We arrived in Penang, an island off the north west coast of Peninsula Malaysia and checked into the great apartment that Dad had booked for us in Georgetown. We had planned to stay here for 4 nights but we ended up staying for 10.
Dad went to a private hospital, which was conveniently located about a 5 minute walk from the apartment (we could actually see the hospital from our balcony) and they said that they could arrange an MRI scan for the same day and that they would keep him in the hospital overnight. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Dad ended us having key-hole surgery on his right knee and was in hospital for a week. When he came out he had a few days with us in the apartment and we hired a wheelchair so he could go out. Luckily, after a lot of hassle with the insurance company, they told us that they would pay for all of the medical bills and they arranged for them to get back to the UK. They ended up flying from Penang to KL and then they got their original flights home but Dad got upgraded to Business Class. So all in all it was rather a disastrous holiday.
I also went to see a doctor in Penang and received the happy news that my corneal ulcer had healed. I think I'll be sticking to glasses until we get out of the tropics though, just to be on the safe side!
In between hospital visits Nic, Mum and I did manage to see some sights.
Here's me and Mum at Fort Cornwallis, which was built when Captain Francis Light first landed in Penang. The brolly is for the sun not the rain:
They have many lovely buildings in Georgetown; this is the Town Hall:
We went to the museum and saw the Rolls Royce that had belonged to Sir Henry Gurney, the former British High Commissioner who was shot dead. The Rolls ended up with 32 bullet holes!
Due to the important Gurneys who lived here, we now have our own road, hotels, shopping mall and food stalls. This is the mall:
This is a shot of Gurney Drive:
The 3 of us went for a drive around the island and took in some sights, here's Mum at a fruit stall in Balik Pulau sniffing some very smelly Durian fruit.
We also went to the amazing Kek Lok Si Temple (temple of supreme bliss). It's built on the hillside and looks amazing from the road below. It has a 30 metre high bronze statue of Kuan Yin:
These fellas wanted their photo taken with Nic???
This pagoda is 7 storeys high and you can walk up it to get amazing views of Georgetown:
This is the hospital were poor Dad spent most of his holiday:
The 3 of us had another outing to see some of the wonderful temples in Georgetown. This is Khoo Kongsi, the most renowned of Penang's Hokkien clanhhouses.
The man below apparently eats ghost!
We're not sure what this man is doing?
This is Han Jing Ancestral temple:
These guys were flogging Durian, the whole temple stunk of it (think cheesy feet smell!)
I think these two may have drunk enough!!
We had lunch and then got Dad some take-away. Here's Mum with his bag of iced-coffee:
On our last night we had a lovely dinner in the very posh East Oriental Hotel. A fitting end to our strange holiday.
Yesterday Mum and Dad started their trip home and Nic and I drove the 5 hours back to the hotel in KL. It was so sad to say goodbye. I miss them very much.
Now it's the two of us again and tomorrow we're going to cycle out of KL (should be fun!) to the bus station so we can get a bus to Melaka and then we plan to cycle up the west coast back to Penang! I think it might take us more than 5 hours on the bikes!
Dad went to a private hospital, which was conveniently located about a 5 minute walk from the apartment (we could actually see the hospital from our balcony) and they said that they could arrange an MRI scan for the same day and that they would keep him in the hospital overnight. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Dad ended us having key-hole surgery on his right knee and was in hospital for a week. When he came out he had a few days with us in the apartment and we hired a wheelchair so he could go out. Luckily, after a lot of hassle with the insurance company, they told us that they would pay for all of the medical bills and they arranged for them to get back to the UK. They ended up flying from Penang to KL and then they got their original flights home but Dad got upgraded to Business Class. So all in all it was rather a disastrous holiday.
I also went to see a doctor in Penang and received the happy news that my corneal ulcer had healed. I think I'll be sticking to glasses until we get out of the tropics though, just to be on the safe side!
In between hospital visits Nic, Mum and I did manage to see some sights.
Here's me and Mum at Fort Cornwallis, which was built when Captain Francis Light first landed in Penang. The brolly is for the sun not the rain:
They have many lovely buildings in Georgetown; this is the Town Hall:
We went to the museum and saw the Rolls Royce that had belonged to Sir Henry Gurney, the former British High Commissioner who was shot dead. The Rolls ended up with 32 bullet holes!
Due to the important Gurneys who lived here, we now have our own road, hotels, shopping mall and food stalls. This is the mall:
This is a shot of Gurney Drive:
The 3 of us went for a drive around the island and took in some sights, here's Mum at a fruit stall in Balik Pulau sniffing some very smelly Durian fruit.
We also went to the amazing Kek Lok Si Temple (temple of supreme bliss). It's built on the hillside and looks amazing from the road below. It has a 30 metre high bronze statue of Kuan Yin:
These fellas wanted their photo taken with Nic???
This pagoda is 7 storeys high and you can walk up it to get amazing views of Georgetown:
This is the hospital were poor Dad spent most of his holiday:
The 3 of us had another outing to see some of the wonderful temples in Georgetown. This is Khoo Kongsi, the most renowned of Penang's Hokkien clanhhouses.
The man below apparently eats ghost!
We're not sure what this man is doing?
This is Han Jing Ancestral temple:
These guys were flogging Durian, the whole temple stunk of it (think cheesy feet smell!)
I think these two may have drunk enough!!
We had lunch and then got Dad some take-away. Here's Mum with his bag of iced-coffee:
On our last night we had a lovely dinner in the very posh East Oriental Hotel. A fitting end to our strange holiday.
Yesterday Mum and Dad started their trip home and Nic and I drove the 5 hours back to the hotel in KL. It was so sad to say goodbye. I miss them very much.
Now it's the two of us again and tomorrow we're going to cycle out of KL (should be fun!) to the bus station so we can get a bus to Melaka and then we plan to cycle up the west coast back to Penang! I think it might take us more than 5 hours on the bikes!
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