I have nothing creative left to say

Day 266
I was up early, but really how could I not be, I went to bed at 9pm. Early was good though, it meant that it wouldn't be so hot when I climbed up a hill to see a church. Breakfast was first though, and as rice didn't sound too interesting I ended up at McDonald's.

After eating I checked out a strange little park that had a plane, a train and an ox cart in it. I then checked out the main square that had a decidedly Dutch feel to it. I then took a couple pictures of the Portuguese Santiago Port. It had been burnt by the British in 1795, but a few buildings still remained. Up the hill was St. Paul's church, which was surrounded by a Dutch cemetery. Inside were more Dutch headstones. There was also some guy playing a guitar and singing in a rather eerie manner.

My next stop was the People's Museum. This actually had three different sections to it. The first was on the cultural makeup of Malaysia, the second on kites and the last on concepts of beauty around the world. The first bit was kinda boring but I did find out that Malaysia is made up of Malays, Chinese, Chetties (mix between locals and Indians in the 15th century), Indians, Portuguese and the Baba-Nyonya (mix between the Chinese and Malay). One of the boards said that the Malay group were the natural leaders of everyone else. The rest of the section concentrated on some weird top spinning game.

Upstairs was the kite section. I had never seen these in a museum before and took pictures of several of them. Apparently kites were invented about 25 hundred years ago as a way to connect with the heavens.

Out of the three museums the beauty museum was the most interesting. It was also the least well taken care of. The pictures and write ups were fading all over the place. I think that the purpose was to show how beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I just couldn't get over the sections on scaring and lip plate piercings though. It wasn't what they looked like, but the pain they must have caused. I also can't imagine having something like that done in not perfectly sanitary conditions. There was also a section on corsets. Oddly they used Queen Elizabeth as an example for every single type, it was the same picture too.

Back out in the heat I headed to China town. Most of the shops were closed though and I decided to visit again later in the day. I did find a few Temples though and popped my head in. I had never been in one before. I am very used to the austerity of medieval cathedrals and the bright paintings were a bit shocking at first. After a few minutes though I learned to appreciate the carvings and the paintings. I loved how the dragons leapt right off of the walls.

After some more wandering I headed back to the hotel to sleep off the afternoon heat. I couldn't sleep through it all though and spent a bit of time with my book.

Chinatown at dinnertime was a whole new experience. The shops were open and there were a lot more people around. After grabbing a sandwich I wandered the streets taking pictures of the buildings. Two women invited me to take a picture of their very traditional living room. It was a very nice gesture. The people here are really very friendly.

When I had run out of streets to wander I went back to the hotel. After showering to cool down I spent some time reading before calling it an early night.