The Fire Dragon and the Monkeys

A curly tree at the Botanical Gardens, outside Georgetown, Penang.

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Yesterday we took a trip up to Penang Hill to see the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, it was truly beautiful. I would love to post some more pictures for you, but my internet connection at the new place is really slow and I'm not sure it can handle it, so I'll see how it goes.

We had a hairy experience with a surreal character on the bus who took rather a shine to me. She tried to steal my water and get into my bag, but I'm a Pompey girl and rather firm when it comes to interpersonal issues, and she soon got the message. Apparently a loud and firm "No!" means the same thing in any language!

We met a cool young dude at Penang Hill called Jeff, who has been on an epic travel journey since January. He kicked around with us for the rest of the day and only parted ways when we returned to our new hostel on Chalia Street. He's only 19 and is travelling the world all by himself during his gap year. Unlike us, he is flying everywhere and his tours of each country are a bit whistle-stop, but I was fascinated at his innate sense of independence and the way he handled us all getting a bit lost. Meeting him was a real inspiration to me, and I thought his description of Penang was very funny.

"Georgetown," he said, referring to the state capital, where we're all staying, "Is weird. I keep thinking that it's like the Truman show, when you turn around, they're moving new sets of buildings into place."

It took a little while of digging through his meaning but I kind of get what he meant. Georgetown is a little like Kuala Lumpur, in that it's a really eclectic mix of architecture and there's a strongly visible gap between the richest and the poorest areas. Travellers are lucky because the hostels are all based in the poorer areas of the town, and so we get to meet loads of working class people on equal footing in cafes and bars (especially if you eat, drink and socialise in the places we do!), rather than just as serving staff in your hotel or restaurant.

The views from Penang Hill had me grinning for the entire two hours we were up there. You take a funicular railway (what is a funicular railway - it's one of those trains that are built to go up steep hillsides - we went on one in Wales when I was a kid, didn't we Mum?). And Penang Hill sure is steep! At the summit you are about 850 metres above sea level, and the view across the city when the sun goes down is astounding and awe-inspiring. I get tired of taking pictures quite easily and prefer after a few shots of any place we're in to just walk around and feel the place rather than try to record it. There were also bats the size of cats (is that from Alice in Wonderland?!) wheeling around our heads that I couldn't take my eyes from and a storm rolling in over Butterworth across the water that was truly beautiful to watch from a distance.

I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's 'The Power of Now' in the evenings, which is encouraging me to locate myself entirely in the moment, and not feeling the need to record every little thing is a big part of that - it's even got me thinking differently about my ideas of being a writer!

Today we booked our ferry tickets to Medan in Sumatra, Indonesia. We're thinking we will probably be in Sumatra for a couple of weeks before returning to Malaysia for some R&R in the Cameron Highlands (where it's meant to be cooler). We leave tomorrow morning at 8am and have to be up at 6.30am. As we've been rising between 10 and 12 (what can I tell you, the cafes and bars here are open late!), this may come as a bit of a shock to the system.

There's a monkey in the tree - can you see her?!

After booking our ferry, a trip to the post office for Kate to post some of her numerous books home and a stop for something to eat (spicy noodles in black pepper - too good, too good!), we headed out from Georgetown to the Botanical Gardens, which are part of a national park on Penang. Here we saw some amazing trees, plants, and flowers and some crazy wildlife. Mum, the spiders here are huge! Fortunately, they like to build their webs up in the trees and as long as they stay up there, I don't mind them! There are ants the size of beetles, crickets that make a sound so loud that if you're stood next to one you can't hear your own voice and lots of lizards of various sizes!

Best of all though were the monkeys at the Botanical Gardens, who hang around the visitors trying to scam them out of food (I had to explain to one that this was strictly forbidden, but I'm sure he thought I was lying). I'm not sure what type of monkeys they were - small in size with long, long tails that they use to balance when climbing high branches. When we took a long walk up what felt like a million stairs in the jungle countryside, one of them kept attracting our attention by throwing fruit down at us - or maybe he just wanted to share! Best of all though were the baby monkeys, who spend all their time fighting with one another and leaping in and out of trees, rolling down the slopes and hassling their poor, exhausted mother.

We rounded off the day with a long meal of vegetarian curry served on banana leaves - I ate as much of it as I possibly could, despite my constantly streaming nose, but it beat me in the end. I've also discovered that you can buy root beer here, called Sarsi - ice cold through a straw, it's hard to beat. Oh, and did I mention a trip to the Chocolate Boutique yesterday, where we blew a substantial amount of our hard-earneds on sesame almond chocolate, coconut chocolate and several bars of 70% cocoa dark chocolate - too good to miss and apparently good for you, too!

Amongst all the sight-seeing, people meeting and spiritual trekking we're doing, it's interesting to me that the most powerful experience in this first week is coming face to face with myself. There are so many distractions back home, but somehow being here makes me so much more visible to myself. I notice my thoughts more and feel more distance from them somehow and the temples we visit each day give me plenty of time for meditation and reflection.

Roll on Indonesia! I'll write as soon as I can.

Michael and Bean, it's great to see you guys here on the blog, thanks so much for following. And to my ardent early followers - I love you guys. Toxic, my own fallen angel, I can't tell you how much I miss you - there are so many things you would love and so many jokes that I just can't make without you......