Happy Chinese New Year!

January 23, 2012

Happy Chinese New Year!

Our day began with a visit to the Spice plantation just a bit North of where our hotel is. We walked through a well developed area with plants and spices from Malaysia. A little bit of tame tropical rain forest was a nice reminder of what Penang used to be like before it was completely taken over by people and developed to the hilt. It would turn out this this whole day would be a continual reminder to me of the changes that humanity as wrought in this region of the world.

At the top of the spice garden was a quaint gift shop where we were able to buy fresh spices and combined spices with recipes. I purchased a few to trial some of the recipes. Next to the shop was a restaurant with a gorgeous view of the sea. We sat and peacefully drank some spiced tea, and the boys had banana splits. It is great to be able to enjoy that vacation feeling of being able to eat when and how you want.

Following the peaceful meal we continued to driver around the island, hitting small little communities and twisting and winding through the mountain switchbacks. Penang is an island of stark differences. You have the coastline that gives a view onto the sea, and then the mountains covered with thick rain forests that allowing you to see only to a certain point. Driving along the coastline the boys and I appreciated the fact that in Latvia all the beaches are accessible to anyone wanting to go down, and are not limited by the hotels and private owners along the way. In the mountains we appreciated how hard it must have been to build the few houses in the passes and to continue life in that area.

Once out of the mountains, the smaller villages that we came upon showed their uniqueness with less development and more connection to those older times with the wooden houses still visible throughout the communities. I didn't stop to take pictures of these buildings as it seemed that it would be somehow invading people's privacy in these areas. these are not tourist locations, but homes. The homes are built of wood and upon stilts in the front, and the back part is slightly about the ground. It appears that perhaps the front part was built for protection from flooding, but also potentially for coolness in the evenings, and protection from the sun. Sadly, many of the building have now been covered in concrete, to possibly protect from the elements, and the bottom part of the homes have also been enclosed. In the cities you can see that these very style homes have been changed into stores and restaurants. Below, you can see one small house in Georgetown fighting the crowding from the rest of the city.

After our long drive, we returned home for a deliciously cool swim, and tried to decide what to do for dinner. I had hoped to go into Georgetown, but after finding it empty of people and very few choices of restaurants, we returned to the hotel where we decided to stay and enjoy the buffet put on by the hotel. As it turned out we got our little bit of Chinese New Year here more so than if we had gone elsewhere!

Below you can see some pictures of the Emperor handing out red envelopes full of chocolate coins to all the guests, and a lion dance on stilts. The dance was amazing! The two dancers jumped from one set of stilts to another, sometimes with the front dance on the shoulders of the back dancer. I am still working on the video I have taken and may upload it eventually.