Penang Trip and the Visited Places

Just came back from a short Penang visiting yesterday with Sparkish and Rojak Toh. Supposed it was a 4-day trip, but it ended up with only 2 days 3 nights stay in Penang Island as big portion of the time was spent on flight transit.

Being to quite a few tourism spots during the 2 days visit. I'll sum them up in this post, so next time if you happen to visit to Penang Island, it could be your reference where to go. The more detail elaborations or photos will be followed in my coming posts.

Botanic Gardens

This garden actually existed since year 1884 during British colonization. Inside the garden you can see various kind of plant species and it is suitable for those who love the nature. It is best to visit early in the morning when the weather is still cooling.   

Fort Cornwallis

Fort Cornwallis was built on the site where Sir Francis Light made his historical landing in Penang in 1786. It was named after the Governor-General in Bengal - Charles Cornwallis and is used as military and administrative base of British East India Company to protect the island from possible attack by the Frenchmen.

Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower

It is the most significant landmark in Georgetown which had been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Malacca. The clock tower was built by Penang millionaire Cheah Chen Eok in 1897 to commemorate sixtieth year of Queen Victoria's reign.

Pinang Peranakan Mansion

It is originally the home of Kapitan Chung Keng Kwee, leader of the Penang and Perak Hai San groups in the
Larut Wars from 1860 to 1884. It is is a typical representation of the Straits Eclectic style of architecture, highly favored by rich Peranakan families of old time. The mansion is now the Baba and Nyonya (Peranakan) museum.

Penang State Museum

Penang Butterfly Farm

It is claimed that this is the 1st tropical live butterfly farm in the world which exhibits about 150 butterfly species. Besides butterflies, various live reptiles as well as insects which we hardly see in our daily life also been displayed here which certainly is an eyes-opening experience.

Kek Lok Si Temple

The iconic tourists attraction venue in Penang located at Air Itam which you can never miss when you visit to Penang island! Regret to say that we didn't spend much time at this place as we were short of time.

Wat Chaiyamangalaram

The Thai Buddhist temple is one of the most popular tourists spot in Georgetown other than Kek Lok Si Temple. This temple is where the giant Reclining Buddha statue is located.

Dhammikarama Burmese Temple

This is a Burmese Buddhist Temple exactly opposite the Thai Buddhist Temple Wat Chaiyamangalaram above. Inside the main hall of this temple is a 8.2 meters height giant standing Buddha statue with gorgeous wood carving arts covering the ceiling.

There are actually more tourists attraction spots that we didn't manage to visit on this short trip because of some specific reasons. Take an example, the Penang Hill which suppose is a must-visit venue, but the cable car bringing tourists towards the hill top were still in maintenance and the 4-wheel drive service is unreasonably expensive. Khoo Kongsi which is the grandest clan temple in the country was used for movie shooting and St.George Church, the oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia was still under renovation.