Penang Life - A Sunday View from the Balcony

More than a view this afternoon, with a four piece guitar band practicing below the balcony.  Very tuneful they  were too, nice to hear live rock and roll again. After appreciative applause from me above on the 19th storey, I was rewarded with wave and thank you.

 Meanwhile the lads played sepak takraw.

 The cattle munch the now green grass.

 

 The setting sun illuminated the 2nd bridge

and the lights came on over Bukit Jumbul.  All is well in Bayan Baru.

Penang Life - The Girls Come to Stay, Day 5

The last day and a visit to Penang Hill, a must when on the island.

Penang Life - The Girls Come to Stay, Day 4

 Photo by Mary-Ann

For the last two days of the girls visit we hired a car so that we could drive over the new bridge and back.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

As you can see it was very, very busy.  Not

 Photo by Mary-Ann

 First stop of the day was Balik Pulau and a visit to Mr. Fong, the silversmith.  Needless to say, we didn't leave his shop empty handed.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

Church of the Holy Name of Jesus (1848)

 Photo by Mary-Ann

The Penang National Park and the trail to the Monkey Beach.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

More of a trial than a trail.  I was soaking wet with sweat and the girls were being targeted by mosquitoes. Don't we look a happy lot!!!!

 

 Photo by Mary-Ann

We made 900m of the 1.5km towards Monkey Beach.  Given Gek's propensity to turn her ankle on the smoothest of tracks, I opted to return to the concrete.  In the spirit of all for one, one for all, we all about faced.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

 And so on to the last stop of the day - Genting Hill for the sunset and

Photo by Mary-Ann

dinner.  Brilliant way to end a brilliant day out.

Penang Life - The Girls Come to Stay, Day 3

Photo by Mary-Ann

Following C K T in Carnarvon Road and a cendo down Penang Road, time for afternoon coffee and carrot cake with ice cream at Muntri Street.

Photo by Mary-Ann

One leg kick poser.

Photo by Mary-Ann

Just a poser.

Photo by Mary-Ann

Cheeky bird, the original angry bird.  Well I suppose he/she as a point. Let the street art speak for itself.

Photo by Mary-Ann

All humourous as they are.

Penang Life - The Girls Come to Stay, Day 2

 Photo by Mary-Ann

First stop, Clan Jetties.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

Mary-Ann has camera with a sweep function.  I want.  The repro is a little small for the blog view but still worth a show, me thinks.

After a coffee stop at the Whiteaways Oldtown White Coffee shop, on to the Peranakan Museum,  the green one.

 Photo by Mary-Ann

A big head amongst big flowers.

Another seat of convenience.

The fourth stop of the day, the Made in Penang Interactive Museum.  There where many quirky images snapped here, but I like this one the best. 

 Photo by Mary-Ann

Following another stroll  through the Georgetown streets another food stop, this time at The China House for afternoon coffee and cake.

  Photo by Mary-Ann

The last stop of the day at the Esplanade for Char Kuay Teow, Rojak and the setting sun.  Perfect.

Penang Life - The Girls Come to Stay, Day 1

Alice, Mary-Ann and Jo came to stay for a few days.

 As it had been Mary-Ann's birthday the day before we threw a party on the Balcony.

We really pushed the boat out for Mary-Ann with not one but three cakes between us and two candles some more. Such extravagance.

Penang Life - Perlis Revisited

Lake Tasoh.

The air was a lot clearer on this second trip up into the Thailand/Malaysia mountains.  The view looking south.

Remind me of the Glasshouses hills in Queensland.

Penang Life - Sun rise, sun set.

The morning sun rising over Kedah, as seen from our 1-Sky balcony.  No trick photography, honest,

 And the evening sun setting over Langkawi on the same day.  Quite magical.

Penang Life - Kek Lok Si

 

The Goddess of Mercy.   You don't really get an impression of the size of this structure in this photograph but it must be at least the equivalent of 20 story. 

 

This was my first time to visit the temple.

 

The older part is far more interesting than the new.

 

A new view of Georgetown.

Taiwan and homeward bound

Here she comes the 16:50 Taichung to Taipei high speed train.  She travels at 150 miles an hour and a 100 mile journey will  set you back a massive 8 pounds.  Yes, you read that aright,  8 ENGLISH POUNDS STIRLING for a ride on a high speed train some more.

Gorgeous.  I will always love trains.

The next day, fly home to Penang direct, just a 41/2  hour flight. Time to reflect on  our trip. Me thinks we will be back to Taiwan again sometime soon.

Taiwan - Taichung

Our last day in Taichung and waiting for our lift from Shaohung to the high speed train station.

Time to take in the big.

and observe the locals.

Taiwan - Sun Moon Lake

A 90 min bus journey up in to the mountains to the east of Taichung and you will find Sun Moon Lake.  A natural lake, enhanced by a small dam built by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan.

Around the shore are a couple of relatively new temples, Buddhist in nature, in including this one called Wenwu Temple.

The art work and stone carvings are quite phenomenal in the detail they show.   Quite extraordinary efforts by some very gifted artists/artisans

But the beauty really is in the lake and it's surrounds.

An hour after this photograph was taken, we had a white out,  completely blanketed in a cloud we became.