Penang, Malaysia

I'm going to keep this one shorter than the last two, but that is only because the ports are coming fast and furious now and not because Penang was a disappointment or anything. In fact, along with South Africa, it was the most pleasant of our port stays. The city was just an easy "tender" ride from the ship (our first and only port where we had to take lifeboats to and from the dock). From the dock, you could walk in one direction and be in "Little India", walk another and be surrounded by Chinese restaurants and signs. A bit further and there was the E&O hotel, where they offer a sumptuous lunch buffet with samples of food from each of those places, together with Japanese and Malay dishes.

As you can see, the food was one of the highlights. We went to the E&O buffet for Gabrielle's birthday on the 23rd, plus one other occasion. Also on that day, we toured the blue Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (shown in this photo), which offered a fascinating introduction to the life and times of the Chinese who set up show in this trading city in the 19th Century and struck it rich. It also featured an amazing range of feung shwei designs, including a lovely open-to-the-sky atrium in the center of the house that let the rain (and fresh air) fall into the middle of the home.

Another day we toured a series of three gardens: the botanical gardens, a tropical spice garden, and a tropical fruit garden. The last of these was my favorite, with a chance to see all manner of unusual fruits growing and learning about how they are used before sitting down to a buffet of all-you-can-eat tropical fruit. So yes, the food again!

The tropical spice garden also gave us a taste (not any samples this time, but figuratively) of the spices that attracted the Indians, Muslim traders, the Chinese, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British to Penang island. As you've already realized, the diverstiy all of this trading activity left behind is one of the major attractions of this place. The best of many cultures (and cuisines).

Lest you think we did nothing but eat in Penang, we had another fun outing that was part of an organized SAS trip: Penang Arts and Crafts. It took us to a batik "factory" where several batik fabric artists were producing works in a shop that set aside some space for visitors to give the craft a try. The fabric I worked with was pre-stamped with a wax design, but it was still a challenge to work with the dye and try to shade and mix colors. Isabelle and Gabrielle did even better work, which they can show you when we get back.

If you've noticed an absence of Melina in the photos from Penang so far, that's because she chose to take off to a neighboring tropical island, Langkawi, with a group of friends. She tells us she had lots of fun and stayed out of trouble. Next stop: Vietnam where the whole family will be flying to Angkor for a tour of the temples there.