4/18 Penang National Park

4/18/2013: After eating some breakfast and chatting with Irene and then her new friend Katrin (a German girl), I caught the bus westward for about an hour to the Penang National Park. My plan was to hike to Monkey Beach, and then have a boat pick me up at the beach and drive me back to the trailhead. I arranged for the boat, paying 40 MR ($14USD) and hoped the guy would actually pick me up. I signed in at the park, and started the hike.

Penang National Park entrance

It started out very mellow, with a nicely paved path along nicely manicured forest. I could see the ocean on my right - I was following the northwest corner of the island. I spotted my first monkey near some picnic tables, and noticed it was missing its left forearm, but it seemed to be getting by just fine, thanks to lots of food from tourists. The trail got tougher as I got farther in, and came across a young Chinese couple who said they had to turn back because the trail was too difficult. The trail was going over big roots and through low-hanging vines, but wasn't too bad. 

Not a bad life for a monkey

It eventually led out onto a thin beach, where I spotted some big lizards, who casually trotted away from me and out into the ocean. 

Big lizard!

 The trail kept going into the jungle, then back onto the beach. Penang might be the hottest place I've ever been - it's certainly the closest to the equator that I've ever been. The temperature was probably in the 90's, and the humidity was also in the 90's. I think I just sweated constantly, all day every day. I came across a British guy going the other way who said he left some sticks out on the trail that I could use to beat the monkeys away. He said they were aggressive, so I had to be intimidating with the sticks. Having been bitten in China, I was a bit nervous. As I entered Monkey Beach, I saw one monkey, who stayed in the bushes, so crisis averted. The beach was nice - a little narrow and steep, but relatively unpopulated and set into a little cove. I walked past a couple on the beach, and when I turned around to look back, I saw a monkey going through their stuff while the girl was distracted taking pictures. I yelled back to them but it was too late, apparently it stole some of their popcorn. 

Langkawi Island in the distance

 

Monkey Beach

Monkey Beach again

I ordered some food from a little stall set up with a few tables and jumped in the ocean. I had about 2 hours to kill before my boat picked me up, so I just relaxed on the beach and went into the ocean occasionally to cool off and wash off the biting ants, although the water was so warm it didn't do much good for cooling off. Eventually my boat came by ("Ready to go Mister Dan?!"). An older British couple came by and asked if they could split the cost of the boat, which I readily agreed to. I ended up riding the bus back into town with them. They're sort of retired - the man had worked as a civil engineer building hospitals and was around 60 years old. They decided life was too short and quit everything and sold everything and headed to Asia. They've been relaxing in Thailand and Malaysia for a few months now and seemed pretty happy. They might return to England to work a little more, but they're trying to see if they can get by with what they have.

When I got back I showered and prepared for my Duke interview, which was at 9pm. When I got out, I grabbed a quick meal from a street vendor, and then went out for some beers with Irene and Katrin. We picked up two other people from our hostel along the way - a guy from Holland and a girl from London. Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, they make alcohol pretty expensive, while everything else is cheap. Meals and lodging were comparable in price to those in Thailand, but a pint at the bar we went to was over $6 USD. We hung out at "Soho" (a British pub) for a couple hours, then wandered around some before returning to the hostel. I stayed up pretty late trying to figure out the details for getting from Penang to Kuala Lumpur to catch my flight early on the 21st.