This morning we started with breakfast, followed by hopping on the bus and driving to the floating mosque. Despite its name, the mosque is not actually floating, but rather just standing right over the water. As we got off the bus, we all stood in awe of how beautiful the view in front of us was. The mosque sits on a foundation that is right over the water, and behind it the ocean stretches out for eternity. It was truly quite the sight to see. I didn't get my hopes up though because we had experienced such bad luck already with trying to get into mosques.
At the mosque there was nobody to guide us, so we borrowed some clothing at the front of the mosque in order to cover ourselves properly before entering. I'm pretty sure I had on a female's piece of clothing, but I used it anyways so I could see the inside of the mosque.
The inside of the mosque was large and open. The floor is covered with soft carpet, designed with lines to direct people on where to kneel when praying. What really surprised me was the acoustics of the mosque, they were great! You could hear a person whispering from 10 feet away.
Afterwards, we went over to the beach to walk around for a little bit, but some of the students in our group ended up paying a small amount to go parasailing. It looked like it was a lot of fun, but I was low on money at the moment so I couldn't participate too. It was nice to relax on the beach, listening to the sound of the waves crashing as the guys flew buy in their parasail.
Next we went to the Batik factory to see the process of how batik shirts and other items are made. It was very interesting getting to see people painting the material by hand, or using a block to apply the color. Not only that, but the process of staining and washing in order to achieve a certain design was fascinating. Also, they taught us how to tell the difference between a hand painted batik and a screen printed one. Apparently a screen printed batik will have the design on both sides, but a hand painted one will only have the design on one side. Again, as much as I wanted to buy a scarf or shirt from the batik factory, I was low on money so I had to hold off on spending.
Our last stop on our drive around the island was the Chinese Snake Temple. They had a few rooms in which live snakes were relaxing on metal structures. It was funny seeing Royce scared out of his mind as he tried to hide from all the snakes, poor guy!
After the snake temple, we were dropped off at the mall and given the rest of the afternoon free to explore the city. Five of us guys decided to eat at Sushi King, a sushi restaurant with a conveyor belt full of small sushi dishes. The food was surprisingly very good despite the fact that it's a chain restaurant for sushi.
After lunch we decided to walk back to the hotel, thinking it wouldn't take us more than half an hour. As we walked, we slowly realized that it was a lot farther than we had initially believed. Being very sick still, I stayed towards the back of the group with my head down, focusing on nothing more than just placing one foot in front of the other to keep on going.
When we finally got to the hotel, I went straight to bed and slept for almost four hours. When I woke up, I could tell I had a bad fever. The guys were about to leave for dinner, and I was starving so I threw on some pants and a jacket and walked to Gurney Plaza. I had an immunity booster smoothie to help recover, and the guys had burgers at Chili's because they missed American food. Interestingly enough, although Chili's is an american restaurant, the service there was the worst any of us have ever experienced. The waiter was pretty much nonexistent and one of our dishes never arrived. I was glad I opted for the smoothie instead of eating there.
I'm honestly sad to leave Penang tomorrow morning, I really enjoyed my time here. Being by the ocean has always been a passion of mine, so Penang will truly be missed.
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