Penang holiday: Day 2 - The Blue Mansion

A cute, albeit slightly disgusting, pose of Sam, playing excitedly with garden stones outside the Blue Mansion.

We arrived at the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (more famously known as the Blue Mansion) just as the free tour started at 3 pm. Had to park the pram & carry Sam since tour continued up on the 2nd storey.

Lucky for us, Sam was relatively well behaved that day: though he was bored with us standing around listening to the guide, he didn't cry or scream. We ended up taking turns to listen to the tour while the other carry Sam around to see more 'interesting' items & stuff him with biscuits.

I really quite like the Blue Mansion. Thought it was very well restored. Definitely need to take the tour, especially for an ignorant woman like me (hubby claims he knew most of the stuff the guide talked abt!). Feels good to know a bit abt the mix of Chinese & Western architecture during the British settlement era......

Only 'regret' is that only the centre court of the mansion is open to the public, the 2 wings being converted to B&B guestrooms, & are thus out of bounds to protect the privacy of the guests.

After the 1 hr tour, hubby practised his photography on the outside of the mansion (no photography allowed inside the house. Guess they need to earn from the postcards!) This was possible cos once again, Sam was happily engaged playing with the stones lining the perimeter of the garden.

Recalling that, I sometimes wonder why I bother spending money on toys for Sam! A few stones from a garden/aquarium seems to suffice for him!!!!!