We headed south from Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, down to Penang in Northern
Malaysia. It was a spot that both Colm and I knew very little about so we were sort of following Kris at this point. My first impression of Malaysia was that it seemed very prosperous and developed. Travelling around parts of Penang I think you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a city somewhere on the Mediterranean. There were two main things we wanted to do whilst we were in Penang, there was an 800m high hill to climb that offered brilliant views over the city, especially in the evening, however the first item to cross off the list was the snake temple. It’s more of a museum really although there is a small temple at the back of the complex. These days there are hundreds of snakes that are given full roam of the temple, you can wander about with pit vipers just sitting in trees at eye level with no sort of barrier at all. We also watched a snake attempting to eat a mouse although the two actually never met whilst we were watching. I did stroke a golden python from head to tail, which is apparently good luck according to the sign. We got back from the snake temple and found out that the funicular railway that climbed the hill was shut. We decided that it wasn’t worth sticking around just to climb the hill. The next port of call was Tamal Nagara, Malaysia’s rainforest national park. We had a mad dash to the ferry to get from Panang to the mainland and then a run to get to the station before the last train to Kuala Lumpur left. We made it just in time and sat in seats overnight to KL. The next morning we got a bus and then a boat to the national park. We decided not to do an organised trek in the jungle but just do our own thing, we were going to do a canopy walk and a trek to a hide, we’d then stay in the hide overnight, looking for animals while we were there and then do some more trekking the next day. We took Colm’s main bag with us full of sleeping bags and food and water but we
still ended up having to get some more food and water on the beginning of the second day, this meant we could leave the big bag behind for the second day which was nice. We saw quite a few different animals in the end, a Monitor Lizard, giant millipede, wild boar, praying mantis, giant squirrel, a deer (from the hide overnight) and Kris saw a snake, plus numerous spiders, bugs and butterflies the size of your hand. Had a really good time out there although it was extremely hot and sweaty! The next day we got a local bus back down to KL again at 1/3 of the price it cost us to get up. KL is a nice city, although there isn’t much to do in the way of sightseeing. We got up at 6am one morning and went to the Petronas towers to get a ticket to go on the sky bridge. It was free but they only give out 1600 a day so we had to queue up for an hour to get the tickets. Our time slot wasn’t until 2pm so we went and got some breakfast and then went to a bowling alley for a few games. It was good fun and something we hadn’t done since we left. We got onto the sky bridge after watching a promotional video telling us how brilliant the Petronas company was. It was a good view from the skybridge (45 floors up) but for the amount of time we were up there it was a good thing we hadn’t paid anything. I got a rush of blood to the head that afternoon and ended up buying a laptop which I’m writing this blog on now. It was our last night with Kris as well so we had a somewhat pricey night out. Colm and I were going to get up the next morning and go to Singapore for the night but u
nfortunately we didn’t get up anywhere near early enough so we saw Kris off and then did very little for the next 24 hours until our flight to Australia. We did experience some torrential rain though that came through the roof of the hostel, Colm was rudely awoken when a stream of water started pouring onto him whilst he was in bed. That’s basically the end of the Asian leg of the trip, it’s been just over 5 months for me and I’ve had a superb time, now it’s time to top up the coffers in Australia. Will be meeting up with Ian while I’m there and we’ll also be welcoming Simon back soon enough.
Malaysia. It was a spot that both Colm and I knew very little about so we were sort of following Kris at this point. My first impression of Malaysia was that it seemed very prosperous and developed. Travelling around parts of Penang I think you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a city somewhere on the Mediterranean. There were two main things we wanted to do whilst we were in Penang, there was an 800m high hill to climb that offered brilliant views over the city, especially in the evening, however the first item to cross off the list was the snake temple. It’s more of a museum really although there is a small temple at the back of the complex. These days there are hundreds of snakes that are given full roam of the temple, you can wander about with pit vipers just sitting in trees at eye level with no sort of barrier at all. We also watched a snake attempting to eat a mouse although the two actually never met whilst we were watching. I did stroke a golden python from head to tail, which is apparently good luck according to the sign. We got back from the snake temple and found out that the funicular railway that climbed the hill was shut. We decided that it wasn’t worth sticking around just to climb the hill. The next port of call was Tamal Nagara, Malaysia’s rainforest national park. We had a mad dash to the ferry to get from Panang to the mainland and then a run to get to the station before the last train to Kuala Lumpur left. We made it just in time and sat in seats overnight to KL. The next morning we got a bus and then a boat to the national park. We decided not to do an organised trek in the jungle but just do our own thing, we were going to do a canopy walk and a trek to a hide, we’d then stay in the hide overnight, looking for animals while we were there and then do some more trekking the next day. We took Colm’s main bag with us full of sleeping bags and food and water but we 
still ended up having to get some more food and water on the beginning of the second day, this meant we could leave the big bag behind for the second day which was nice. We saw quite a few different animals in the end, a Monitor Lizard, giant millipede, wild boar, praying mantis, giant squirrel, a deer (from the hide overnight) and Kris saw a snake, plus numerous spiders, bugs and butterflies the size of your hand. Had a really good time out there although it was extremely hot and sweaty! The next day we got a local bus back down to KL again at 1/3 of the price it cost us to get up. KL is a nice city, although there isn’t much to do in the way of sightseeing. We got up at 6am one morning and went to the Petronas towers to get a ticket to go on the sky bridge. It was free but they only give out 1600 a day so we had to queue up for an hour to get the tickets. Our time slot wasn’t until 2pm so we went and got some breakfast and then went to a bowling alley for a few games. It was good fun and something we hadn’t done since we left. We got onto the sky bridge after watching a promotional video telling us how brilliant the Petronas company was. It was a good view from the skybridge (45 floors up) but for the amount of time we were up there it was a good thing we hadn’t paid anything. I got a rush of blood to the head that afternoon and ended up buying a laptop which I’m writing this blog on now. It was our last night with Kris as well so we had a somewhat pricey night out. Colm and I were going to get up the next morning and go to Singapore for the night but u
nfortunately we didn’t get up anywhere near early enough so we saw Kris off and then did very little for the next 24 hours until our flight to Australia. We did experience some torrential rain though that came through the roof of the hostel, Colm was rudely awoken when a stream of water started pouring onto him whilst he was in bed. That’s basically the end of the Asian leg of the trip, it’s been just over 5 months for me and I’ve had a superb time, now it’s time to top up the coffers in Australia. Will be meeting up with Ian while I’m there and we’ll also be welcoming Simon back soon enough.
