Travel Log 5

Agnes’s Brothers wedding was huge. Agnes like most Chinese families out here has about 10 aunts and uncles on both sides of her family meaning she has millions of cousins. There are so many things that go on in a Chinese wedding and too many to explain. So I shall just say thanks Agnes for inviting me.

 

After the wedding I had planned to go straight to Thailand however school holidays changed my plan as there weren’t any trains or buses for a few days so on the spur of the moment having 10 minutes before the bus left I decided to go back to Penang and try and get a bus from there. On the bus I realised that I neither had money in my wallet for a taxi nor credit on my phone to call Kendra for a lift and that I would be arriving at the bus station out of town at 1 in the morning. Unfortunately Kendra didn’t answer the phone when I called using the taxi drivers mobile so in the end I had to get the taxi driver to drive me to an ATM machine so I could pay him a ridiculous amount for the taxi ride to the hotel I had been staying at previously.

The next day I found out that there weren’t any buses from Penang for a few days either. Luckily Kendra wiped her evening schedule clean and had a bank holiday on Friday. Ta Muchly.

Saturday came quickly enough and I now find myself in the film ‘The Beach’ staying at the dirty hotel where Dicaprio gets given the map. Like Leo I also want to escape the hotel. Not because it is dirty as it is probably one of the cleaner places I have stayed thus far but for the irritating fellow travellers there seems to be here (next door neighbours are having an argument about money as I write this (later just as I was about to fall asleep they decide to have loud make-up sex - bed banging and screaming involved!)). Having said this one of the travellers did provide a funny moment when he crashed his scooter into three others when trying to park causing several broken lights. I had to bite my lip real hard not to laugh out loud.

Tomorrow I head to the Island where The Beach was shot.

Travel Log 4

For the past week I have spent most of my time in George Town taking pictures of crumbling colonial buildings, relaxing and eating the local food. There was a cuttlefish dish called Yau Yue Ong Choy which although highly recommended by the internet was quite bland, and the cuttlefish quite tasteless. One evening I shared a delightful dim sum meal with Tina a German girl whom I met through couchsurfing.com she is trying to set up an internet business in SE Asia and has been staying in George Town for about a month now whilst the webpage is made. We also attended a dance show as Tina’s Thai Chi teacher invited us to go. The show turned out to be a school dance competition and Tina and I were the only non Chinese people there. Some of the performances were better than others, the best I thought was an all boy group who performed quite a feminine  piece.

 Cuttlefish on display in Penang’s Gurney Drive

Staying at the same guesthouse was Sius a devote Muslim with whom I joined to go to the National Park for the night. Sius had a tent which we pitched on a raised shelter and stayed the night on a deserted beach called Monkey Beach although there were more crabs than monkeys to be seen on the beach.

The next morning he hiked up to the lighthouse which had been built in 1883 by the British to guide sailors into the port in George Town. When we arrived we found the fence locked and no sign of life inside so being adventurous we jumped the fence to take a look around. After taking some pictures and trying every door Sius found a ladder and had the bright idea of getting up of the roof. The roof wasn’t too pleased with this idea and decided to give way with Sius falling a few metres onto a hard tiled floor. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at Sius as I did warn him to be careful as the corrugated asbestos didn’t look very safe to walk on. Luckily Sius and his camera were ok and we decided that is was best to leave as quickly as possible. So we climbed back over the fence without clearing up the mess or closing the doors we had opened and make our way back through the forest. Just 20 metres down the path we past a Malay fella who said he was about to unlock the fence to the lighthouse and would we like to take a look inside. I quickly thought that letting the guy know that that wouldn’t be necessary as we had already been in wouldn’t be very wise so I replied without much hesitation that yes we would love to take a look around and what great timing he had. So Sius and I distracted our host with idle chitchat, “when was the lighthouse built?”, “does it still get used?” …  luckily he didn’t notice the open door which lead to the hole in the roof and instead opened up the stairwell to the top of the lighthouse. What a wonderful view it has over the island. After this and signing  our good names in the visitor book we thanked the guy, who was still oblivious to all that had happened before he arrived, and made our way as quickly as possible (2 and a half hours) to the park exit. I although having not done anything more serious than climb a fence couldn’t help but think that there would be police waiting for us at the end of our trek and would either force us to bribe them or pay a large fine. This fear was only made worst when Sias said that the lighthouse keeper had noticed the cuts on his arm and had asked how he got them to which Sias replied that he had slipped.

To our good fortune this slip seemed to go unnoticed and we managed to get on our bus back to George Town which out any problem. phew!

   

Well I shall speed through the rest. Penang Hill – Great view, funicular railway. Paddy fields – Pretty. Walking in sun – Hot and sweaty.

I am now back at Agnes’ place in KL as she has invited me to join her family for her Brother’s wedding and as I won’t get these offers everyday I thought I could postpone going to Thailand for a week. So here I am back in KL for the fourth time having got a free lift off the lovely Kendra, whom joined me for food and drinks for a couple of evenings in Penang and who also happened to be going to KL the same time I was. Thankyou Kendra.

OK - till next time.