Penang is an island off the northwestern coast of Malaysia.
It was a British base of operations for the East India Trading Company and
feels right out of Pirates of the Carribean. The island is very large, green,
and populous.
Georgetown is the hub, and transportation is super easy by
bus.
Here are a few highlights:
The
Penang Taman Negara (national park)
On
the NW corner of the island lies a jungle of a national park, complete with
isolated beaches and turtle reserves. It is a half hour bus ride from
Georgetown. Here, the government has to take turtle nests and put the eggs in
hatcheries, letting them out when they are somewhat grown. This is becuase of
the ceaseless predators who hunger for their flesh. Namely the locals.
We
started on an adventure through the jungle, unsure of what we would find, and
it ended up being one of our favorite things we have done so far! Verdant
jungle, perfect hiking length, gorgeous beaches, and a “free” canopy walk!
(well, it was closed on the one day we went, so we had to let ourselves in to
enjoy its splendor.)
Penang
Botanical Gardens
These
look pretty crappy from the onset (no one is surprised), but the jungle that
surrounds the gardens is unreal. Vines bracelet every tree and branch,
butterflies and dragonflies flick through light specks that escape the canopy
of trees above, monkey leap from branch to branch above our heads, turtles poke
their noses between jurassic lily pads. AH! Truly magical.
We
sat and watched a group of monkies eat and play for a long time. These monkeys,
called Dusky Leaf Monkeys, have bright white eyes and are sweet and gentle.
Unlike the nasty macaque species that are rats in trees.
Georgetown
Historic Walk
This
must have been an enormous town in the 1920s becuase almost the entire city is
made of super old, SUPER cool buildings! There are areas from the 1800s and
older, and we went crazy over the old British mansions that have fallen to
ruin. Tragic!
Kek
Lok Si Temple Complex
We
totally underestimated what this site had to offer. The complex is HUGE; it is
the largest Budhist temple in Southeast Asia. They let us explore so much of it
too, and it was mostly free. They try to get you to pay to take a little tram
to the top statue, but you can ask around for how to walk there, despite people
trying not to tell you becuase they want to force you to take th tram. It only
takes 15 minutes to walk up, but the hill is fierce. It seemed so silly to pay
$4 to have a tram lug us 150 feet.
The
complex is kept up extremely well and was decked out for Chinese New Year.
Gorgeous! Ornate shrines, temples, artwork, millions of candles—truly astonishing.
My
camera died at this point in the day. Sad!
more than 300 turtles were in this pond at the Kek Lok Si temple. So strange! Turtles are hilarious. We have logged many hours watching them this trip.
Ringing the gong! Austin would pay for this priviledge, but we walked to the top of the hill...hmm. :)
Thai
Temple
This temple has the largest reclining Budha in
Malaysia. It is well kept and easy to access. Cool, but not the #1 site fo sho.
Huge malls EVERYWHERE!
Witch brooms everywhere! And they work great.
Austin is gargantuan to these people. Hilarious.
Some dude lighting a freakin bonfire in front of his shop in the middle of a main road. Wha??
Don't judge my outfit. Threadbare already!
corey: why is austin humungous and why is stephie in a cage?
ReplyDeleteHa Corey! All the people here are so short, even shorter than Stephie.sometimes they all stop and stare at him! Austin locked Steph up in a cage because she was grouchy because she had thousands of mosquito bites...just kidding! It was an old prison in a 300 year old fort we explored!
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