Day 68 - We were waiting for a nice, sunny day to visit Kek Lok Si. It is regarded as the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and not really far from our apartment as the crow flies. However, the easiest bus route meant we travelled into George Town to make a connection.
The small town of Air Itam is nestled in green hills and the temple has fit nicely there for more than a century. More precisely, construction began in 1890. However, additions continue to right into the current millennium with work on the enormous 'Statue of Guanyin'.
It was such a great weather, I thought we might see more visitors. Adherents do come from neighbhouring countries to visit here. We did run into a group of young, Argentinian guys doing SE Asia. We walked up the covered, shop-lined path for the first leg up. Later, in order to get to the very peak building we took a 3-Ringgit ride on a funicular.
There were numerous buildings, shrines, and gardens comprising the large site. That meant we spent hours just exploring the various places. Luckily, the whole temple was decorated as Chinese New Year takes place later in the month. That added a bit more colour to a very colourful day.
We ended up doing a whole lot of stairs but were afforded with some fantastic views of the temple and a wider panorama. The site overlooks downtown George Town and some of the sea. It made all our climbing seem very worthwhile.
We couldn't have picked a nicer day to enjoy a visit to the Kek Lok Si Temple. Penang Island has so much to offer visitors!