Christmas in Penang, Malaysia is a bit non-traditional. First of all the weather in Georgetown is about 85 degrees and humid. The majority of the people are Chinese with their Tao/Confucius style of Buddhism. The rest of the people are either Hindu Indians or Muslim Malays. “Jingle Bells” mingles with the muezzin’s call to prayer. We wonder if they even know what a one-horse sleigh is.
We didn't have a tree to take down or presents to store away on Boxing Dayspent so we had time to explore the city. We splurged for lunch at the famous Eastern and Orient Hotel and visited the museum, about the only thing open, to learn a little about the history of Penang. It was colonized by the British in the 18th century as a trading center. Georgetown was declared an open city during World War II and the Japanese took over without firing a shot. As a result much of the colonial architecture remains. It is a bit run down since the British departed but you can imagine the splendor when rickshaws carried pith-helmeted officials and their ladies to the cricket matches.
Penang was one of my R&R (rest and relaxation) options when I was stationed in Vietnam in 1969. I seriously considered it but finally settled on Sydney, a much better decision. R&R was also called I&I (intercourse and intoxication) and a Muslim country probably wouldn't have been the best choice. Even today beer that cost 80 cents in Thailand is more than $3 here.
Today we moved farther afield and went to Penang National Park. The park sits along the coast and we hoped to hike around looking for birds. We found a few new ones and saw several monkeys but it was otherwise a quiet, sweaty day. We cheated death once more on our rented motorbike. City driving is much different than what we were used to in Uganda and riding two on a bike is much harder.
