Penang (Day 1)

Today we are going to explore the nature side of Penang Island by visiting Penang National Park.  It was only about a half-hour drive to the northwest corner of the the Island.  There are multiple hiking paths through the jungle, but the most popular route is to hike to Turtle Beach (2.7 miles), have a boat meet you there and take you to Monkey Beach, and then take you back to the entrance.

Tim and I were up for the hike, but Peter and Susan decided to take the boat the whole way.  So, they gave us a bit of a head start and we left for Turtle Beach where we will meet Peter and Susan.

​Here we are at the start of the hike:

The handy map.  We are hiking along the trail that cuts the across from west to east.

Hiking in the jungle was pretty amazing.  The trail started out easy, but then it started climbing and climbing.  It actually climbed for the first 20-30 minutes of the hike.  Luckily they put a rest area right where we needed it.

After the climb, the hike got a bit easier....at least for a bit of time.  It was so lush and green and beautiful.

What goes up, must come down.  There were a few slippery down parts, Luckily they had rope to help.

Getting there....only 30 minutes to go.

And what a beautiful 30 minutes!

We made it!  

This is the view of the beach we got when we first arrived.

With a name like "Turtle Beach," you know there are going to be turtles.  There is actually a sea turtle conservation center here .  They dig up the turtle eggs after the female lays them and goes back into the ocean.  

These little guys actually just hatched yesterday.

They have an injured green turtle in a tank they hope to return to the wild soon.

Aww...such cute baby sea turtles.

These cages are protecting the buried sea turtle eggs.  Each cage (in the left photo) has between 100 - 150 eggs buried about 2 feet deep.  After around 45 days they hatch.  The center keep the baby turtles for about 2 weeks when they release them to the sea.

Did you know that the sex of the baby turtle is determined by the temperature the eggs are kept at.  The cages in the sun hatch females.  They have a covered building to hatch males.

Turtle Beach is very nice!

After 1 hour of checking out the turtles and exploring Turtle Beach, our boat arrived to take us to Monkey Beach.

On the way, the boat driver pointed out these rock animals....do you see the animals in them?

Bunny Rock

Turtle Rock

Elephant Buttocks Rock

Crocodile Rock.

There is Monkey Island.

We hung out at Monkey Island for about 1 hour...and yes there were monkeys there eating cookies someone left behind....No, I didn't take a photo of them...oops.

Back on the boat for the final stretch back to the park entrance.  Here is a view of the tall buildings of Penang,

For dinner tonight we ordered a Grab and headed to a food market area in George Town.

Here is everything I ordered:

And here is how it all looked.  I snapped photo of the Popiah before she rolled it up like a burrito.  The Char Koay Teow was really good...better than the last one I had, and the Fried Oyster Omelet was amazing.  The food in Malaysia definitely does not disappoint.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment.  Tomorrow we have a guided tour, so no homework tonight on figuring out what to do tomorrow.  We just hung out, blogged, and went to sleep.   Until tomorrow...