George Town, Penang, Malaysia Mar 20th

We arrived at George Town, or Penang Island Malaysia early in the morning to dock at the port. The island has a lot of British and Chinese influence from over time. Our guide said that 45% of the population is Chinese. Due to being another trading port in this part of the world, there is a lot of history in the spice trading, and exports from the island
We took a tour around parts of the island to see the botanical gardens, turtles and monkeys. We walked through the streets to see the vendors and 2 person rickshaw that they call a trishaw. We did not ride in one but others from our ship did experience the pedal powered ride. We were able to see the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, Kek Lok Si from the outside. There were many turtles and a waterfall outside. The Chinese believe that the turtle symbolizes longevity in life since they live so long. We visited the Botanical Gardens where there were some wild monkeys. These were not the type that steal things from the tourists.
In the afternoon we took about a 20 minute walk from the port to a UNESCO historic site that was once a huge palatial home for an extremely wealthy Chinese business man and is now a hotel. It is the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, or Blue Mansion. It was constructed before the end of the 19th century. The inside is all feng shui. The Chinese believe that the number 8 is lucky, so there are 28 steps, 8 wrought iron columns 48 stained glass windows 38 rooms and the owner had 8 wives. It was almost demolished for high rise apartments to be built, but was saved by an investor who had it declared a historic site and restored the entire building.Read more