Second Day in Penang: Kek Lok Si Temple

11Sep
by Bounding Over Our Steps
Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang, Malaysia
We began the day by sleeping in, followed by our daily breakfast of masala dosa. We then ventured off to explore the Kek Lok Si Temple, purportedly the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. We began by learning about the bus system, which is a pay-per-kilometer fare versus the flat-rate fare of some systems. We were told to take the 201, 202 or 203 and get off at Air Itam. After about 30 minutes of waiting a 203 came by and we gladly hopped on to get out of the hot sun. Thirty minutes later we found ourselves walking through streets lined with food stalls as we searched for the steps up to the temple. Mindy started counting the steps and got to 250 steps by the time we reached the top. These steps separated vendors on either side, selling clothing, plastic Air Asia model planes, all kinds of nicknacks and there was even one section where you could buy leafy greens to feed the turtles kept in a small pond with a gazebo in the middle. Indeed, this temple was huge with seven tiers. Here are some of the shots we got of it:

We came upon a wishing tree where you could pay 1RM to make a wish. You could chose among several colors with various things to wish for, both in Chinese and English. Wishes included “successful career”, “continuous happiness” and “an auspicious year”. Being so close to our 6th wedding anniversary, here is what Mindy chose for us:

On the back of the ribbon, we wrote our wedding date and here is Mindy placing our wish on the tree:

To reach the top tier where the Kuan Yin Statue stands, made of bronze, we took this Incline Lift that looks like it was from the 70’s with it’s mustard yellow color. Two RM each and 3 minutes later we were at the top:

Once up top we were able to finally see the statue up close that had seemed so far away from the bus stop below:

We also found statues of our respective Chinese animals representing the year we were born. Ligeia’s is a water buffalo or ox:

And Mindy was born in the year of the monkey. It is currently the year of the dragon.

We decided to walk back down and along the way we found a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. We scanned the menu and Mindy spotted Rojak, a dish commonly known in Penang, that we had been meaning to try. Rojak is a fruit and vegetable salad tossed in a sweet tamarind and palm sugar sauce and garnished with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds and chillies. We both agreed that it is absolutely delicious!

We waited for the 204 bus for about 30 minutes to take us to the entrance to Penang Hill. Once on the bus, it started pouring…and I mean POURing rain so by the time we got there and saw the 17 RM fare one way on the train up the hill, we easily decided to get back on the bus and head back to the hotel.

But not before doing some much needed errands like picking up our passports with our new Thai visas in them, taking out money, buying dinner and ferry tickets for tomorrow to the island of Langkawi.

More on Langkawi tomorrow. We hope everyone is well and thanks so much for following our adventure on the blog. Feel free to leave a comment as we love to read them.

Love,
Mindy and Ligeia :):)

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