As my first day here in Penang, I went on the Hop-On-Hop Off bus. I don't particularly like these buses, but not knowing what to do here in town, (other then read the Lonely Planet), I decided to take the bus.
I got on at the city route. The bus was fine, taking me past a large monument, and a blue mansion. Then I switched to the beach route, which basically drove past a beach, past a tropical spice park, and to a natural park (After about 45 min). Since the bus driver said the bus would stop at the park for 15 minutes, I decided to get out of the bus. I walked around for 10 minutes and got back on the bus. I am really not into natural parks,
I got back on the bus, which drove past the same beach and beach hotels, and got back on the city route. After about 15 minutes-I got on off at a stop that looked interesting, called Kek Lok Si, one of the largest Buddhist temples in Malaysia. I walked around the grounds, which we're beautiful. And looked at each of the statues, many ordained with what looks like swastikas (far east symbols that demonstrate purity and auspiciousness-the Nazi version has a slant).
After about an hour walking around the grounds, I got back on the bus, and went back to the bus stop I got off yesterday. I went to the Asia Camera museum.
When I walked into the museum, above a camera store, I learned the admission price was about $5.00, which seemed expensive for a small museum. The guy at the door explained that it was expensive to maintain a private collection of cameras, darkroom equipment, and photographs, particularly when all of this was becoming more and more rare in a day of digital cameras.
His sales pitch worked, and I paid the $5.00 (actually about 20 rl-which is roughly the same). I went into the museum, and he guided me through the different cameras, what the definition of 35 mm means, and how photographs we're made in a dark room, It was actually pretty interesting. I could tell that I was probably the only person in the museum all day-his radio was turned to songs like Footloose, and other soft rock favorites s he guided me through the small three-room museum.
I went back to the hostel and took a nap. Then I went out to eat and take a walk. I ate a large bowl of soup with spicy sauce from a vendor with fish balls, tofu, and seaweed. It was expensive but filling ($2.00- a lot by Malaysian standards). I ordered hot sauce. The guy who sold it was impressed I could eat the spicy sauce.
I walked further along. I found more markets, bars and stores I didn't see yesterday. I walked back to the hostel at about 11:00 pm.
