Holiday in Penang

22^nd - 30^th November 2011

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This was a spur of the moment holiday. I stayed at Shangri-La's Rasa Sayang Resort. It was great. I upgraded when I arrived, so I had free soft drinks by the pool, high tea and free cocktails for an hour in the evening. The weather was fine during the day, but about three evenings it really, really threw it down. I spent most of the days just relaxing by the pool. I've been chatting to folks in Malaysia on the internet for ages, one guy, Javon for over 5 years. So my evening were mostly spent with various people I'd been chatting to.

On the Saturday, Javon, who has a car, gave me a tour of the island. We visited the Tropical Spice Garden, Penang Butterfly Farm, the Snake Temple and Penang Hill. In the Spice Garden were some betel nut trees which are also known as pinang trees, after which the island is named. In the snake temple there are lots of temple vipers, just laying on various poles. Quite worrying, although they all seemed quite soporific. Next door to the temple is a snake exhibition. There were two huge pythons in there. Big Mama, which was in a cage. I went in the cage to take a photo, but was advised not to touch as she was a bit aggressive. As if I would! Goldie was the other big snake, she may have been an albino. This one you could touch, and yes I did, briefly. There was also a cage with a huge king cobra, the guy in charge opened the cage, so I could go in and take a photo, I declined the offer!

We then went to Penang Hill, which is really steep. The train up it is very modern and the trip now takes about seven minutes, before the new train was installed, the trip was about half an hour. At one point there is an extremely steep part of the hill. From the hill there is an excellent view of the 13.5 km Penang Bridge as well as good views of Georgetown and the mainland. There are also a Hindu temple and a mosque on the hill