God, once upon a time, creating the Malaysian island of Penang, became generous, fully investing in its nature a real riot of colors and forms. There is a lot of everything in Penang - sun, gentle warmth, brightness and joy - green blots of land languidly lie in the blue of the sea. And there are rocks of the most bizarre outlines that are approaching you to go under the wave a little later, and the waves themselves are delightfully turquoise, with a lace lamb on top, and the jungle.
Some philosophers believe, they say, it is extremely difficult for a person to be happy, because his own life arranges surprises almost every day. Sometimes they are pleasant, sometimes they are not, it doesn't matter. And real, unclouded happiness is something completely different, perhaps just peace and a thirst for repetition. This is exactly how it is in Penang: sunrises and sunsets are repeated, the sound of the ocean, crackling in a palm grove, chirping of birds. Happiness. Skeptics don't believe - that's their business. They say, they say, all the same, the islands of Malaysia are not alike. Nobody argues. Despite the succession of identical paradisiacal everyday life, each of the islands has something of its own, personal, something that you can happily show the traveler.
In particular, Penang melts a temple of snakes in its thickets. Yes, a real place of pilgrimage for a wide variety of creeping reptiles. According to an old legend, a righteous hermit lived at this place for a long time, and now, after his death, reptiles crawled down from all around. For some reason, the local residents decided that this must be a holy place, and built a temple. At the entrance, 2 copper censers are swirling in blue smoke. The air smells of something intoxicating. Inside, right in the middle, there are several trees, and the "institution" itself is simply teeming with reptiles of all colors and sizes. Penang guides say that exactly 606 swamp vipers live in the temple garden at the same time, the bite of which is fatal. Snakes crawl everywhere: on trees, on the floor, Of course, the servants of the shrine make excuses, they say, all the “mistresses” are drugged with incense, and therefore not dangerous, besides, those with whom they are allowed to take pictures have their poisonous teeth removed (in one of the rooms, tourists are offered for $ 8 to capture themselves at once with Penang's toothless fashion models react very weakly to what is happening. It is understandable, but it is unlikely that they really look into the yellow serpentine eyes: this is a miracle, or something alien, crawled ten minutes ago to visit. Truly, the temple of snakes is luxurious a place to tickle your own nerves. will die very quickly. Hospitably.
The antipode of the snake temple excursion is the traditional “Malay style” evenings hosted by the Penang Cultural Center. The show offered by the island is also incomparable, although completely safe in the sense of snakes. There will be very colorful huts built of bamboo, seemingly haphazardly covered with palm leaves, and they will contain employees of the Cultural Center in colorful rags, depicting the daily life of a traditional Malay village. Sitting on low chairs around the stage, guests will be able to watch all kinds of performances by acrobats, fire eaters and courageous fakirs running bare heels on shattered glass. Immediately dexterous craftswomen will weave a cross between a cap and a haystack from straw - this is a national headdress. And they will also offer to “seize” the spectacle with mouth-watering shrimps with thick sauce.
To visit Penang and not see the famous rubber plantations means a lot to lose. They stretch along the highway for hundreds of kilometers. In the rubber forest overhead, the crowns of huge trees close up, on the trunks of which, about 50 cm from the ground, small clay bowls hang - a very curious sight, but, of course, not like a flock of cheerful monkeys jumping on them or the majestic island night …
At night, Penang drowns in silence. But it is worth taking a couple of dozen steps from the hotel - and it seems as if there are no tourists, no civilization, there is only silence, interrupted by unfamiliar cries of birds and animals, dark hills, occasionally illuminated by a flash of lightning, a measured splash of waves sparkling under the moonlight. And everything else is a surprise born of your imagination, because that, not being able to capture what you saw in a day, begins to finish painting the pictures of endless Malaysian wonders.
