Penang in a day

So, I really only spent a few hours here. But I did everything possible in those few hours.

Our bus from Thailand got here at 2pm. And I know you might think we are crazy for bussing around for 16 hours, but it was the only way to reach Penang that day. There were no flights from Phuket to Penang that day or the next day, delaying our trip by two days! Not on my watch! (also transfer flights were not too popular for Penang either and some were just ridiculously expensive).
So we bussed to Penang.
The bus takes you to this enormous mall that is on the brink of Georgetown. From there you can either take the bus around, which is a free tourist shuttle bus. Or walk. but people will say you are crazy for walking. Apparently not too crazy. In the short amount of time we had there, we walked everywhere. I mean we tired to take the bus, but it was simply too confusing. More than half the stops were not even listed on the route map we had and if you weren't quick enough, the bus didn't stop. It was pretty crowded and mostly in Malaysian and well I suppose I just wasn't feeling quick enough to keep up with it. Needless to say, we got off at the wrong stop.
And from there decided to hoof it. We figured waiting for buses and finding the bus stops would probably take as long as walking around anyways. Go us! We were healthy!

Our first stop! This is an ancient house of a Chinese clan. They were among some of the first Chinese settlers in Penang and were a large influence

We found this along the way. A Buddhist temple

These three are a Hindu temple and two Chinese ones. At the Hindu temple, a man ushered us inside and took us around to his gods and had us give money. My smallest bill was a 5 ringit and that was my first mistake. He had us be blessed by two gods and kept asking for a larger donation for the second one because we honored the first so much (I wasn't about to drop a 20 ringit!). But hold your ground or they will just keep taking your money.
The first Chinese temple pictured had 5 massive incense sticks. They were the kind that maybe you could fit both hands around and would have stood taller than my brother. Inside were ornate chinese carved dragon columns where they would stuff these paper prayers in the dragons spirals and teeth.

Here a beautiful Catholic church (Penang is clearly a place of many religions) and Cornwallis at Fort Cornwallis.

This amazingly beautiful house is the Cheong Fatt Tze house

And finally our dinner! Something Penang is a bit famous for: Steamboat. What it is, it is hard to say. If you have been to Japan in the winter and had nabe, then you might understand. It is different foods, in this case, different seafoods, boiled in a broth and you just pluck out the desirables with your chopsticks. It is named steamboat for the funnel on top, which much looks like a steamboats when the smoke billows from it (there is a fire under the pot to keep it boiling).