Temples

We spend one day in Georgetown (capital of Penang) and saw a lot of Chinese (Tao) temples, all very ornate and elaborate and gold. We basically just wandered through the city and stopped in temples that we saw - there are so many here and they are all so gorgeous, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

We also visited several Buddhist temples. One of them has the third largest reclining Buddha in the world. This thing was HUGE. The temple itself was nothing amazing, although very colorful, but definitely touristy. Inside, in addition to the reclining Buddha, there is a Buddha covered in gold leaf. When a part of your body hurts, you can come and place a gold leaf on the comparable part of the Buddha's body, and you will feel better. We also went to the Kek Lok Si Temple, which is one of the biggest Buddhist temple complexes in Southeast Asia, and has the biggest statue in the world (or so the sign said) of Avalokiteshvara, who is the bodhisattva (disciple of the Buddha) of compassion. The temple stands on a hill so has a nice view of the city and is beautiful and very peaceful and relaxing to be in.

There is a temple here, called the Snake Temple, that was built to a bodhisattva, and upon completion many snakes came down from the hills and started living in the temple. They are poisonous but are said to be tamed by the incense burning in the temple. Caitlyn and I went and were not impressed - there were maybe 4 snakes in the entire temple, and the trip was basically a waste of cab fare (it's hard to get there by bus).