Malaysia Trip 2015 (Part 2) : Wat Chayamangkalaram and Kek Lok Si Temple

5:35:00 PM

Hey guysss :D.

Did you guys caught the solar eclipse? I am one of those weird ones who doesn't care too much about it, but my mum forcibly woke us up this morning and shove an X-Ray to shield our eyes (works as well as those 3D glasses) so yes-we ended up watching it too. For a few seconds before we scurried back to bed and continue our interrupted sleep, that is :p. It's best to catch it in Palu and i heard tourists even slept at a mall's steps in Palu because all hotels are fully booked. WOW. Why can't it be Surabaya (#hotelownersenvy haha).

Oh, and selamat Nyepi (Day of Silence) for those who are celebrating!

Anyway...

I'm on fayahhh nooo? LOL. Honestly, i just rediscovered my love for travel writing-and really enjoy reliving those moments while looking through the photographs (thanks to blogging. Otherwise these photos are just going to collect virtual dust in my folders >.<) and there's an extra boost too, we pretty much booked for our next vacation already so... I feel like i need to keep up better! Clear out travel posts before the next trip would forever be in my to do list now!

Anyway! Continuing on our time in Penang, it's still day 2 in Malaysia, our next destination are temples!

The whole gang at Kek Lok Si Temple

Of course, we need to go in chronological order! After the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, we went for lunch first. I was not very hungry yet (how can people be hungry, only two or three hours after breakfast? I admit i don't really have a built in meal clock *unlike my niece Au LOL*, i eat when i'm hungry regardless of the time hahaha, i can go on without eating for a long period of time especially when i'm having fun) so when the driver stated porridge as one of the dishes he's recommending, i nag everybody to go there (because i have a thing for porridge and they don't make me feel too guilty hahaha).

It was in a kopitiam kind of place

I have to be honest that i'm quite disappointed when i see the porridge -___-. It's more like watered soft rice *sigh* nothing like the fluffy, soft porridge i was already dreaming about zzz

It was not my cup of tea (or bowl of porridge, whatevs). I don't know what happened, but the others ordered something else and hunny also ordered they assorted fried thingy again-and i can only find this pic of the lone porridge. Confusing. Maybe everything else was not interesting? Probably #internaldialoggoeson.

After we finished the meal, we're off to the next location : Wat Chayamangkalaram (honestly, i can't spell it and didn't even attempt to, i just copas from google >.<), it's a Thai Buddhist temple. If you're familiar with Thai Buddhist temples, you'd know it's totally different than the usual Chinese Buddhist temples.

Felt like we're suddenly transported to Thai, for realz!

A very touristy pic of me. My outfit matches the temple looks hehe, it's a Balinese tyedye dress, btw

The 33 meter long reclining Buddha

Another touristy photo, of Little O now haha. I haven't bring him to Thailand yet (i totally plan to), so this is his first taste of Thai-style touristy destinations

My dad and KC are Buddhist (we have pretty much every religions in our family :D) so they also took their time to pray

The details are pretty amazing

There's also a Burmese temple just across the street, again-totally a different thing alright!

We decided not to go in though because we still have a few other destinations after this

Didn't stop us from flocking to any street food sellers available tho hahaha

It was meltingly hot (so why i prefer winter vacations #sweat) so i couldn't say no to ice creams :p

On the way to the next destination, the driver took us to a famous Penang-ese snack seller, the tau sar pheah (mung bean pastry)

Hunny and i with our future selves ^^

Hunny wanted to nom on the giant tau sar pheah

LOLOLOLOLOL

Then we're off to the next destination

Kek Lok Si temple

It's located pretty high up so the view was quite impressive

The huge Guanyin statue

It's still under construction and pilgrimages can purchase tiles, write their wishes on them and they might be used for the building

My dad was squinting against the sun, he was not angry hahaha

That's the spot where you can buy various prayer items, the wishing tiles as well as wishing ribbons

For those of you who are not familiar with Chinese customs, sometimes it's hard to separate between religion and traditions-we're (except my dad and KC) Christian but we don't find any harm in buying and putting up the wishing ribbon. We're not praying for it or whatever, it's just something fun to do and gives a good feeling about it. Plus, all the money goes towards the temple, which is always a good thing. If you're a Christian and against this, please keep your comments respectful. I respect your believes, and i expect to be treated the same.

We're so kiasu we just kept on adding more and more ribbons because we like all of the good wishes!

So kiasu we wanted to hang it as high as we possibly could

There are all those cute Chinese horoscope statues too

The Chinese horoscope of our little family hehehe oink oink

One of the prayer halls

Tourist mode : so on!

Queuing up to catch the cable car to go even higher up

View from the cable car

My Little O staring in awe ^^

The Pagoda of 10,000 Buddha

Obviously we didn't count them hehe

The place's seriously huge!

My mum mentioned that we went there when i was little, but i have no recollection of it!

The pagoda with three architectural styles (Chinese, Thai and Burmese)

Totally spectacular looking!

One more with the whole group!

I'm not that into temples or whatever, but i do enjoy going to interesting ones and these two definitely worth a visit, even if you're not a Buddhist!

Which one would you like to visit?

Will blog about the next destination (Bukit Bendera) soon!

#Pink