Penang, Malaysia - April 15

We are once again smacked in the face by the heat and humidity as we step foot off of the ship in Penang, Malaysia. I really cannot believe I think I may actually be getting used to the heat – this is one thing I would never have predicted, but it may be true.


Today’s tour was a definite highlight for me. There wasn’t all that much to it really, but what we saw and learned about was fascinating. We visited a batik making workshop. We learned how it is made, watched a few of the artists at work and made a purchase.


batik demo



We also visited a fruit stall on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere – this was more of a demo stop. We saw a rubber tree being tapped. This was very interesting…basically the tree is cut and white liquid drips out. In order to get rubber from this liquid the liquid part needs to evaporate or be rubbed away. If you put a bit of the liquid on your palm and rub your hands together what after a few seconds is left is what looks like white eraser shavings. These can be rolled together to form a ball that actually bounces! We also sampled a bunch of local spices – clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper corns, betel nut and mace. The interesting part was seeing them in their fruit state. Our guide would show one of the fruits and then slice it open to reveal the spice. All of these growing at the road side along with cocoa beans.

cocoa bean

Our last stop was the Snake Temple. Yes, there are real, live snakes here – pit vipers to be exact. These snakes are believed to be the disciples of the deity, Chor Soo Kong. There is apparently incense burned in the temple (although I didn’t smell any at all) that keeps them sedate, and most of them have had their fangs extracted. This place was wild to visit – can’t say that I’ve ever visited anyplace at all like this (I seem to be saying that A LOT this trip.) There just seemed to be snakes hanging out here there and everywhere – not that there were a lot of them. There were a few on the alter of the temple that were obvious to see, but we actually had to look for the others in the trees etc – at one point we spotted 12 in a group of trees. Of course there were the HUGE ones there for the photo op for a fee.

pit viper

The island of Penang has the most beautiful landscape I’ve seen since I’ve been in Asia. There are hills with lush, lush jungle. The road we that took us all the way around the island was mostly cut into the jungle with lushness everywhere you looked. The shadiness coupled with the lushness was breathtaking – not to mention the spider monkeys and macaques that although rare were spotted occasionally.