Day 59 Penang, Malaysia 34/93 degrees HOT

Today we took a very cheap taxi ride with a Chinese man who didn't speak English very well, but we got by. It was about £15.00 for a two hour tour and he took us to three temples then up the tallest tower in Penang, 60 stories high. Obviously, being chinese, he took us to the Buddhist Temples which are the most ornate anyway, so I was able to capture lots of Kodak moments. The last temple, Kek Lok Si, is high up in the hills and has 10,000 Buddhas! We didn't count them all. We then got in a funicular lift which took us to the very top of the hill where there is the most amazing bronze statue, which is allegedly the tallest in the world at 120ft high. Unfortunately it's surrounded by scaffolding because a pagoda is being erected to protect the statue from the elements and 1000 bronze statues are to be built at the base to guard him. Now for a geography lesson .... From Kuala Lumpur yesterday, we sailed along the Strait of Malacca for 182 miles. Malaysia was on our starboard and Sumatra on our port side. Although Penang is an island lying off the north west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, it is now linked to the mainland by the world's third longest suspension bridge. This bridge is designed to last four centuries and withstand earthquakes up to 7.5 on the Richter scale, so that's reassuring! The climate in Penang is tropical and the temperature varies from 23 to 33 degs C, August being the wettest month but rainfall varies according to the prevailing monsoon, generally averaging about four times that of southern England (and I thought that was bad!) Tomorrow I'm starting Line Dancing, I feel bloated and am sure I've put on half a stone. I'd rather do that and have some fun than go to the gym or walk around the deck in this heat! Hello to Hollie and Jamie who I know are reading this and I hope you are learning something from it!