Penang Hill

Last night, two of Laly's college mates picked me up for dinner. We drove down Gurney and went to a huge seafood restaurant and sat by the water. The dinner was delicious and their company was wonderful. They have both traveled around the area and were giving me lots of advice on Cambodia, China, as well as living abroad (everyone seems to recommend Singapore).


Afterwards, we got some dessert (rojak) and sugar cane juice. I was too full to finish either, but shared the dessert with my hostel mates on return. We also drove over to Batu Feringhi, where I couldn't see the beach b/c it was so late out, but the night life was hopping with plenty of street vendors and restaurants still serving people.

This morning I walked through one of the morning street markets and picked up breakfast at a bunch of different stalls - with varying degrees of difficulty. The chinese man who sold me the bing do jyong spoke to me in chinese and a little bit of english, and I got across that I was from America and only knew yi-dian-dian (very little) Chinese. The woman who sold me the yummy dumplings - I'm not sure that either one of us understood anything the other person said. I guess she was Malay. The other shop keepers spoke more English and I just pointed out what I wanted.

I caught a local bus for $1.20 RM to Penang Hill, and the tram round trip for $4RM up the hill. I walked over to the Canopy Walk (which is closed) just to get some exercise. I had considered walking up the hill (5.5 km) but in this heat and humidity I thought it better just to walk around at top. There are quite a few trails where I'll have to explore next time I go back.

I'm now printing out my tickets for travel and will be spending the last 6 hours here spending the rest of my ringgits and packing for the long journey ahead.

ps I have 20 pictures left on my 512 MB card - and yet to upload any! Maybe in Australia I'll be able to find a good computer/connection. Otherwise it's onwards to the spare 1GB card.

Addendum

I have since lost my original SD card in Cambodia, losing all the audio that I recorded. Up on Penang Hill was incredibly loud - far from being in a peaceful quiet forest. I couldn't tell what was going on around me, but it certainly was alive with life. These insects made the strangest loudest noises - take my word from it since I don't have the clip : (


These plants had an interesting geometric pattern that caught my eye.