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Published: October 6th 2012
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Our relaxing time in Samui had to come to an end, Thai visas ran out, so we departed on the ferry and caught a minivan south, destination Penang - Malaysia. The journey itself was nothing to write home about - long, hot and sweaty (no surprise there!). After border formalities, an interesting sunset and another couple of hours we finally reached Penang late in the evening. Eventually we found a hostel and sat down to some welcome Indian food in a nearby food court. We quickly realised that we were going to like Penang a great deal!
In terms of famous sights, on first appearance, Penang doesn't seem to have too many. What it does have though is a charming mix of architecture, cultures, and religions and of course food. First day we strolled alongside beautifully preserved colonial style buildings down to the promenade and the ancient fort buildings. Further along we came to the port and watched a huge Star Cruise ship docking. We then opted for a local bus to take us out of Georgetown (the old town area), destination Penang Hill, where we hoped for a good view over the island.
On the way we stopped
off at the Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia. It was an impressive sight, and took a great deal of step climbing and a lift to get to the top. The view from there was good and we enjoyed feeding the turtles (a common inclusion in Buddhist temples, although how satisfying that is for the turtles we aren't sure). Time was ticking, so we set off, again by bus, to Penang Hill. The funicular railway that took us to the top was more like a slow rollercoaster than a train and when we arrived at the summit the view was spectacular and the air a few degrees cooler. We were a bit late in the day to see too much at the top, but managed to pop into an interesting carnivorous plant exhibition and avoided an excitable group of monkeys before making our descent. Knackered after an unplanned long day, we didn't risk experimentation with food, a tried and tested Indian meal really hit the spot this time with added live entertainment western pop songs from 60’s/70’s/80’s.
More sightseeing the next day, we took a local ferry over to the mainland and back
then took a good look around the Little India area. It was a heady mix of booming Indian music, bright clothes for sale and superb Indian food treats on offer. The 14 dish vegetarian Thali went down a treat. Due to the diverse nature of the population (Malay, Chinese, Indian etc) there were countless Buddhist & Hindu temples, mosques and even a few churches. Tina relished the chance to spend time exploring them - the cycle driven trishaw her favoured mode of transport, Mark preferred the night spent watching the new Batman film at the cinema.
Not yet templed out Tina managed a visit to a clan house the very impressive Khoo Kongsi. On her way back she was accosted by a rival family who had a competing clan house to show – receiving a personal tour.
On our final night we elected to go for a meal at 7 ish - extremely bad timing as the fasting Muslims had been waiting since dawn for a good feed - all restaurants were packed, we seemed to be the only ones not having pre-ordered and although delicious the food took ages to arrive.
After several days exploring Penang
we elected to move on and took a bus to the state of Kelantan and its capital Khota Bharu. The journey was overnight and could have taken only about 3-4 hours. With multiple stops and general time wasting the driver strung it out to about 8 hours. We were so happy about that, honestly. Khota Bharu was very different again, a 95% Muslim city. We explored the town pretty much in a day - taking a look at the local museum which contained some superb kites - a local sport of the Malays. The local market was pretty spectacular, with a great range of fruits, vegetables, fish, clothes, basically anything. We also managed to find a couple of vegetarian restaurants to dine in to Tina’s delight. It was while cooling off at McDonalds in the evening that we saw Ramadan in action again. The place was full of people with trays of food just waiting for the moment they could tuck in - superb commitment, Mark wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, let alone the half hour or more they waited!
Another bus ride took us to the port town of Kuala Besut. Here we boarded a boat for the
Perhentian Islands with high hopes of great beaches and snorkelling. The boat journey was an experience in itself. Fortunately the sea was calm as we flew along in the speed boat at top speed, taking a few heavy blows to our behinds as we scooted over any ocean swells. Arriving at the bigger of the two islands (Besar) we found a room in a local dive shop (not luxurious but cheap) and got out onto the superb beach just outside. Mark hit the water first and found the coral and fish incredible. When Tina took to the water an Aussie guy called over that he'd seen a turtle. Tina swam straight over and was lucky enough to swim with the Leatherback Turtle for a few minutes, something she’d always wanted to do. She was overcome with emotion! Once we'd sorted our valuables out properly we were able to swim together and the variety of fish and coral was simply stunning - especially as it was just metres from the beach.
We spent the best part of a week enjoying the snorkelling from the beach. At other times we walked around the island to other pristine beaches. We saw two
giant turtles and a number of sting rays just off another beach. On a snorkelling trip to Rawa Island we managed to see both reef sharks and some enormous Napoleon - fish, plenty more rays, "nemo fish", another large turtle (which Tina touched - which she shouldn’t have) and countless other species. It’s hard to put into words how amazing the fish were - if only we'd had an underwater camera.
The link below shows a few of the fish, plus a few peoples holiday pics as a bonus...
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=perhentian+fish&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=31FUUJK-O8bOrQfW0YH4Bg&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=473#hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=MFJUUNKvGcXyrQe574CQCA&ved=0CEMQvwUoAQ&q=perhentian+tropical+fish&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=4df5025e54fac35a&biw=1024&bih=473
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