Day Six - Saturday 29th October: Farewell to Penang....and the dead!

 


Before departing Penang we headed for the ATM and the Protestant cemetery: an interesting combination!

The cemetery was very old, damp and the humidity was high. Lots of fascinating old graves, tombs and monuments dating back to the 1800s gave it an interesting vibe. The grave of Colonel Light who founded Penang was still there, although his body had been taken back to Britain many years ago. A few Chinese graves and people from many countries were represented there,  including  Australia apparently. 

Some of the tombs were quite grand.


About a third of the inhabitants were under the age of 30 which indicated the prevalence  of diseases such as dysentery,  cholera, malaria and typhoid. Beautiful but degraded carved stones decorated many of the tombs.

Late in the morning we headed for a flight to Kota Kinabalu in northern Borneo – the capital of the state of Sapah.

The guide, Roy, gave us lots of information about this part of Malaysia. He was very chatty and had spent 5 years in Australia. We saw him a few times and at one point, when we staggered on to the bus looking hot and exhausted, he said with a big smile on his face :"You look buggered!"

Kota Kinabalu has a population of 500,000 and is developing quickly: a huge Sheraton is currently being built overlooking the waterfront .

We went for a wander through the wet and dry market area bustling with people looking for food - superb fresh seafood and coloured lobsters, crunchy snacks, pickled fruits and vegetables.


Lots of varieties of crunchy snacks called krupuk (exactly the same as Indonesian)

I still don't know what she was
 making but it looked interesting!

One of the tiny cramped jewellery stores

Dream catcher anyone?

Endless varieties of dried fish.....


.....and fresh seafood of all sorts available

Giant oysters!!

Colourful crayfish

 Then it was tiny overcrowded jewellery and clothing stalls so close together we could barely breathe let alone buy anything! 

Male tailors with sewing machines sat and waited for work at the end of each aisle.










 

Some of the fishing boats responsible for the fabulous array of seafood in the market


We were relieved when we could spread out along the seawall and watch a beautiful sunset followed by a drink at a waterfront bar.




Everyone was too tired to go in search of dinner at the local market so we went to a Japanese restaurant next to the hotel and fell into bed to enable us to be ready for a transfer to the Airport at 6am!

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