maurizio caduto M a l a y s i a

Penang

Penang is a well know tourist destination and some areas - like batu Ferringhi - are overdeveloped with their full range of KFC, Mc Donalds, Starbucks and fake CDs,DVD,Playstation games and so on and so forth. However most of the island isn't and georgetown itself is quite a pleasant little city to visit. There are loads of interesting thinks to see. Above all the large temple in the center of the island, built on top of the hill. Allow yourself a couple of hours to visit the multi levels grand building and don't go there to late in the afternoon or you will not have enough time.

Now, one thing you'll notice is the amount of Buddha statues in the temples. They are everywhere and sometimes - like in the exemple above - as small as a tile and covering the whole room up to the cealing. As you can see they all feature a decoration that remainds the nazi symbol but it is actually reversal.

The two pictures above were taken at the Snake temple. It is actually a bit disappointing as I was expecting hordes of snakes hissing from every hole and shelf while the few snakes are all grouped together and apparently stoned by the incense smoke. At night they would roam the room feeding on the fruit and other offers left during the day. By the way, they are by all means poisonous.

In the center of Penang there are two temples facing each other; one is Thai, the other one from Myanmar. They are to me a strong statement of what the two neighboring counties really are: colorful, joyful and visually noisy the Thai one, severe and austere in its wood and marbles the other one. It does reflect to me the fundamental difference between two countries so close and yet so far away. The Burmese one features an incredible display of Buddha statues sent by every Buddhist country. Each statue show a different looking figure, here smiling, there serious; here fat there slim and so on and so forth. Very insightful.

Do pay a visit to the butterfly farm. It is indeed much nicer then you imagine. The place is small but quiet and cozy and virtually packed with butterflies of many different size and kind. They fly freely from flower to flower and they are big, colorful and graceful. Just go there in the morning as they are more active then in the afternoon. Also the farm feature an interesting gallery of insects - under glass that is.