TacoCat’s Travels #203 (Penang): Ringing in Luck and Cooling Off at the Coolest Bookstore!

May 2023 · 10 min read · George Town

Hey Hive!

If you missed the last few posts, I started sharing about our short getaway to Penang Island, Malaysia, back in July 2022! It was our first trip post-covid and we decided to take a short 3 day trip there! It had been a good decade since either of us have visited Penang so this was a semi-new experience for both of us.

Last week, we continued our journey through the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia called Kek Lok Si Temple! From the top of the temple we explored the zodiac stone garden before taking an inclined lift back down and paying to go through the Five Region Buddha Hall which looked really cool!

The 2RM ticket also gave us access to the seven storey pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas!

The structure of the pagoda was really interesting, both inside and outside! The exterior is divided into 3 parts where the lower 2 layers are inspired by Chinese Buddhism, the middle by Thai Buddhism and the top Burmese Buddhism!

Inside, each level had a shrine and a kneeling stool for people to pray to the Buddha statue. It started out really grand with golden statues and walls but as we got higher the designs got more modest and simple. We actually climbed the 120 steps all the way to the top and got an amazing view from the balcony up there!

Anyway, there's not much left of the temple so let's continue!

25 July 2022. Monday.

After enjoying the view from the top of the pagoda we carefully made our way down the 120 steps, counting as we go since we were curious how many steps it was.

When we reached the bottom and found that it was 120 steps we were pretty exhausted from having climbed 240 going up and down!

At the bottom of the pagoda was this little sheltered area for a massive bell! According to Wiki, the temple complex has a large hydraulically operated bell, which tolls with a high pitch at frequent intervals. And I think this was the one!

It was very large indeed, and had a simple rig in front of it where you pulled the handles on the striking log-like thing.

Here's a short of us ringing the bell! It was pretty loud even though we tried to knock it lightly. The sliding mechanism was not as smooth as we thought it was so it was a little hard to control. I think the whole temple could hear the bell though.

After we attracted some attention with the bell we promptly left the area. We started trying to make our way back to the main entrance hall and went through another prayer hall which had a huge golden Buddha statue and statues of kings?

We found our way back to the garden we saw at the start of this part of the temple complex. It was too hot to come here when we first arrived but now that there was some cloud cover we took the time to explore.

The first thing we saw was this very shiny shrine. I'm not sure which race of Buddhism that is from but it seems Thai? It was pretty small compared to the other sculptures we saw but I thought this shrine was nice.

Beside it were a line of deity sculptures lining the whole wall of the garden. I'm not sure who that is supposed to be because I'm not Buddhist but it really made it seem like a blessed place.

The garden had different pathways lining this fancy prayer hall, and there were also similar statues at its base.

There wasn't much else to the garden other than a few urns and these fancy archways. I think these look the newest of all that we've seen in the temple so far.

After walking around the garden we took a look inside the prayer hall and there were three huge golden Buddha statues and flowers you could buy and offer to them.

There were also some stairs inside the prayer hall and it was free entry so we went up to the second floor! There were even more statues up here all with gold robes, and they lined the whole floor with threes.

But the view from here was pretty amazing! You could see the pagoda so clearly.

And this was the other prayer hall with the giant Buddha statue we just went through to get here. You could even almost see the huge bronze Kuan Yin statue in the back!

After taking a nice look around we left the area and exited through this very colourful circular gate.

I think we had explored the whole temple complex by now! It was getting really warm as we approached 2pm when the sun was at its hottest so we quickly made our way back to the entrance.

It was definitely an interesting experience visiting the temple and while I didn't recognise a lot of things since I'm not Buddhist I could still appreciate the architecture here.

It's a shame that the temple only lights up during Chinese New Year though because this whole complex becomes a light show then! But I guess it must cost a lot to do that even once a year because of how big this place is. If you do get the chance I'd highly recommend it! It sure must be a sight to see irl:

Source: The Star

We found our way back to the entrance area where there was a huge souvenir shop next to the carpark.

The shop sold all kinds of snacks, drinks , toys and of course religious items and decorative knick-knacks. We didn't buy anything but we did seek shelter since there was some air-conditioning in there while we waited for a ride.

After all that walking the sun we just wanted to cool off so we decided to get a ride to the mall! There was an area called Gurney Drive with a few big malls and hotels nearby so we figured that was a good place to visit.

I didn't manage to get a pic of what it looked like on the outside since I was dying for some air-conditioning but it looked something like this, with a bigger wing behind it.

Source: Penang Fandom

The inside of the mall looked kinda dead though. There weren't many people walking around and that's an understatement. We saw maybe 1 person per floor we went to.

Granted it was a Monday afternoon, but it did make it seem like covid had hit Penang pretty bad since this was supposedly a well-known mall.

There were a few people in some of the cafes though.

I thought this cafe had some of the biggest cakes I'd ever seen!

There was also a huge gym on the higher floor that took up about half the level!

They had so many machines that I could see from the outside and we could even hear the hype workout music playing. It looked mostly empty though.

We saw a very interesting bookstore on the upper level and went to check it out!

It was kinda of an open concept book store and it looked really aesthetically pleasing with all the bookshelves.

It seemed to span two levels as well, since there was s staircase leading up with more books!

Before we headed in, there was a very colourful staircase just left of the escalator we came up so we decided to head up there first.

Turns out there wasn't much up there since it was the closed off section of the upstairs movie theatre. They must have downsized due to the lack of patrons or something so it was mostly empty in that section of the upper floor. There was this empty area with a nice mural though.

And at least the stairs did make for a nice picture!

After that we made our way into the bookstore! This was one of the biggest bookstores I'd ever been in for sure. Apart from libraries I don't think Singapore has a bookstore like this.

The entry area near the cashier had games and toys I guess to cater more to kids before we saw some books.

Even then, the first books we saw were comic books! This whole beginning section was full of Marvel and DC comics.

I guess its to cater to the whole comic book craze with Marvel movies. Although I'd say it's pretty late into that area right now, it was still pretty impressive how many books they had!

It's a little weird because right beside the comic book display was Children's Books, which we thought were books for children but they were actually books about conception! As this pillar advertises "Children's Books" and the IVF Centre:

This was the section with so-called Children's Books. I wonder how many people were fooled like we were in thinking Children's Books were books for children, and not about having children. XD

Beside that was a more general book section with some of the bestsellers and whatnot.

Then we came to the end and took a turn to some actual children's books!

The opposite aisle seems to have more books and more nooks to sit in as well!

I think this was a huge non-fiction section but there was also a couple of sofas here and we took a seat to rest our feet after walking for so long. Sean ended up taking a short nap.

After that we felt more refreshed and continued browsing for a bit.

Then we came back to where we started but on the other side! There was also a cafe here, which I was curious about since it seemed like a good place for a cafe with all these books around.

They had a small selection of drinks and snacks like cookies and cakes but we didn't really feel like eating here so we just took a look before heading up the stairs.

This was what the other side of the cafe looked like. I believe those shelves up there were for display only since it was impossible to even reach those books.

It felt really cool to go up the stairs and we could just smell books everywhere other than in the cafe.

I think it looked cooler from a distance though since up close it was just like any other aisle, but with a railing I guess.

Past the books on the upper level were these metal plates of celebrities and characters!

It was quite an impressive display and the artwork was really well done too! I believe it was printed on but some of them did seem painted.

There was one of the plates that stood out though; this Woody one that looked super creepy!

That was pretty much the end of the bookstore. But it was really cool and did make for some nice photos! We also managed to get a break and cool off for a bit so mission accomplished!

And with that I think I'll end it off here! We're finally past the halfway point of this day if you can believe it! Tune in next week for more mall crawling!

Thanks for reading!