Penang revisited

Pictures can be found from picasa and facebook!

If you can recall, I actually visited Penang already on my first weekend as an exchange student. It was a bit controversy decision for me to go there for a second time, but as planning it, I realized that on the first time we really didn't see that much of it.

The day to travel arrived, twenty of us backed our backs and headed towards the Kranji MRT station and continued to Singapore customs in Woodlands. For me it took a while to get past the border...

I actually have to make a confession, I don't yet have my student pass (visa). I had three months of time from 7th of July onwards and I arrived to Singapore on 27th of July. I went to ICA to complete the formalities on 17th of October but after three hours of queuing and paper swapping they realized that my in-principle approval letter from the National University of Singapore had become void already, no shit... I was asked to contact my University and obtain a new letter immediately, cause I've practically been living and traveling as a illegal immigrant since the first weekends journey to Langkawi and Penang, and back. I reapplied for the letter and made the 90 SGD payments again to complete the formalities, I received my new IPA letter on Thursday 27th of October but decided not to go to the ICA for completion cause I had an exam on my PhD module on Friday just before leaving to Penang.

So now you know the reason why it takes a bit longer for me to go through the customs, to clarify, I don't have any problems at the border and they didn't have any questions (this time). But just to be sure I had my IPA letter with me to Penang. After crossing the Singapore customs we continued to cross the border bridge to Johor Bahru border in Malaysia and towards the bus terminal in Larking.

We ordered the bus to depart from Larking just to save some bucks with the travel costs. The trip cost were around 110 SGD per head which included the ten hour bus rides both ways and a accommodation in serviced apartments. The night was spent driving like crazy, of course we stopped to meet our good friend 7 Eleven to get some drinks which followed by a series of toilet stops. The bus was great, seats big enough and comfortable to sleep or have a movie theater in it! We occupied the last rows and put up a movie theater, I had speakers with me as always, who else would provide the party music. I recall us watching Captain America and American Psycho.

Brakes squeaked, we had arrived to our destination in Pulau Penang, to the town and beach resort area of Batu Ferringhi with lots of hotels like Hard Rock Hotel with Hard Rock Cafe night club. We left our bags to the reception of our serviced apartment cause there were no rooms empty at the moment, respectfully it was only 7am. We brushed our teeth and refreshed our travel strained bodies beside the pool.

As a group we started to walk along the beach street to find a open breakfast place. It felt weird, everything seemed empty like in a ghost town, no lights in the hotels, only some people washing cars trying to make a living. After a short walk we found two open restaurants that had a breakfast menu, and guess with what I settled; an American breakfast with bacon, sausages, beans, fried eggs and toasts, but of course I ate my precious dragon fruits that I had brought along all the way from the UTown Cheers. I just can't get enough of dragon fruits, It makes me a bit sad to imagine how will I replace those in my diet back in Finland.

By the way, to rewind couple of days, we went to see a movie in cinema back in Singapore. We watched the Killers Elite and there was a man bringing Dragon Fruits to Jason Stathams character! I believe they are the reason behind his real charm and power.

After the breakfast we walked back to the apartments to check if anyone had returned, but none had. We decided to jump in to bus and head to the main city of Pulau Penang, to the Georgetown.

Georgetown is actually the second biggest city in the whole Malaysia and the capital of the island and state of Penang. It has been made as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. The atmosphere of Penang is often likened to reflect Singapore back in the 1960s and 1970s.

We take our tour around the harbor scenery, visited the Little India and Chinatown sightseeing all the heritage buildings, the temples and markets. To note, the rainy season in Pulau Penang is in September and October turning down a bit already on November. Nevertheless we had a good weather for the most of the day until we decided to take a taxi towards the Penang Hill.

Penang Hill is a mountain reaching 833 meters above the sea revealing astonishing view over the Georgetown and the surrounding ocean. It is only reachable by either Penang Hill Railway viaduct build between years 1906 to 1923 or by a jeep trail which is only allowed for walking and small vehicles like scooters etc.

So because of the stormy weather we decided to head back towards the city and back to the Batu Ferringhi to meet others for dinner and pre-partying for the Saturday evening. Rest of the day was spent in a joyful spirit in the apartments, by the pool, in the streets and inside Hard Rock Cafe.

Sunday morning started with a mediocre headache, actually the worst that I have had on my trips, but it was fine after some painkillers. My friends had rented scooters to drive around the island and I asked to join. We were driving two on. We headed towards the mountains. We crossed the area of Teluk Bahang with the artificial freshwater lake and dam and all the way through the Kampung Batu Kecil to the town of Balik Pulau. The view from the spiraling mountain roads were breathtaking. We stopped for breakfast at a fruit farm in the mountains after passing the Teluk Bahang Dam. From there we continued the rest of the way. On our way back we found the other scooter boys and got our gang together for a picture.

Rest of the day was spent on a beach in front of the Hard Rock Hotel, we did some water sports like banana driving with seven people. Quite nice but a bit disappointing, the speedboat guy didn't make us all drop off until we started to tip the banana by ourselves.

After that I took a one to two hours nap at the shore of the beach while waving water cooling me down. My friend woke me up by bringing me a drink to refresh myself and we decided to go chill in the ocean. After the drinks we had a great idea of doing back flips from each others shoulders. After couple of jumps it was my turn. On the second jump I felt like stepping on top of something alive while my leg going in it. But I wasn't sure. I jumped the third time and while making my way back to the surface I felt like a whip hitting around my wrist burning and electrocuting it all at the same time. I had accidentally got my hand inside jellyfish tentacles and it was wrapping around my wrist. Luckily I was close to the shore, I walked out of the water without knowing what to do, my hand burning and swelling. My friend poured some fresh water on it which was amateur mistake, but how could we have know. One local from the beach shouted to me and told us to get some vinegar from the hotel to rub on it and so we did. Other solution and said to be better would have been peeing on it. Just for you to know! I was told not to take a shover or use any soaps for at least one hour to let it settle.

While walking back from the hotel pool we saw the warning signs indicating jellyfishes. Luckily these weren't the poisonous ones as the local guy told us. You could feel the hand burning a bit over a 24 hours but now it's already starting to be fine. It seems like I won't be getting a permanent scar from it after all, which is actually most usual in these cases.

Five minutes after we had threated my hand we saw the guy darkening like it was falling down, the locals told us to get inside in five minutes and so we did. The rain was amazing, it emptied the streets of people and filled them with water. The storm was over as suddenly it arise, although it roamed almost an hour.

Around 6pm our bus had arrived and we jumped in for the trip back. The movie theater was again formed and this time we enjoyed movies like RED (recommendable action movie) and Gladiator (legendary as always). Around 4am we reached the border customs of Malaysia and Singapore and got home back to UTown just before 5am.

Again a great trip with lots of memories. Thank you everyone!