Penang was my favorite part of the trip so far, and that may very well be because it was the weekend. Friday was a very busy travel day; we got up early and departed the hotel to ferry back to Singapore. From Singapore, we bussed to the Changi Airport and flew up to Penang arriving in at the hotel in the late afternoon. We had the evening free, and the large group split up into smaller groups for dinner. Some went to a large ship-shaped restaurant for steak, I went with some students to a seafood restaurant on the beach. This restaurant contained tanks of fish, crabs, prawns, and lobster: guests pick which fish, etc. they want to eat and then how it should be prepared.
The food was delicious, and after dinner we spent some time in the pool before heading in for the night.
On Saturday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel buffet. I don't know what American hotels are doing wrong for breakfast buffets, but I think they need to spend a bit of time in SE Asia and take some tips. So much food, and approximately a billion different kinds of fresh juices.
Our bus driver came and picked us back up at the hotel for a bus tour of Penang. The island looks like a turtle, and the government provides 52 Wi-Fi hot spots around the island. The tourism is mainly from Europe or Australia, and people were actually surprised to hear that we were from USA.
In Penang, it is compulsory to learn both Malay and English in school. The official language is Malay, and you have to ask permission to speak English in the courts, but English is the language of business.
When the bus tour arrived in Georgetown, we got off the bus and onto a number of rickshaws for a more local tour of the area. The rickshaws are very ostentatiously decorated, and some play very loud music. Local people took pictures of us, which was weird.
The rickshaws took us to a Chinese temple, and then to a Chinese mansion. Penang is very interesting because the Chinese and British influence is very visible, and Chinese decorations were prevalent even in Little India.
The weather was HOT, definitely hotter than in Singapore. Also, our guide informed us that generally it only rains between midnight and 5 am in Penang; a welcome change from the daily afternoon shower in Singapore that caught me off guard and without a rain coat more than once.
After the tour, we returned to the hotel and swam in the pool and ocean. Poor Sara was stung by a jelly fish on her leg and arm, which confined the rest of us to the pool in fear we would encounter the same scenario. For dinner, a large group went to a restaurant called Lebanon down the street from the hotel; the restaurant served traditional Lebanese food which was fantastic and one of my favorite meals of the trip. It was nice to get so many people together; it's hard when you're travelling with such a large group to organize big dinners and I'm so glad we were able to.
The streets of Penang near our hotel are home to the night market: when the sun goes down the hauntingly empty streets become the bustling and lively rows of vendor after vendor selling Malaysian art, clothing, music, and wood products. Sprinkled between the local vendors are the stands offering suspiciously cheap "name-brand purses, perfumes, watches, etc.
On Sunday, 12 of us took a boat tour of the island and landed on Pantai Kerachut. The guide was very well versed in the local nature and history. Though the island of Penang has had a number of names, the guide was very proud of the fact that none of the names came from conquerors. Rather, the locals renamed the island which shows that the common people have the power.
On the boat ride out, we saw a braminy kite get a fishy breakfast right next to the boat as well as a number of white bellied eagles soaring above the islands. When we got to Pantai Kerachut, we took a hike through the jungle and saw lizards, a turtle, and MONKEYS!!!!
The guides cooked lunch for us back at the beach: chicken, lamb, and prawns with fruit and cucumber. The food was phenomenal! Also on the island is a turtle sanctuary and we took a quick stop there. The beach on the island is a quartz beach, meaning the same is made of semi-precious stones. Because of the nature of the quartz, the sand retains heat much better than regular sand (anybody who walked on the beach during this tour can attest to the temperature of the sand!!). Turtles really like the warm sand and often come onto the beach after dark to play around and flip the hot sand all over the place. Though we didn't get to see the turtles playing, we did get to see the weak turtles that didn't make it back to sea. The workers at the sanctuary find the weak turtles on the beach and bring them back to feed and take care of until they are strong enough to swim in the ocean on their own..
When we made it back to the hotel, we found the rest of the group who had spent the day at Georgetown or at spice fields. The evening was free again, and was spent eating local food and visiting the night market one last time before departing in the morning for Kuala Lumpur. Mika and I went para-sailing!
Penang was a great island, much friendlier and more relaxed than the busy Singapore. The people were very chatty and interested in hearing about where we came from and what we were doing in Malaysia. We had great hosts here, and looked forward to the rest of the trip in Malaysia.
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