Penang Day 2

Breakfast this morning was a doughnut and banana, steamed inside a banana leaf.

After breakfast we were taken on a tour in the RECSAM bus to see where our schools are. We simply drove past them, so no photographs yet. The school that Erin and I will be teaching in is the furthest away from the complex, possibly about ½ hour drive.

When we returned, we caught a local bus, and headed off to visit the Kek Lok Si Temple. The buses in Malaysia are quite easy to catch, however you must have the correct money – no change given! The temple was amazing. I will let the pictures do the talking, although my photograph can’t capture the sheer immensity of the statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy – it is 36.5 metres tall. Apparently it used to stand on the hillside on its own; they are constructing a pagoda for it now (“in the future 16 ornately decorated bronze columns supporting a roof over the statue, as well 1000 two-metre high statues of the goddess are planned to be built.”)

Bottom of the Kek Lok Si Temple

Dragons!

The enormous, splendiferous, statue of Kuan Yin

On the way up, we stopped at the turtle pond, and fed the turtles some sort of green vegetable that was for sale for that purpose. Much like feeding the kangaroos and emus at Featherdale! Although the day wasn’t necessarily hot, ascending the mountain in the humidity was very draining; literally in the case of the amount of water I was losing in sweat! Luckily it was decided that we wouldn’t walk up the hill – we caught an incline lift.

Incline Lift - no walking, phew!

We had lunch down in the town at the foot of the Temple, and as it turns out, the timing was fantastic. We made it just before the skies opened and the rain absolutely pounded down. I will try to get a photographs of the drains surrounding the roads here. They are all at least a foot deep, if not deeper. This is to be able to cope with the sheer volume of water that is dumped when they skies open. We caught a taxi back to RECSAM. On the way we drove past an accident. We saw 4 motorbikes and a car pulled over. There was a man in a blue suit (policeman?) waving people past. There was also a man laying on the road, covered in blood. I don’t think it was good news, because no-one was down tending to him. Apparently this is not an unusual occurrence, and it is easy to see why. Although they aren’t as crazy drivers like other countries I’ve heard about (a friend took a video of a Vietnam intersection – insane!), the road rules seem to be pretty loose, and all bikes, cars and buses change lanes at the last moment, seeming without regard for other vehicles around them.

The thunderstorm at lunch. I had some of those hanging chickens and pork, with rice.

When then returned in order to attend a formal afternoon tea, where we would be meeting our teachers. Some members of the State Education Department also attended. Unfortunately my teachers couldn’t be present, however I spent the time talking with teachers from the other schools. It was very interesting to be talking about the similarities and differences of the education systems, although I must say that there seem to be more similarities than differences at this point. I am really looking forward to attending my school on Monday.

Finally, we caught another bus to Sungai Dua for dinner. Sungai Dua is about 2 suburbs away from RECSAM, and I’m pleased to report that three of us went for a little exploration on our own after dinner, and managed to make it back home! Apparently the idea is that our lecturers spend the first couple of days showing us how things work in Penang, so that we can become confident enough to be independent, and get around the island on our own. Baby steps, but we are getting there.

Time for bed – even though I am sleeping like a log, we are fitting so much into each day that I am really tired.