Rice Grains

Here's the promised entry about Malaysia. The original purpose of the trip was to apply for a student visa, and that mission was successful. But in the meantime, it was suggested that maybe I could extend the time to include a bit of vacation after my 3 grueling months of language training. So that's what I did. I am grateful that my friend and teammate, Trish, accompanied me on my journey. Vacations are much more fun with someone than alone! I think I will try to attach a bunch of pictures with brief explanations rather than write long boring paragraphs! So here goes!

When we arrived in Penang, we discovered that the main way to reach our hotel which, by the way, was located on top of the 800-meter Penang Hill, was by a slow cable car. Each trip took 30 minutes.

When we arrived at the Bellevue Hotel at the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the island--Georgetown, the water, and the mainland.

The garden and restaurant, one of the places where we could view the island.

At the top of the hill were also a Hindu temple...

...a mosque...

...an aviary garden.

One day Trish and I explored the mountainside trails--no map available--kept dead ending into barking dogs. Knees hurt from putting on the brakes, but we made it to the bottom intact! Following are some sights on the mountainside.

Wild flowers...

...orange groves...

...dahlia "farms"...

...general mountainside views of farming areas...

...motorcycles driving down steep, narrow, winding paths...

...viewing Georgetown close to the bottom.

At the bottom we discovered a WONDERFUL shop selling yoghurt drinks!

Another day after we left the Thai embassy, we took a taxi to the famed Botanical Gardens with waterfalls. We never found the real waterfalls--discovered they were off limits--would've needed to get permission from some water department to make the trek. But we saw other interesting sights...

We took a path from the gardens back up Penang Hill to our motel. Oh My! Talk about steep! I think it took us 2-3 hours total. We were exhausted, but the exercise was great!

We eventually connected with the jeep track and took that the rest of the way back to the hotel. Still VERY steep!

That evening I believe was the evening we splurged on a meal at the hotel's restaurant and enjoyed the night view of Georgetown.

And that is a very summarized version of our time in Penang. We spent some time in town as well, visiting Little India, a mosque, a Chinese temple, historic sites, a museum, etc. But I think my highlights were the times spent in nature.