A walk through a pristine rain forest

Penang Hill is actually a series of hills overlooking the city of Georgetown. It is reachable by a very steep, and very fast, funicular ride from the outskirts of town. It was a great place to have lunch and spend a leisurely afternoon.

Much of the forest at the top is lush and pristine, hence UNESCO provides protection for a large portion. It bums me out that the entire series of photos taken there (all in automatic mode) is of quite poor quality. The camera sort of freaks out when there are too many bright and dark spots, so nothing is really clear. Anyway, how do you bring to life the scents, the tranquility, the sounds of the forest? You really cannot, unless you are there in person.

At one point we heard noises on the canopy above, and a group of Dusky Leaf Monkeys were having the time of their lives. We sat on the ground and enjoyed watching them feeding, climbing, unfazed by our presence. So cool!

This is a Giant Black Squirrel

Mid to late afternoon we left this undefiled place to return to the bottom and head to Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and an important pilgrimage center for Buddhists everywhere. It is immense (takes up an entire hill) and spectacular, and the city views are amazing.

The 120 ft. statue of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

We had dinner at Via Pre restaurant, named after a street in my hometown of Genova, then, under the diluvial rain we returned to our cozy East Indies Mansion.

Errata: In the Melaka post I referred to descendants of the Chinese and Malay population as Pandangaran, They are called Peranakan.