Georgetown, Penang Island, Malaysia

I forgot yesterday to tell the story of people training.  And I suspect that this sort of training can only apply to people that can afford holidays like a cruise, because I doubt that people with less money (and perhaps food), could be so easily manipulated.

I usually notice birds and the sounds that they are making before most people, because I am particularly interested.  Therefore, at breakfast yesterday, I was probably one of the first to realise that there was a crow perched on one of the posts near the veranda (which is part of the restaurant) at the rear of the ship.  The crow was cawing repeatedly, and I said to Peter "It is going to keep cawing until someone notices and feeds it."

Sure enough, after about 10 seconds most of the passengers had realised the crow was making a right racket, and after just a few seconds more, one of the passengers said. "It wants food".  A few seconds more, and a piece of toast had been broken up and placed along the bannister for the crow to help itself to.  It's obviously behaviour that the crow has learnt, and which works on open restaurants on cruise ships rather than cafes and restaurants on land.

Tell me again how it is that humans are the most intelligent animals on the planet?

Anyway, back to today and Georgetown.  No tours today, so it'll be another walk abroad then, in the exhaustingly humid heat of Malaysia.  Not that we mind, we quite enjoy exploring.  Sometimes we don't find much of interest, and sometimes it turns into quite an adventure.  Today turned out to be a little bit of both to be honest, mostly because it took a little while to get to the interesting parts of the city.  That would be my fault, because I had automatically chosen a route that would take us along the coastline for a bit.  It wasn't until we turned and walked back towards the ship through the hustle and bustle that things became interesting.

City Hall buildings

I loved this little tree that we found in a park as we walked along the shoreline

Georgetown is like all cities, full of noise and people.  But it also a UNESCO World Heritage site, made up of a mixture of cultures and building styles, which made for a colourful walk. There is a quarter called Chinatown, and another section called Little India, and a vast amount of old colonial buildings.

Interesting.  But I'm not entirely sure these are hotels that I would book.  

Chinatown

We crossed the road here.  With a certain amount of nervousness I might add. 

My favourite street had to be the one where we found both the Hindu Temple and the Chinese Temple almost next door to each other.  Sadly the Hindu Temple was closed, but the Chinese one also turned out to be a free museum type building. i.e. it was not in use as a religious establishment and we were welcome to go in and have a look.  I loved it.  I loved the sculptures and designs decorating the building.  There's always been something a little mystical and romantic about Chinese dragons and Chinese legends, and this building was full of them.

Peter taking a break inside the Chinese Temple

Another Chinese Temple on the same street.  This one is in uses. The incense burners outside were potent, and inside, the first courtyard was almost like the local store, full of incense sticks and offerings that could be bought for use further inside.

By now, the heat and humidity was beginning to take it's toll.  (No, we still haven't used to it), and we turned to make our way back to the ship.  I think, if we had been somewhere cooler, we may have spent a lot more time wandering and soaking up the atmosphere.  Today we had just about enough energy to make our way back to the ship and find our way back up to the veranda for several cups of tea.  This turned out to be the right move as it happens, because just as we settle down, the heavens opened and we looked out onto a curtain of water falling from the sky. I've only seen rain this heavy once in Britain, but it seems to happen every day in this part of the world.  So now we were sitting on a couple of the only dry seats at the back of the ship feeling well pleased with ourselves cos we'd managed to get in before the rain started.

Tomorrow we'll be docking into Port Kelang, which is the port for Kuala Lumpur.  KL (as it's known), is a good hour away from the port, but we've not got any tours booked so we'll probably just stay local and have an easy day. Let's see what Port Kelang has to offer us.