Penang Tag 3: Kek Lok Si Temple and Journey Home

The Monday also began with sleeping in and breakfast (which I really needed for two days in a row!), then packing up and dropping off our stuff, and then we went to Kek Lok Si Temple. Of course, by bus again, and once again we were perfectly told where to get off. The temple is Chinese-Buddhist and one of the largest in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia it is the largest Buddhist temple. And it is beautiful! On the way, we passed by a Chinese ceremony, we didn't really know what it was, there were dressed up Chinese people on a stage and opposite was a buffet/altar/whatever with, for example, a whole pig. We stayed for a short while, but then we continued to the temple. First, we passed by a quite large turtle pond, then we entered the temple complex. Construction is still ongoing here, so parts were not yet completely finished and disrupted the picture a bit, but the complex is still beautiful. It was colorful, but not too kitschy, and planted with flowers everywhere. In addition, the scent of incense sticks, despite quite a few people, it was peaceful and beautiful. First, we visited one of the temples from the inside, then we went to the pagoda. The insane two Ringgit entrance fee was well worth it, it's already beautiful from the outside, but you can also look inside. Eight floors up, getting a bit narrower, getting a bit more of a view over the city. Even with my fear of heights, it was just great! Then we visited the 30-meter high bronze statue and I immortalized all the statues of the Chinese zodiac signs on my camera. Then we went back down from the statue with the cogwheel railway and back to the bus, back to the hostel. Grabbing our stuff, and walking along the Street of Harmony to the ferry. It's called that because here a mosque, a Christian church, and many Chinese temples all exist next to each other on one street. Overall, the city is very religiously diverse. That's why it was not so bad that we didn't have time for the entire street, as we had already seen so much in the city. We took the ferry back to Butterworth and from there back to KL. Unfortunately, again with a lot of traffic, so I didn't get home until 11:30 PM and then just fell into bed after this truly beautiful weekend.