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Published: March 9th 2007
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Penang (Georgetown) From Ko Lipe, Beat (Swiz Friend) and I headed to Georgetown, capital of Penang, old historical British Colonial Island on the west coast of Malaysia. Due to the heavy Monsoon season in Malaysia I had decided to stay on the west coast of Malaysia all the way past Singapore down to Bali (if I didn't choose to fly home for an NHS op first). Due to the time of year this also meant missing what I heard were excellent dive sites of Borneo.
As soon as we got off our bus journey straight away we bumped into Fabio again (small world, or were we just reading from the same guide book?!), who we hung around with whilst here in Georgetown.
We did enquire about the beaches in Penang, but when we said that we had just been to several of them in Thailand, we were told that Penang beaches did not compare, and not to bother!!
Georgetown, though "a must" in our travel book, was nothing spectacular. We only stayed two nights, and to be honest that was probably about right.
The
best part was the trip up
Penang Hill, which gave really great views over the Island, and which took us about 1000m above sea level. You can see a few pics from up on the hill in this blog. I was also looking forward to the "rope-and wire canopy walkway through the treetops, bringing you close to the monkeys, hornbills and clouds of butterflies"... unfortunately it had been closed for safety reasons 😞
Close shave in Georgetown Also must mention the
scarcest haircut I ever had in my life! Went into this Barber's where nobody really spoke any English, but old guy smiled at me and pointed to a seat and said 5 Malay dollar (about 80p), so I smiled back and sat down. Then I noticed that his hands were shaking like Mohammed Ali does now, and he went to reach something by the mirror but was unable to grasp it correctly and dropped it! As it was so hot, I just wanted a short haircut on top, back and sides, so thought ok, what can go wrong. He then bends the chair back and gets out a razor to give me a
Penang - Penang Hill
Post Hair cut, still got both my ears, thank god :) shave! No chance, not with the shakes he has, so I politely let him know with sign language and the look of fear in my eyes that I only want a haircut and not a shave as well!
He got a pair of clippers out from the draw (didn't drop these), and went to cut my hair, I noticed that it had the last persons hair still all over it, so I asked him to clean it first, this didn't seem to much trouble for him, and he proceeded to blow about half the hair off the clippers before starting to cut my hair. Still shaking, he was having real problems and kept digging into my head, what should I do? Leave with half a shaved head?! Just when I was coming to the conclusion this would be the safest option for my ears, a Malay lady came into view shouting at the old man and waving her finger. At this he gingerly smiled at me, and went to sit down with the other selection of old Chinese relics sitting in the corner. The new women cut my hair with a more assured hand, whilst all the time scolding
Cameron Highlands - Boh Tea Estate
Fabio, Beat and myself enjoying a very fresh cupo of tea. the old man in Chinese for attempting to cut a customers hair when he was just the Granddad who sits at the back of the shop!
Cameron Highlands On the advice of the Lonely planet guide book we took a 4 hour coach journey inland to the higher lands of the Cameron, where the cooler climate (in Malaysia terms cooler) was perfect for growing tea and growing lots of different fruits and veg. Some of the strawberries they grew were unbelievable, took about 5 of us to carry them all the way back to our hotel
The high altitude also gave us a welcome rest from all the heat.
Found a really nice place to chill out, it was full of Germans, they apologised about the war, and after that we got along fine! Used this as are base, as we visited
BOH tea plantation where they actually make tea. Were people in the fields actually picking it, but think this was for effect, because they also had massive machines in the fields further away (at least there jobs add value). We stopped for a nice cuppa and cake whilst we
Cameron Highlands - Strawberry Picking
They grow them big in the Cameron Highlands!! were there.
Next we went to a butterfly farm where they had animals ranging from, you guessed it... Butterflies but also Turkey's Turtles, snakes, and scorpion. Next door was a pick your own strawberry farms (which you could only eat on site, when the helper(guard) had his back turned). Picked the largest strawberry in the world ever ever whilst i was there too!
Cameron also had rain forest, and we had a trek in a rainforest for about 5 hrs, which though interesting was about 3 hrs to long with just Adidas trainers on my feet to stop me getting wet feet ad slipping. Still at least I can now say I've trekked through a rainforest!
Pulau Pangkor As next stop was Kuala Lumpur (city), decided to take a slight detour to the Malaysian beach Island of Pula Pangkor to top up on the tan and get a few days R&R (all this traveling, it's hard work you know!).
Went to Pangkor which was 4hrs north of KL on my own. Got in a minibus/Taxi at the Pier and this guy resembling Robinson Crusoe ask me if I live in Reading? Wow,
Pulau Pangkor- Nepah Bay
These Malaysia beaches ain't half bad either... freaky, so I look at him closer ok, who is this?! Wait, if this guy didn't have long hair or the beard, then I'd know who it was!! Turned of to be Ben who I played football with in reading, god it is a small small world and for once not even on a lonely planet "must see" spot!
After a couple of hours searching for the best deal, found a lovely family run hotel where I stayed to enjoy the sun for the next few days. This was in the resort of Nepah, which was the back packers part of the Island and was informed had the best beaches as well, so all was good.
Heard another guest enquire about Jelly fish, and was told by the owner that there were not on this beach which was good, but from the pic of the washed up on one of the beach was not entirely true!!
Anyway enjoyed my few days toping up the tan and swimming and booked myself onto bus to KL.........
More pics below......
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