Georgetown, Penang Hill

Oct 24 Pulau Penang, Malaysia, Penang Hill

First order for the day is to find a post office to send all the gifts home that I bought. Some for others some for myself (shotglasses, who would have guessed). I planned to wrap them up all nicely and send individual boxes from Bangkok but since I am not going back for a while this will have to do. Hopping on a bus again and getting off at Komtar. Finding the Post Office is not a problem but damn are they complicated. They say to pick a number. When I picked my number and waited for 10 minutes they tell me, no number needed and to queue up on the other window. On the other window they hand me a box and some tape. After that's all prepared I find out that every box needs to be wrapped in brown paper. The paper is way too huge for the box and I've never been a good wrapper so it looks... dodgy. Even the postal clerk complains about it. Hey, what to do if they don't do their job there properly. After going back to the counter about 8 times to check and recheck it somehow finally gets done. Prices are decent with a huge difference between sea and air freight. Let's just hope everything arrives in one piece.

Next we are planning to go to Penang Hill for the amazing views over Georgetown and the island. Since quite a few people told us that the funicular is closed we are trying to find out what is true. Again half say it's open half say it's closed, so we get on a bus that stops close by to find out for ourselves. According to LP busses 201, 202, 203 stop 5 minutes walk from the funicular. We later find out there's also one direct bus, 204 that stops directly there. After driving for endless times through whole of Georgetown and the suburbs through tons of high rises where presumably half the islands populations gotta live they are so big. We also drive by a cemetery and the very famous Kek Lok Si temple that really looks stunning even from a distance. After asking around how to get to the funicular it's really just a few minutes walk and guess what... they are open.

The student discount we were hoping for is only available for Malaysians so we gotta cough up the full price of 30 R for return tickets. But the views make it all worth it. You see the whole side of the island the entire Penang bridge (apparently the longest bridge in the world, 13.5km) and even the mainland with Butterworth.

Apart from the view Penang Hill is not that exciting. There's a Hindu temple, a mosque, a playground and a Hotel and Restaurant. Few souvenir stalls but all ticked off very easily. There's a viewing deck somewhere too but that's apparently not easily accessible right now, only through some arduous Jungle Trek. Even though the temperatures up here (~800 m above sea level) are far more pleasant it's not a good time for a trek.
A stop in the tiny food court for some Penang Keow Teow (essentially: Fried Noodles) and we run into 2 Austrians that are also trying to navigate their way through Penang's bus system.

Since there is nothing more to discover here (yes you can rent overpriced Segways and Buggy tours) we head down again only to spend the next hours in buses back to the hotel. Yes, if you want to travel cheap you have to be reaaaaaaally patient. That warrants some relaxing pool time before Laura and I get ready for a candlelight dinner on the beach. It turns out to be a bulb-lit dinner on a terrace, due to rain and winds but the food is great nonetheless. Salad, Cream of Mushroom Soup with garlic bread, NY Steak, Icecream and fruit platter. Hungry yet? Service is outstanding as we are the only table in the restaurant. Full attention is ours. Nice for once not to have to be turning and wondering where the waiters are. Only downside, no alcohol is served here so there's no red wine with my steak.

It was a lovely ending to a nice vacation. Laura is heading back to Bangkok tomorrow heading into a unknown situation there, while I'll be heading off into unknown adventures here.