I'm back, to detail my journeying and escapades of the weekend, spent at the most wonderful Penang.
After what was rather a hectic and stressful week of finishing off some coursework, the damned thing was finally handed in Friday morning, and we sat in a lecture theatre all distracted, heads full of thoughts of going to the beach (beach!) For, handing in the essay heralded the start of the weekend, 12 noon on friday. We'd been given a strict deadline by Reema to be ready and out the front for the Taxi (or Texsi in Malay), to embark on a weekend of relaxation and recuperation
Our destination was the island of Penang, situated about 5~ hrs by road north of KL. It's a fairly large island, with a city on it, not sure how big, but there was a few sky-scrapers at least. It's connected to the mainland by a large bridge. Survived the bus journey without breaking down in tears, despite Faye's best efforts as she relentlessly reminded me of how her travel guide said Penang was no good for beaches, just for food. Now, I'm not one to be dissuaded by talk of food by any means, but I had purchased a bucket and spade, just for this weekend...
Our hostel was on the north of the island, about 45min away by Taxi (in traffic,) in somewhere called Batu Ferrengi. The hostel was small, and like most hostels, basic, but there was nothing to complain about. The guys who owned it were really friendly, and it was clean. Us guys got thrown into the dorm-style room, so those of us who had already arrived grabbed our bunks of choice. We arrived at the hostel at about 10pm, so there wasn't any time to do much, so we grabbed food at a local food court, wandered up and down the night market briefly, and popped onto the beach (about 2min from hostel), to get our feet wet and get all excited about the fact we've finally made it away to a beach.
Saturday
The main activity for today, was to go find a nice little beach, maybe catch a wave or two. We met up with the engineers for a late breakfeast, and caught taxis to the entrance for the island's national park. The plan was to hike/trek to Turtle Beach, only accessible by foot or boat. The trek wasn't too arduous at all, and took just over the hour in all. The trek was actually through jungle, so we heard plenty of wildlife noises and the scenery was pretty beautiful, but the only wildlife we saw was a massive procession of ants. Just on the outskirts we saw Monkeys and a Water Monitor, but nothing within - probably something to do with 20 students traipsing through it.
Turtle Beach itself, was a pretty nice beach! Sadly, the sand was no good for sandcastle making however... There was nothing on the beach in terms of facilities- no shops of any kind, so we didn't stay for too long.
Boat ride back to the park entrance.Not on pictured boat, obviously
Upon cleansing the sand from every single area it seems to creep into, Anna, Vicky and I decided to go for a brief wander around Batu Ferringi, to, as Vicky put it "find something spontaneous." Sadly, the extent of said spontaneity was only finding an art gallery, and walking across a group of local boys playing football. We walked back up the beach towards our hostel, and met up with the others, who had been on the jetskis. Shout out to Hector for managing to tip his!
Now, saturday evening. Alice, Reema and Amy were going with the engineers to Georgetown (the main city/town of Penang,) to go find a bar there, whilst the rest of us were heading to the beach with a cooler of beers. A note to any parents/relatives over the age of 25 reading this: assume any amount of alcoholic bevarages consumed was one even if stated otherwise.
If this was a story, the next chapter would be labelled: Making friends on the beach. Original and exciting, I know.
After a bit, Hector, Jonn, Ollie and Joe left to go to the foodcourt as they hadn't grabbed dinner, leaving Anna, Faye, Charlie, Alice, Vicky and I on the beach. A guy with a strong English accent appears from behind us, beer in hand, cigarette in the other, and asks if he can sit down and join us (not like we could quite say no!) Despite the accent, he's obviously Malay somehow. Turns out, Chris, as he's called, is, erm... quite the character. Recent graduate from some UK university, the second thing he said to us is "want some vallium or speed." Erm... No thanks! Either he's a good story teller, or he's the real deal, but he talked a fair bit about himself, most of which involved various illegal hard drugs, and associated stories in South-East Asia. I was feeling pretty uneasy about the whole thing, as A) it's not the usual conversational topics, B) the stuff he's talking about is something none of us want to be involved in, and C) we're in Asia, this kind of a thing is something you'd trifle with even less so than you would back home. Add to that the fact I've had a few drinks, I wasn't feeling happy with the situation. Cue a phone call to none other than Hector, where I subtly manage to convey that it'd be good if he and the rest of the guys come back sooner rather than later.
If you're worried about this story having a bad ending, don't worry, it doesn't! The guys arrived back soon after, and we were also joined by a few German guys, who were working in KL for some engineering firm, and were much much less worrying than our first acquaintance. Nothing much else happened of note Saturday night. I had a great time, and drinking on the beach was a fun experience for sure. Ended up crashing sometime in the early morning, whilst those who had gone to Georgetown played Ring of Fire with whoever else was still up.
Sunday
As you can probably imagine, Sunday morning wasn't the earliest of starts... The previous night, Anna, Vicky and I had decided we wanted to do the Butterfly Sanctuary, Penang Hill, and Georgetown. The rest were going to Georgetown, but a bit later on, as they wanted sleep. Powered by enough water to drown an elephant, and trusty Paracetamol, I was feeling fairly decent, as we made our way by taxi (not before somehow managing to run into Chris again...) to the Butterfly Sanctuary. Now, I now it sounds a tadge on the lame side, and is the kind of thing you expect a primary school trip to be to, but it was really a good experience, if you're willing to engage with your butterfly side - I know it's there, somewhere!
The main swathe of the place, unsurprisingly, is a large greenhouse style space, full of butterflies just flying all over the place.There was also a few reptilian enclosures in the space (snapping turtles, lizards, none of the scary kind, it was ok), and outside of it, a few other animal exhibits (including the scary ones...) and various educational bits.
Our taxi driver had waited for us, so we asked him to drive us to Penang Hill - there's a funicular train up to the top of the 825m hill, which affords brilliant views of Penang, when you can see through the clouds. Along the way, our taxi driver stopped three times, once at a Chocolate shop, once at a Coffee shop, and once at a Tea shop. He explained to us that as a taxi driver, if he takes us there, we get free samples as they try ply us with freebies in hopes of buying things, and he gets points too that accumulate for bonuses he can collect. Sounded like a pretty good deal to us! After trying both a Durian flavoured coffee, and Durian flavoured chocolate, I've got to say it's not for me... thankfully there was enough other flavours to drown it out with, before we left each shop in turn on the hunt for more freebies - actually buying products from these places would be silly! Leaving our taxi driver at Penang hill - which is worth doing, I'd recomend it for sure, we took a bus to Little India, in central George town. Little India probably gives you a good indication of what was there.
Spontaneous moment number something of the day, we ran into a procession that we learnt upon asking someone was for the Chief Minister of the Island, who was to be making a speach in Little India, after the procession was done. Seems like he was a pretty popular man, judging by people's reactions upon being blessed by him. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we took a taxi to the bus station, meeting up with the rest of the group.
I had a great weekend, and getting away for a relax and going to the beach (beach), was something I think we were in desperate need of. Looking forward to our next getaway! Think I'm going to Batu Caves and doing the local Broga hill next weekend, with Anna and Vicky, maybe some of the locals if any want to tag along with us. We've got a 4day weekend, so a few half day trips, and then spending the rest of the time getting work done/revising for the exam/chilling is on the cards.
Hope everyone is well, and surviving the tornadopocalypse.
Much love,
Jacob xx
