December 8, 2009 Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia

Continuing our George Town tour….  (We noticed that the city spells its name George Town and the highway department spells it Georgetown.  We were guessing one is local and one is federal)

Jin Xiu Art Gallery and Tea House 58 Muntri Street, George Town

It was lovely, cool and very relaxing.

Elizabeth going through her mail while we wait to order.

We ordered Puer tea which is a milder tea better to drink on  an “empty” stomach.

Although it was around lunch time, our second breakfast that morning kept us from being hungry for lunch. We were just tired and thirsty and tea was just the thing. The owner recommended puer tea. I remembered Stella (from Seahorse Marine) mentioning it when we were in China and also, the calligraphy teacher of Jingan had served puer tea to Sallie and me.

One of our stops earlier in the day was at the marina in George Town. E and P had stayed there for a bit and were having mail sent to them in care of the marina. That’s how cruisers receive mail and shipments. If you are lucky, mail/shipments will arrive on time; if not there are different options. You can wait for it to arrive. You can leave and hope other cruisers will retrieve it and bring it along to you. It can be sent back to its place of origination. ….. Usually though, if you stay at a marina for a month or so, your mail or package will arrive during that time. Other confusing things can happen when a resort and marina share a complex and the package doesn’t go to the marina office but rather to the resort front desk where often staff won’t sign for it. (No matter that you specifically asked that it be delivered to the MARINA OFFICE.)  We had that happen in KK. 

Our tea is being brewed for us.

I asked this young man how he came to be involved in the tea business and he said that serving tea was an art and that’s what attracted him to it.

There is an art to brewing, serving, and drinking tea. The tiny pot is refilled from the never empty glass pot of boiling water which is kept hot over a small candle. Boiling water is poured over the tiny ceramic pot to keep it hot. You drink from tiny cups, but if your tea gets cold you can pour it into the base of the tea tray through the slots and take more tea. And the cup nearest you actually belongs to the person opposite from you. I always mixed that up so we just drank from the cup nearest to us. I had experienced much of this in China acting as tour guide around Jingan for other visitors.  Everyone who visited wanted to buy tea pots and tea so we visited all the shops and drank lots of tea in similar tea “ceremonies”. But it is always a welcomed treat.

This tea house is also an art gallery. The current exhibit was the works of Charles Chauderlot.

www.charleschauderlot.com is his really fascinating web site

The exhibit was called Memories in Ink (of Penang) done in Chinese ink and brush.

Same temple, different view and nowhere near as interesting. You can see the large pink joss sticks on the right side of the photo since we are on the side street between the temple and the row of shops. At least I think it’s the same temple: I do remember the pigeons.

I’ve obviously cropped this and it’s off kilter, but you can still see how wonderful it is.

Mr. Chauderlot was invited by the Chinese to paint usually restricted parts of the Forbidden City and was later commissioned by the government of Macau to capture the city with his art. Had we been in the tea shop the previous day we would have met him at the opening of the exhibit. RATS!

A collection or priceless teapots! Tea pot warmers are on the top shelf.

Everything was decorative, even the chair seats if you can see the carving.

Local ladies having lunch. They gave us smiles as we left.

Looking out to the street.

We had a wonderful time, drank lots of tea, lots and lots of tea…and then refreshed we moved along to see what we would see. And what we would see would involve eating chocolate! And that will have to be left for another email.

Ru

DoraMac

ps: Tomorrow we’re off with a Rally tour of Langkawi for the day.  We take a small marina ferry for the short trip to the mainland and then join the Rally bus for a tour and lunch.  For the past two and a half days Randal and I have done nothing but clean the boat.  Randal works outside and I clean inside.  We’re both looking forward to a day off.  I stil have to clean the forward cabin, aft cabin and the galley. (It took me two days just to clean both “heads” and the entire saloon. To let air circulate many of the cabinet doors and the bottom half of the “head” doors have slats and getting the dust out of those slats takes forever.  I found that if you wet a rag and drape it over a small spatular, you can get that between the slats and rub it back and forth several times.  Takes forever!)   Both of us will clean the pilot house.  Because of the salt, boat yard grit, and just life we have to clean from floor to ceiling and everything in between.  But then I can ignore it for another several months of so, at least this heave duty cleaning.  Is it baseball season yet?

pps: Sorry about the missing photo of Mr. Lee, the joss stick maker.  It was in the email before I sent it.   But it wasn’t mine anyway so I guess the fact that it disappeared is fair.