Sara and I have a story about a trip several years ago in Costa Rica. I was driving a little over the speed limit (seriously, like 7kph over, 4ish mph), but the officer wrote a ticket for several hundred worth of USD. I pretended to pull “all” the money out of my wallet – $60 USD, said “all I have”, and he said “OK”. Then he pointed to a tree next to where we pulled over and said “mucho monkeys!” clearly distracting us while he was pocketing the money. Nonetheless, there was a tree full of howler monkeys, and I usually refer to it as our Costa Rica monkey viewing fee.
Why tell that story now? Well, because yesterday we visited the Penang Botanic Gardens and as we were walking out came across a troop of Macaque monkeys. Mucho monkeys! I was able to grab a video as we were passing along the path. It was a highlight of the day.
The day also included stops at the Waterfall temple (Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani temple), several hours wandering and eating at some giant malls, and over 35,000 steps of walking!
When we were planning the trip, we had thought about a going out to Komodo Island in Indonesia, but it seemed difficult and expensive. So on Friday, when we did a hike out to Turtle beach in Penang National Park – we were delighted by sighting a Komodo dragon in in the wild. We were nearly back to the park entrance and Sara saw something in the water off the beach to our left. In her usual delicate style, I think she said “what the f*** is that?!”. We stared at the moving object next to a egret (?? correct me if I’m wrong) and thought snake? crocodile? Then it wandered out of the water with tongue protruding and all (did you know they can taste things 2 miles away!). It was a super cool thing to see. I have a sorta blurry video, and some grainy pics – the one time I didn’t bring the camera with a real zoom!
Anyhow, even though that was the highlight, back to hiking through the national park. Most people either hike to Monkey beach, or Turtle beach. In town we were told “Go to monkey beach, there’s nothing at turtle beach!”. So that sealed it for us – we were going to Turtle Beach! It was exactly as described – beautiful, and mostly void of people or vendors. We got the the park fairly early (9am-ish), so the hike in was at a semi-pleasant temperature. However, the hike back out at 11am was HOT. But…we dealt! Sara didn’t deem the pictures Instagram worthy, so here’s a few snaps.
In the evening we hit up the local Friday night market for some cheap street eats – the highlight of which was fried mushrooms – yum!
Saturday we ventured back into old town for some more coconut tarts (so good!) wandered up the coast for a bit and then caught a bus back to Batu Ferringhi beach – to stare at the water some more. Just a relaxing day (though we may have overheated a bit).
I mentioned the street art yesterday – and today we headed back into the historic part of town to find more of it. They make maps for finding some of the famous pieces, but we just wandered the streets and found a bunch that we liked without a map. A very fun day, picking up some cheap local flavors – coconut tarts, onion ball, curry mee – as we wandered the streets snapping pics. As such, Sara posted a ton of new pics on Instagram – check them out!
I’m hesitant to say we’ve mastered the bus system, but our new approach is to catch the first bus that comes, and hope it takes us close to our destination, or a good transfer point. Today we rocked that – barely waiting at all, and getting exactly where we wanted to go.
Bought some lemonade in the heat of the day, and chatted with the guy who pressed the lemons for us. Originally from Yemen (in Malaysia for just over a year) and hopes the war there ends soon so he can go back home. We both felt sad for him, and lucky that we have a comfortable place to come back to.
Actually, Penang is much more than that. Add street art and street food to the list too. Oh, and thunderstorms. More on these in a bit.
It’s been a bit of a shock between Kuala Lumpur and Penang. We like to walk everywhere (generally > 15k steps per day) but Georgetown is not pedestrian friendly, and the humidity feels very oppressive. So we’ve taken to the buses – which don’t come when you expect, and sometimes deviate from the routes Google tells you about. But, they’re air conditioned, cheap ($7.30 USD for a 7 day pass), and get us where we want to go – albeit slowly.
We arrived on Monday to our cozy little 18th floor condo with a water view (though also looking over some slums and a garbage dump). After unpacking and cooling down for a bit, we headed into “old town” Georgetown (a UNESCO world heritage site), checking out the street art (only a few pics, but it’s all over town, and very cool), having a couple beers, and picking up some food from street vendors (hawkers as they’re called here)… Of which there are thousands (it seems) all around town. We question how they all stay around – every corner seems to have 5 or 10! Hmm, that paragraph had a lot of perenthetical thoughts – I don’t know if that’s good blogging form. Nonetheless, after a few hours of wandering in heat and humidity, we were burnt out and ready for bed.
Tuesday we were lazy early, but made a grocery trip so we didn’t have to go out every meal (Only ~$15 USD for a few days of food). Around 3 pm, we finally started to head to Batu Ferringhi beach for a walk, and to watch the sun set. Using the bus system mentioned above, we finally got there around 5:15pm for a fantastic walk and sunset while enjoying a beer.. Or two. More bus adventures and we got home just before 10pm!
But about those thunderstorms! We woke up in the middle of the night to lightning, building shaking thunder, and rain/wind that seemed like it might wash away a city (I commented “is there a tropical storm we didn’t hear about?”) Alas, this morning (Wednesday) the city was intact, and barely any signs of rain. We got up early to go ride the Penang hill funicular railway for some amazing vista views. We did the “long” walk around the top (~2km) and felt like we were the only ones there! After descending we made a quick side trip to Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple – beautiful!
But you probably just want to see pics, here you go…
On Saturday we made a bus trip down south of Kuala Lumpur to Malacca. A very interesting old town with periods of Portuguese, Dutch and English colonization. We didn’t get to as many picturesque spots as previous days, but the town had a very chill atmosphere, and a river walk. I likened it to the San Antonio of Malaysia. With a couple hour bus trip each way, this made for a full 12 hour day trip, with us wandering around in the heat of day again, and getting home after dark and tired. Well worth it though!
Speaking of 12 hour days, Kuala Lumpur is only 217 miles from the equator (6008 miles from North Pole, 6443 miles from South Pole). So all year long, you get almost exactly 12 hours of light, and 12 hours of dark. Now, that’s a convenient consistency regardless, but especially in a predominantly Muslim country where prayer is expected around sunrise and sunset – you can maintain a consistent schedule. Contrast this with a place like Seattle, where summer days are really long, and winter days are really short. Just some Andrew random thought for the day.
Anyhow, back to travel. Today (Sunday) we had a very metropolitan day. Visiting the city center (KLCC) with stops at the Eco Park (with free canopy walk), the Petronas towers, and KLCC park. Also a quick shout out to the Syrian restaurant we stopped by for lunch, and had some amazing shish taouk.
Ok, I’ve gotta explain this one. Walked by this sign on Saturday, laughed, and thought “weird”! Then we stopped at an all day breakfast place for lunch, where they had deep fried French toast with salted egg custard filling – so I ordered it. Delicious! Maybe a little saltier than I expected, but I enjoyed it.
And the final thoughts…
Tomorrow we travel to Penang / Georgetown.
Really enjoyed Kuala Lumpur – 4 very different experiences (all good) over 4 days.
I’m especially chatty today, eh?
Irish + Scandinavian genes don’t work well with heat. Not that I’m talking about anybody I’m traveling with…😉
Yesterday we did a lot of walking, in the heat, and probably overexerted ourselves. Though we’re embracing the siesta… there’s probably a Malay word for it… and enjoying the cool of the morning and evening.
This morning we trekked out to Batu Caves. This is an amazing and colorful Hindu spiritual place built around and into caves on a steep hill. The pictures speak for themselves, but the climb up the 272 Technicolor stairs to see more temples inside the caves was amazing.
Well, technically we left Seattle super early on July 15, arrived here (Kuala Lumpur) in the evening of July 17, and now 24 hours later that all feels like one really long day!
I’m thinking about using Google timeline to describe my days, and Sara sez she’ll put pictures on Instagram. So here goes the graphical description on those days…
Sat next to a 86 year old gentleman from LAX to NRT. Originally from Indonesia (now LA area). The interesting part though? He competes in ping pong tournaments.
Quick stop in Tokyo, but enjoyed some delicious ramen! (And Sara’s first Japan experience)
I started walking into the prayer hall of the national mosque and a security guard emphatically told me no!
Helped an Australian with directions today, and we were promptly invited to stay with him when we visit in a couple months. He’s on the coast between Brisbane and Sydney – part of our trip!
