Bites Tale : I feel like this blog is becoming a travel blog rather than a food blog... time to do some cooking / baking....
Wat Chayamankalaram is the 1st place we visited in Penang. It is a Thai Buddhist Temple. I’ve been to this place with my family in year 1994 and now i revisited it again. But i was really young to appreciate what is in the temple then.
Pic : The gate of the temple
It is famous for its world’s 3rd largest reclining Buddha which is 33 metres in length. What the tourists normally do is to take pictures with this Buddha... at least, that’s what i thought.
Pic : The famous reclining Buddha
Until, i saw what is written on the walls of the “bed” where the statue of the Buddha is lying on. I can’t remember seeing them... i was only thinking of “oh, this is the place where the big Buddha is...” when i came down from the van. Each wall was written the story of Buddha, of course, with pictures... crafted on each wall.
I was enjoying reading it that i didn’t realised it was taking me too long to finish... my mum has to chase me out of the temple so that we could get on our journey.
So, to whoever who is going to visit this temple in the future... instead of taking pictures with the reclining Buddha, don’t forget to appreciate the other things in the temple! Oh ya! remember to take of your shoes and your hat/cap before entering to any temple.
Bites Tale : I have altogether 3 trips to write - The December trip, Star Cruise Trip and of course, the Bali Trip. I should have continue writing about the December trip as i started the 1st stop at the Bee Farm, but i can't do it now as the photos are not with me. So, i'll skip to Star Cruise Trip.
Penang was the 1st destination of the cruise we board on 25 Feb 2008 evening, we arrived Penang at 9am the next morning as schedule.
Pic : This is around 8.30am in the morning, we could see Penang from our room window.
Mum was really excited to be in Penang as she enjoyed it very much when she visited Penang in 1994 so she couldn't wait any longer to step on Penang ground. As the jetty was too small for the cruise to dock, we were transferred to the jetty by a small ferry.
Pic : Top deck of the ferry
There were 2 decks in the ferry but we were asked to sit on the top deck, so that we could enjoy the scenery.
Pic : Penang Bridge view
We arrived the jetty approximately 10 mins time, the crew will show us where to exit and for those who did not joined the tours arranged by Star Cruise, be prepare to be surrounded by taxi drivers or self driving guides.
Pic : The distance between the jetty and the cruise.
Pic : Saw the white booth? That's where we should wait for the ferry to transfer us back to the cruise.
We got ourselves (9 persons) a self-driving guide for RM150 to drive us around Penang. He is a very experience licensed driver and he even suggested that we should use Air Asia to go to Penang and he will drive us to Hatyai, Thailand with a reasonable price... that's what i called a businessman...hahahaha.
A little info about Penang, it is the 2nd smallest state in Malaysia after Perlis and it is famous for its mixed heritage and the food. Penang is a paradise for food lover and you can find almost anything here from Chinese, Nyonya, Malay, Indian and even Thai cuisine. And the best, it's Penang very own Hawker food i.e. prawn mee, hokkien mee etc.
We managed to visit a few temples and do some shopping. But i didn't get to enjoy hawker food as mum was worried that we couldn't get back to the cruise on time and that i would have diarrhea.
Will blog about places we visited such as Wat Chayamankalaram (Thai Buddhist Temple where the World's 3rd largest reclining Buddha is), Burmese Buddhist Temple, Snake Temple and etc soon. My friend is coming to pick me up soon, have not been meeting my friends since i came back from holiday.
