This morning we started with a breakfast in the lobby restaurant, and they left at 9:30 for our tour of the city. We first went to the waterfront and walked along the water, passing the Penang War Memorial while James explained the history and culture of Penang to us. One thing I found interesting is that Penang has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I can totally see why. You can see that Penang cares about their older buildings and monuments, taking care to implement them into the rest of the city. It's a perfect mix of older culture with the newer advanced culture of the city. We passed by the supreme court with its pristine white walls, then continued on to the Parish of St. George, the first Anglican church in Southeast Asia. Although it was built back in 1816, it still looks amazing, another example of the city taking care of the older ruins. It was interesting learning about the structure of the church and the different materials used in the walls and pillars. They explained that the specific materials were the reason that the church had lasted for so long and still looked nice.
After the church, we walked over to Harmony Street, which is a street in which there is the Anglican church, a Muslim Mosque, Hindu Temple, and Buddhist Temple all on the same street living in harmony, just another reason to love Penang. I wish the US could take notes from this harmony street, it would be amazing to see all religions being able to live among each other rather than having harsh segregation and irrational hatred towards each other. Harmony street is very inspirational and is setting an example for the world to see.
After Harmony street we were given some time to walk around and look at the various pieces of street art. This was definitely my favorite part of the day, because I love modern street art. Although I'm not an artist myself, I love looking at art and appreciating the talent and time it required to make a certain piece. It was awesome walking down the streets and seeing large murals painted on a wall, or half of a bicycle coming out of a wall. I love that rather than punishing street artists like the US does, Malaysia embraces street artists and gives them a place to practice their skill and display their best work. Once again another thing our country could take notes on.
If the street art walk was my favorite part of the day, then the next thing was my least favorite. We went over to the Chew Jetty and walked around, but the smell was so strong that I thought I was going to vomit the whole time we were there. I felt like I couldn't appreciate the place for what it was because of the horrible stench.
After having lunch at the mall, we went to a bazaar market. Unfortunately I was not able to see the bazaar at all because a few of us guys spent the whole time looking for batik shirts to wear for church tomorrow. Once we finally got out batik shirts, the time was all up for looking around.
From there we went to a Buddhist temple in which the 4th largest reclining Buddha is. I've seen the 2nd largest one in Bangkok, and this one looked very similar to that one, so it wasn't too interesting for me..
The plans for dinner were to supposedly eat at the SDA hospital's cafeteria, which nobody was looking forward to, but thanks be to God the cafeteria was closed so we ate at a local Thai restaurant. I had Pad See Ew with chicken, and I loved it.
After dinner we were pretty tired from walking and sweating all day, so we just showered and now Daniel and I are going to bed.
Looking back at today, I'm really glad we came to Penang. It is a beautiful city and I love all the historical sites that it has.
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