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People
who booked their extended Far Eastern tours through a travel agency
in the US normally had KUALA LUMPUR included as a “rest & relaxation
area” for several days at some point in their itinerary.
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However,
Asian tour agencies in the early 1970’s routed their clients to
PENANG. So, having booked my 3-week trip in Japan, I got to spend several
relaxing days on these beautiful, DESERTED beaches.
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This
is a shot of the beach area directly behind my hotel. While the hotel
was not a “5-star” facility, prices were incredibly CHEAP
and my room cost less than $30/night!
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I
have never seen such beautiful white beachs that were NOT overrun by
hoards of visting tourists. Penang in the early 1970’s looked (to
me) like Hawaii must have been in the late 1800’s.
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There
was really NOT a lot to see or do on the island EXCEPT relax and take
a much-needed break from the hectic travel and sight-seeing schedule
which I experienced on the other parts of my 3-week Far Eastern tour.
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It
was possible to walk for miles (if one chose to do so!) along beautiful,
deserted, white sand beaches similar to this one without having to fight
hoards of tourists trying to get into the water.
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One
of the side trips I took on Penang was to see this small, remote fishing
village. Talk about feeling as if I were “really out in the boonies!”
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Georgetown,
the capital city of Penang, is a quaint old city started by the British
traders during the late 1700’s. [I am sure that it has been modernized
a great deal during the 30 years time since I visited the island.]
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When
I had visited Penang in the early 1970’s, the city was really “rustic”
(to use a nice adjective) in appearance and it did not appear that much
new construction had been done in the last several decades.
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It
was quite easy to look across the water from Penang and see mainland
Malaysia in the distance. [There is now a bridge connecting Penang to
the mainland which did not exist when I visited the island.]
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This
cable car was built by the British around 1900 and provided access from
Georgetown to the top of the mountains overlooking Penang.
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As
I looked at the steepness of the slope of this mountain, I just hoped
that there had been routine maintenance performed on this cable car
over the many years it had been in use!
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From
the top, the view of Georgetown and mainland Malaysia across the water
was manifestant, but there was some haze which prevented my getting
any really good photos that day.
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One
of the feature attractions to be seen after the cable car ride was the
KEK LOK SI Buddhist temple which was the most beautiful and largest
such complex in Southeast Asia.
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Kek
Lok Si’s seven-story pagoda is over 90 feet high and was a harmonious
blend of Chinese, Thai, and Burmese architecture and craftsmanship.
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The
inside of the temple is very lavishly decorated with gold leaf statues
and other emerald displays.
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I
was able to enjoy experiencing the quiet beautify of this temple complex
when there were very few other tourists visiting the place.
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After
seeing the Kek Lok Si temple complex, I was on a tour of a silk factory
located outside Georgetown.
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The
different colors in the pattern of the silk fabric were each applied
separately using a ‘silk screening’ process similar to that
used in making wood block paintings. A different pattern is cut for
each...
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...color
that is going to be used in the fabric. Then, the specific color for
that pattern is carefully applied to each section of the roll of silk
fabric. These kids have just finished coloring one section and are moving
the screen.
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This
photo shows a section of silk fabric that has already had several different
color screenings...both before and after the final red color has been
applied.
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After
the colors are applied, the rolls are washed and then pressed through
these rollers to remove the moisture.
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This
young girl is cutting the long rolls of fabric into shorter lengths
for sale or shipment. [As I observed in most other Asian countries in
the 1970’s, there did NOT appear to be any ‘child labor laws’
to protect the...
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...
interests of kids. Nor did I see any attention being paid to providing
workers with safe working conditions or equipment as was the practice
in the US at that time.]
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Snake
Temple, dedicated to a Buddhist healer-priest, was inhabited by snakes
who crawled out of the jungle on the night of the temple's completion.
The snakes were still there when I visited the place!
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The
vivid colors (coupled with plentiful use of real GOLD LEAF paint) used
to decorate these statues gave them a breath-taking appearance that
was not matched by any other temples I saw during my travels in the
Far East.
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The
colors and shapes of these statues were a tad “gaudy,” but,
I was IMPRESSED: they were TOTALLY different from ANYTHING I had ever
personally seen before this trip to Penang!
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One
other Penang attraction was Wat Chayamankalaram, one of the world’s
largest reclining Buddha statues. It is more than 30 yards in length,
is draped in gold-leaf, and reclines on a large crematorium.
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