fri day 42

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Last full day on the island of Penang started again with a lovely breakfast and then heading to the closest bus station - seeing the bus I was after I squeezed myself on it - probably taking twice the amount of passengers it should - but hey, this isn't the UK! So today I was off to the north west of Penang to the national park to do some walking and see some wildlife. I registered at the front desk - just I case people don't return - and map in hand I headed in the direction of monkey island - about an hrs walk around the edge of the park keeping the sea on my right. The path started off very promising - paved, signposted, no litter - things changed - the path quickly becoming very unmade, precarious in places, some climbing and no signposts! So, after a tough slog I made it to a beach - was it monkey beach? ( I did see one monkey ) who knew! It did however have a pretty pier, but no people and not much else so walking to the far end I saw a very faded sign saying monkey island - 2km!! I was determined to carry on even though the heat is exhausting - 30 minutes later I was there. Not a single monkey in sight - but a drinks stand and 2 couples standing near a boat........ One of the men came over to say hi - and get a photo - so I popped the question of could I catch a ride with them on the boat back to the start of the park, he very kindly offered me to go fishing with them first. So after a 2 second hesitation we all climbed in the boat and went and did a spot of fishing - the 2 couples were from Saudi Arabia with the ladies dressed in full burkas - so couldn't even see their eyes - all in their 20's and all seemed very friendly. After 50 minutes of dangling a fishing line - and not catching anything we went round the island to see turtle beach ( wasn't in the original plan - but sounded good so we all decided to ) off the boat we walked into a rehabilitation centre which had 2 tiny baby turtles - very cute - in a paddling pool ( about the size of a small adult hand). The turtles come onto the island every evening to lay their eggs - these 2 had been kept back until big and strong enough to be let free. The next stop, after spotting lots of jellyfish was back to the entrance of the park - my stop ( the others had arranged for the boat to take them back to the hotel ). We said our goodbyes and I thanked them for the experience - the kindness of complete strangers - they accepted no money from me also - a very kind generous thing for them to have done. Catching the bus back to the hostel and eating at the restaurant attached - the cuisine being western and really nice - 2 courses and drinks £8! It had been a fantastic day and a nice end to my visit to peninsula Malaysia.

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