The meal also included a spicy lemony roasted cauliflower. We ordered two fine desserts to finish the meal: tiramisu and pavola. It was a wonderful way to end our time in George Town.

March 17

We had a 90 minute flight to Melaka which is south of Kuala Lumpur. From the airport we took a taxi to or hotel. Although our accommodations were fine none of us liked our hotel. It caters to large tour groups. There were numerous tour buses parked out front. The hallways were frequently noisy with people visiting or standing outside some one’s room and talking loudly to the person in the room.

We ate a quick unremarkable lunch and planned the afternoon. We took a cab to the World Heritage site and we were really disappointed at some of the sights like an old church that was plain and rather ugly. We walked up a hill and viewed the ruins of St Paul’s church from the 1600’s which was my favorite. There were huge stone grave markers with quaint language like ‘she fell asleep to the Lord on May 2 1678.

The town square was a zoo with tourists and touts. There are many bicycle rickshaws here and they are phenomenally tacky with stuffed toys attached. They play loud electronic music and at night they have garnish lights to add to their inherent ugliness. We actually rode on one at night because we couldn’t find a cab home. Ron said he felt like he was in Seaside, Oregon, a tacky beach town. I agreed, it did feel like a beach town.

We felt fried from the heat so went back to the hotel cool off and rest.  We are 2 degrees north of the equator here so the heat and humidity are brutal, taking their toll on us. We went to a fish restaurant for dinner and it was good. We then took a cab to old town and went on a 45 minute river cruise which was lovely because we got to see so much of the town: quaint homes, shops and what looked like fine restaurants. It reminded me of San Antonio Texas. By taking the rickshaw home we discovered we were quite close to old town.