Penang, Besar birthday and Taman Negara

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August 11th 2008

Published: August 18th 2008

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Kelly and Amers

One toe Gecko

We found this little fella in our hotel room in Krabi (I think)

We touched down safe and sound in the island port of Penang and made our way to the capital city Georgetown. This was meant to be the 'most Malaysian place in Malaysia,' representing the country better than any other province, city or rural area. The place was a bit dissapointing as we were met with crumbling buildings, lots of dirt (the place felt filthier than a lot of cities its size that we'd previously encountered) and accomodation that was really bad value for money (we were living like kings in Thailand, Laos and even Cambodia- the accomodation was pretty grim and so much more expensive here). Some of the places we looked at when we first arrived reminded us of S21 in Cambodia (a slight exageration perhaps, however these horrible grot-holes consisted of a concrete floor, an ancient matress (stained), bars on the windows and a bucket and hose to wash yourself with- unless of course you were unlucky enough to have to share bathrooms, which is a whole other kettle of fish). After some searching however, we did manage to find something that fit the bill- it was shared facilities but the place was reasonably priced, clean and run by

Old building

An example of a typical crumbling building in Penang (though this one has character)

a really friendly Chinese family.

And that's one of the things that struck us most walking around Georgetown- there are 3 very distinct communities that make up the population- Chinese, Malay and Indian. In fact that's the way it is in Malaysia- these 3 groups make up the majority of the population, and every place has its own area where they congregate en masse, such as China Town or Little India. And it appears to work- they all consider themselves Malaysians in one big melting pot. Speaking of melting pots, we could smell the samosas from streets away so we made a bee line straight for Little India on our second night in Georgetown and devoured a banana leaf curry (dhal, vegetables, chutney, salad, rice, popadoms and puri served on a banana leaf and eaten the traditional way- with the hands.) It was so nice to have bread again- we'd craved it for nearly 4 months across the other SE Asian countries but no one does breads like the Indians. And what a meal- we ate like greedy backpackers; all that with drinks (obligatory coke- sugar fix) for less than two English pounds! As we were about to find

Finger lickin' good

Kelly joins the locals and goes at her banana leaf curry finger first

out- that's one of the best things about Malaysia, the food is really good, varied (well as long as you like Chinese or Indian) and dirt cheap.

There wasn't much to do in the centre of Georgetown so we took a local bus to the outlying suburbs and visited the Chinese Temple of Kek Lok Se. It's Malaysia's second largest (pretty small by Thai standards) but really colourfully decorated, adorned with dragons, Buddhas and holy stupas. Also, after climbing the 900 or so steps within the pagoda, we were rewarded with a decent view of Georgetown.

A day or so later, we left on the overnight bus which would take us across the bridge (which is a few kms long- the longest in SE Asia in fact) that connected Penang to the mainland and over to the east coast of Malaysia, arriving the next day at Kuala Besut. This is the port to get us over to the Perinthian Islands- our sheduled meeting point with Ed and Michelle before they finally up sticks from Kuala Lumpar (where they've resided for the last 2 years) and fly back to Blighty. The bus was, as we'd come to expect, a

Rubbish sign (read the small print)

I wonder if Malaysians see the irony in this...

couple of hours late setting off, which was really annoying. And once we got going we were subjected to Arctic temperatures because our driver (like every other Asian bus driver/passenger) liked his air con up as high as it could possibly go. By the end of the trip Kelly was wearing every item of available clothing to hand (sun hat, rain jacket, neck pillow) while I was trying to smother myslef in the miniscule window curtain in order to prolong the onset of frostbite.

Nevertheless, we arrived safe and sound the next morning (5am) and bought our shuttle boat tickets across the soup to the islands (same price as the bus that bought us hundreds of Kms- makes no sense!) After watching the sun rise we heaved our gear into a tiny speedboat and skimmed the waves over to Pulau Kecil (small island) for the first drop off. We then proceeded to Pulau Besar (big island) where we jumped ship. We spent the next hour walking up and down Tuna beach looking for somewhere to stay. After lots of diliberation and a little bit of haggling we managed to land a bungalow for around 18 pounds a night (way

Through the Se'ing glass

Kelly at Kek Lok Se Temple

more than we'd normally pay, but it meant that we could stay a couple of hundred metres away from Ed and Michelle). And meeting up with them was great- we hadn't seen them since that weekend in Bangkok around 3-4 months ago but we still had so much to talk about and catch up on. Besar is pretty dry when it comes to alcohol but we'd all planned ahead with a couple of bottles of wine, beer and champagne (saved for Michelle's birthday). Plus the bar at Tuna Bay was always at hand, albeit London prices.

On Michelle's birthday Ed, Michelle and Kelly booked a dive around the other side of the island. I tagged along as official photographer and opted for snorkelling. The water is amazingly clear in the Perinthians and the coral life makes it one of the best places to dive in the world. And we certainly weren't dissapointed- the marine life is amazing! You can see so many different species of fish, crustacean and plant- it's like a David Attenborough documentary in super-duper technicolour and 3D. I can't describe how spectacular the feeling is- swimming with curious shoals of fish following you as you float

Up in the tower

The view over Goergetown from the top of Kek Lok Se Pagoda

around taking it all in- this alien world that you're daytripping in. The divers all had a great experience but I'm pretty sure I saw just about as much as them while I snorkelled. And the great thing was that Tuna beach also had amazing snorkelling- and you were that much closer to all the marine life as it was really shallow water. So I made sure I spent a good few hours with my face dunked in the water to satisfy my curiosity.

That night we had birthday drinks on the beach for Michelle, and Kelly got one of the local cafe owners to prepare a birthday banana pancake especially, which we all tucked into. We had a great meal, followed by more drinks on the beach accompanied by music (courtesy of iPod and mini speakers) and late night swimming.

Very sad to say goodbye (this time for another 7-8 months) we left on an early shuttle boat, but not before being plied with lots of very useful info on KL and other parts of Malaysia. It was a really nice break from city travelling and so nice to see Ed and Shell again. But no rest

Sunrise over Kuala Besut

Waiting for our boat out to the Perinthians

for the wicked...

It took us the whole day (11 hours) to make our way to Taman Negara (the oldest rainforest in the world) and when we arrived, bleary eyed and sweaty, we faced the same problem of crappy accomodation. But again we found a gem (eventually)- Yellow House was a family run guest house with only 2 rooms and a few dorm beds. We checked into one of the rooms and got our heads down for the night.

The next day we headed into the National Park by crossing the river in a taxi boat. People were paying good money for tours and to do the same treks that were totally free. Not ones to 'follow what other people are doing', we opted to do the trekking on our own. First we visited the Canopy Walkway (the world's longest jungle canopy bridge) which was good, bar the fact that it was a little too overcrowded. Then we scaled Bukit Teresik- one of the many hills available to trek up- the views were pretty spectacular from the summit. It was nice to be doing something active again and it wasn't long before that familiar suffocating feeling set in

Down we go!

I catch Kelly before she goes snorkelling with some life jacketed Black-and-White Minstrel

as the humidity of the inner jungle began to take a hold. That night (on Ed and Michelle's reccomendation) armed with waterproofs and torches, we headed into the jungle for a night trek. Our guide was really animated chap and he pointed out lots of wildlife that we never would have seen on our own. In no particular order we managed to see snakes, stick insects, spiders, deer, geckos, frogs and centpedes. It was a great way to get up close and personal with stuff that you'd probably walk straight past if you were on your own.

The next day we visited an Orang Asli tribal village (meaning 'Original People'). We learnt that this was a nomadic tribe that had lived the same way for hundreds of years and in many aspects was still at odds with the 21st Century. This particular tribe had modernised somewhat (as you'd expect, being so close to touristville) and used money to buy certain goods from local markets instead of being completely self-reliant. First we were shown how they made fire (rubbing sticks together stylee), then how they used their blowpipes to hunt- before each being affored a try on an unsuspecting teddy.

Nervous...?

Don't be silly- the gang are taking the dive preparations in their stride

Despite the Disney T shirts and funky flipflops that some of them were wearing, it was actually quite surprising just how simple and natural their homes, methods and day-to-day lives were. This was eccohed in the reactions from them all when we handed out some small paper pads and pencils as gifts for the tribes children. Most of them truly didn't have a clue as to what these things were, and once we'd shown them how they worked, they were fascinated with them. It was a nice to see that these simple things (courtesy of Mr. Tescos) that I'd been lugging around at the bottom of my pack for 4 months were going to be of interest to someone (as i'd threatened to throw them out time and time again.) They finally had a home with those that truly appreciated them- a nice way to end the jungle adventure!

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