Alma and I woke up early this morning for a quick flea market trip before the hour and a half ride to the north west part of the island to explore the jungle. After a delicious breakfast of fruit, tea, and black current toast, we hopped on the bus to the soccer stadium to walk to e market. I had heard wonders from many different travelers about the Lorong flea market, bu we were sadly disappointed. Maybe it was just a bad day, or my amature eye couldn't catch treasures, but it was full of use clothing, desk supplies, sunglasses, and a few lives of brass artifacts that were junk. There was a man who was selling very cool pieces of wood and rocks he has found, but the pottery was printed and brass was too worn in. We ran back to the hostel to get our bagpacks packed for the trip and went to 7-11 for some snacks and water. I have yet to visit one place, even in china, that doesn't have 7-11s all over! They always have the cheapest and coldest water. The guy behind the counter may have been a 'lady boy'. Alma had been in twice and seen hm in a dull face of makeup, foundation and all with bright green contacts in. Unfortunately when I ran in he had decided to dress down. We have seen a good handful of men dressed up in Malaysia. We have seen one or two in Singapore, but homosexuality is illegal here so I'm not too sure. We have also seen a huge percentage o guys who carry purses; not bookbags or messenger bags, but legit purses. Odd. Anyway, the bus took off around the island.
We passed through the resort part of the island to the north and he bus had a majority of rich European and American vacationers In thin straps and goofy hats. At the end of the line we arrived at Taman Negara Pulau Pinang, Penang island national park. It's under consideration for unesco status, and looks like a rain forest. There was a smaller population of animals than expected, but it was still beautiful. We decided on a couple hour trek on the south of the park to hit a canopy walk then head to the famous monkey beach for a swim, it was intensely hot and humid. They have a meromictic lake, which means the lake is full of liquids that dont mix ( there are about 50 in the world but a good handful are in new York) but a park helper said its dry season so the lake is low and it's jelly fish season so swimming isn't advisable, hence the monkey beach decision. I am slowly realizing just how creepy monkeys are, especially the smaller ones here that look like little shrunken humans with fangs who aren't afraid of people. Thanks mom, for rubbing your distaste of monkeys on me :) the trail we took was lather less popular trek, so it began quietly.There were many little signs about trees and information about the jungle along the trail on the rolling hills of the jungle.One sign told us that if you would eat a mangrove leaf, it would be salty as this is where the extra salt the tree soaked up from the ocean goes to. One pointed out this 7ft deep dried up stream that ran along a large majority of the trail. We found a sign saying it wasn't from water, it was from cattle. The cattle were used to pull trees down to the villiages and towns from the jungle and used these paths which eventually carved 7ft into the ground!
The canopy trail was very small, connecting only about 4 trees. IT was more for the fun than to look at. There was a stream dammed up with a scary danger sign with a soldier pulling out a gun to stay away. We ran into the ocean, but right before we came out of the jungle, we found monkeys. They were the little ones that looked like humans with long tails. We found them swimming in the steam, about 20 of them in total up the banks. Some were in the water swimming and diving, others were in the trees. Then there was a splash. Then another. The monkey's were jumping into the water from the trees! Alma grabber her camera and started shooting video, we caught one even doing a belly flop! They would jump into the water, then go back up the trees to clean themselves, then jump back in, so cute :)
We eventually reached the beach. It turned out NOT to be monkey beach, but it was quiet and nobody was realy around so it was perfect. There was a fence a couple meters from the sand that enclosed a university. There were about 4 buildings, including laboratories and dorms. It took up less than the size of our front yard. We changed into our bathing suits and went floating, as the water around here is very salty, so its very easy to float. The sand looked like raw sugar, thick and see-thru. There were no large shells, only very small swirly ones. But they came in EVERY color and I get the "pearl" description made at the airport, as all the little shells were made of mother of pearl. There were white, purple, maroon, and even hot pink! I grabbed a handful to bring home. We napped in the sand, it was wonderful. There were some locals (in speedos....) who were swimming. One came up to me and showed me his water bottle which was full of clams. He offered them to me to eat, I declined.
Daytona Beach. I was swimming and came across this leaf. It was big and flat. I remember thinking how col it would be if this leaf had traveled to Daytona all the way from Africa and I had found it. I kept it for a couple months, but knowing the likely hood of that actually happening, I eventually threw it away. Here I was in Malaysia, looking at that exact leaf. I'm sure this tree grows somewhere in Florida, as they are both tropical places, but it was just cool to think about :)
That was basically the end of our journey. We ate at this awesome outside Indian place waiting for the bus and got back to the hostel. We stopped at another flea market, a street market near the mosque and I found this cute little anklet. We've seen it on little Indian kids, its a silver anklet made up of jingle bells. It was a cute souvenir of the cultures that created my new home. It started raining, so we went back to the hostel and slept. In the morning, we got up bright and early to go to the snake temple. It is a Buddhist temple near the airport. When the temple was being built, vipers decided they wanted to be a part of the temple and stayed around. The monks decided to let the snakes stay in peace instead of expel them. Because the monks were nice to the snakes, rumor has it that's why the snakes have never bitten anyone. Well, as it was near 730am, the snakes were apparently still sleeping. We saw maybe 7 , when there is supposed to be 100's. The temple looked like it literally just opened, even though its supposed to open at 5am, but snakes and snakes and atleast we saw a few!
The airport, as well as much of the city, had another language written on many signs, Arabic. I found have figured just as much, there being majority Muslims in the country. The airport had alot of arabic, and many signs had their "secondary" signs in this language. There was no English.
It was a nice trip, but not the top of my list. I guess we have been doing some pretty exotic things recently, so a quiet slow vacation would seem to be such. Also, I think I was disappointed with Georgetown. I think this might be due to the fact that, after living in North Va and seeing the colonial sites they had to offer, Georgetown was a smaller version of things I have seen before. And since most of the sites were rebuilt in the 40s with the post-war lack of materials, the white stark buildings were just not the same. I VERY much enjoyed the park though, and wish we had spent more time there!
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