Day 79 - I wanted to go to downtown George Town to check out a phone dealer. I have been trying to decide whether to buy a new phone here or wait until we get back to Canada in April. There's one dealer in the Prangin Mall which sells the OnePlus brand. We took the bus downtown, and indeed he had a 5T on offer. The price was about $CA 60 cheaper than waiting for Canada, mostly due to lower taxes. However, the only colour available in Malaysia is black. I'm sick of black and if I wait till we return home, the OnePlus 6 might be out. I didn't buy one today.
As we walked out, we saw a RapidPenang #10 bus. They are as rare as hen's teeth, I'm led to believe. This route ends at the Penang Botanical Gardens. We knew the general area from our trip to a Hindu Temple at Thaipussam at the end of last month. However, we took a shuttle bus to that.
We ran to catch the bus as it entered the Kotmar station and were at the main parking lot of the gardens within a half hour. We walked. We walked all the way up to the waterfall area which is closed to the public as it is a water supply resource. There are hiking trails which go to Penang Hill but we weren't that adventurous.
Most British colonies from the Victorian era in the tropics have Botanical Gardens. This was a very pleasant place although we were out in the midday sun. There were lots of shaded places on pathways through the free park. It appeared well maintained. Not many folks were there, but I imagine it gets more people in the evening time. Other than us, we only saw a few tourists.
We had to wait only about 10 minutes for the return bus. Other than one Chinese lady heading to a local temple, we were its only passengers going back to Little India. We, of course, had lunch as it was 2:30 by then.
