Galen & Rebecca Kennel’s Weblog

We are planning to catch a city bus to Penang Hill and take the train to the top, but as we are waiting for the city bus, an 80 year-old man chats with us. He convinces us that we have to go to the Kek Lok Si temple – one of the largest and most beautiful temples in SE Asia. When the 204 bus to Air Itam comes by, we tell the driver we want to go to the temple.

We catch glimpses of the 30 metre ‘Statue of Mercy’ that overlooks the temple on our way out to Air Itam, a suburb of Georgetown. Traffic slows to a crawl as the bus threads its way through the middle of the market area where vendors creep onto the street with their tables of fruit, vegetables, fish. Shoppers stroll along the street and cars stop to pick up something from one of the tables.

Once pass the market, it looks like we are going away from the temple area. I go up and ask the driver about the temple, and he stops and apologizes that he forgot to tell us where to get off. We have to walk back through the market and then up the hill.

The walk back must be more than a kilometre. When we ask directions the woman points down the road and motions to keep going, then turn left. Once in the market area, we see the sign pointing toward the temple. The road curves around and then begins to go up. We don’t notice the little sign that points off to the left and across a bridge. This is the stairway that leads up to the temple.

We are side tracked by a parking lot with crates of carved stone cylinders.

These carved stone cylinders are being assembled into 16 pillars to support a structure to protect the 30 m statute of Kuan Yin. The parking attendant claims they have been imported from China.

From the parking lot, we continue on the road as it curves up. It is pleasant walking through the shade of the tall trees along the road. When we finally reach the top, we meet a man who tells us a bit about the temple and the “Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas.” The Pagoda is over 100 ft high and has a Chinese octagonal base with middle tiers of Thai architecture and is topped with a Burmese Temple crown. He said we should go inside and climb to the top for a great view of the temple and the city of Georgetown. He suggests we also take the inclined plane up to see the statute of Kuan Yin.

The temple complex is a maze of temples and gardens and shops selling souvenirs and religious paraphernalia. There are incredible stone carvings and mosaic tiles.

We get a little carried away taking photos of all the carvings and buildings. . .

On the way down, we find the stairway that we were supposed to have used to come up. It is a covered walkway with shops lining both sides all the way down to the street. We should have known we were taking the wrong route when there were no vendors selling stuff along the way. You’d think after travelling all these months through India and Thailand that we would be able to recognize the road that leads to the temples by following the shops!

Photos from the day.