Penang and Langkawi Islands

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Oh dear, I seem to have accumulated a backlog of travel journals (a b'log of 'blogs) - I haven't wrote an entry for a good two weeks. I do at least have a number of excellent excuses, which I'll come to.

On arrival in Georgetown (Penang Island's main town) Chris and I figured we'd make use of James' absence, and visit a museum and a temple full of snakes (two activities we knew James would be less than keen on). At the time we didn't know James was leaving us for good. Georgetown's museum was interesting, cheap and ludicrously overstaffed. The snake temple to be honest wasn't quite worth the hour-long wait for the right bus, although I don't think many people can say they've visited a temple filled with sacred snakes!

So the first reason for my recent lethargy. I had a huge craving for Indian curry, and Chris kindly relented despite a number of bad experiences in Delhi rather putting him off said dish. To be fair, this is one of the many cuisines for which Georgetown is famous so I thought we should give it a go. I enjoyed my curry greatly, Chris less so, but unbelievably we were both feeling none too perky after mere hours. Truly Indian curries must be cursed! My illness began with a bad headache and fever, before transferring to the more usual issues of the gut. At least my ailment lasted no more than a week - both James and Chris received far more extended maladies at the hands of the Curry.

Before the bug really kicked in, we enjoyed a good day in the environs of Penang Hill. The views from the top were sadly obscured by fog, but we did at least have the good fortune of bumping into a diverse group of travel buddies who shared our plan to walk down to the botanical gardens. The path was exceptionally steep, and plagued by troupes of monkeys, the first of which proved very aggressive and we were lucky to get away unscratched (a serious issue in rabies-infected countries). Nevertheless it was an enjoyable walk, and I got very excited when I found a particularly nice Nepenthes specimen.

We decided to take a sea route in reaching Thailand, which took us to Langkawi Island. This wasn't exactly a highlight for me - I felt awful and it rained the whole time (probably connected with the cyclone in Burma). We escaped to Underwater World, a reasonably good aquarium but no Osaka. Sadly I have no photos, a second reason for getting behind on the blogging. After rescuing my photos from an over-excited anti-virus program which decided to wipe them, my efforts proved in vain as my ipod decided to break completely a few days later. It made a crackling noise which sounded rather like burning electronics.

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Photos

Viper's Smile
These poisonous snakes are the unusual inhabitants of the Snake Temple. The viper kindly remained absolutely still whilst I crept my lens to within centimeters of its head.

Funicular
This hillside railway trundled up to the top of Penang Hill.

Monkey
This monkey, in the botanical gardens, gave us no trouble at all.