04 Penang, Malaysia

At Penang, we visited Georgetown, named after King George III. Once there we visited the Thai Buddhist temple that houses the fourth-largest Reclining Buddha in the world, measuring 108 feet long. There was enough time to also see the Burmese Buddhist temple just across the street. We then proceeded to the Botanical Garden, known as Waterfall Gardens. This was followed by a visit to a beautiful Chinese Clan House, Khoo Kongsi. A clan house served as a ‘clearing house’ for family immigrating to a new location. It provided temporary housing and aided in finding a job. The house also serves as a temple and tracks the genealogy of the clan family. Finally we stopped at a Chinese clan jetty. The colonial power stated that the immigrants could pay no taxes as long as they didn’t live on land. So they built these stilt house jetties off of the land/over the bay.