Thursday, September 1, 2011

PENANG CONTINUED

Penang is the name of the island and the city I stayed at is Georgetown.


Leaving the Old Penang Guest House and turning left took me back into
the business of the commercial area. Here along Lebuh Chulia (Lebuh
means road), were a range of small business each in their own house shop
style of building. Few expanded into two spaces. There was a bread
bakery a 7-11, various hardware shops, guest houses (usually upstairs)
and cafes. By evening the side of the road was taken over by many food
stalls, often with tables and chairs set out. Others seemed to
specialise in the 'drive through' service. But here the car just stopped
and the traffic would pile up behind while the driver's order was served.


It is quite normal to walk along the road itself here and in many other
streets. The footpath often does not exist of carry on continously so to
avoid the large drain at the road edge it is easier to walk on the road
side of the parked cars. Incidently over my stay, I saw many traffic
wardens writing out tickets for parked cars, but it never seemed to
reduce the number of cars parked in that spot.


Generally during the day traffic moves at a slow pace along this road.
It was often bumper to bumper but no one seemed 'put out' by this state
of affairs. It was just normal. You could step out with some care of
course and cross the road bewteen cars, some would not only slow, but
stop to let you across. Of course there were some one way roads where a
couple of lanes of traffic would be moving more speedily and here
crossing needed to be more cautious or at light controlled corners.


During my stay here, I was contiously fascinated by the shops and
business I would pass. I did go down a fair number of busy and less
congested streets. Walking down Lebuh Campbell I was taken back come
across a security guard sitting on a chair at a shop front with a rapid
fire rifle of some impressive sort on his knees. Once I got over my
surprise I looked into the store and realised it was a gold merchant. I
came across perhaps another six such merchant stores with armed security
at the front. Some guards had the rifle behind their back but there was
no hiding the fact they were armed.


One afternoon I took a 50 minute bus ride to a national park. Much of
the ride was through urban areas along the coast north of Georgetown.
Much was along congested roads where the bus moved inch by inch. In time
we moved into modern suburbia with high rise apartments and flash hotels
which would fit into any tourist resort area. Then there would be a
local village before more resort areas. Finally the road left the
development behind and wove around a pretty coastal cliff area before
the road and bus rided ended in a small local village of Teluk Bahang.


This is descibed in the guide book as a sleepy little fishing village
and perhaps it is. I saw the small local fishing boats and long insecure
looking wharves which many were moored to. Out in the bay there appeared
to be a small floating settlement. There were groups of houses with
linking walkways between the groups.


Here to was the enterance to the natioanl park. It had an impossing
visitors centre which I had to sign in at and then a paved walkway lead
off along the coast and just above an attractive sandy beach. At stages
there were shaded picnic tables. I decided that walking in this park was
going to be great. However, having crossed a swing bridge and reached
the track junction, the paving stopped and the track suddenly took on
the meaning of 'track'. From then on it was a mixture of level gradient
with concrete and wooden steps up steep banks. In one place a rope was
provided to assist progress up or down a rock slope which was fairly steep.


Every now and again the route decended into a peaceful sandy bay – just
one of many opportunities for a pleasant picnic. Most of the track lead
through tropical vegetation. I don't think I would call it jungle
because most of the expected tall trees must have been removed for
milling. This was more an advanced second growth forest.


I was heading for Monkey Bay but either the map timing or my actual
progress where out of sync. I passed a group returning and they had not
reached the bay and suggested I was half way. At that stage my estimate
was that I had already been on the way for the time the map claimed it
would take to reach the bay. So after 75 minutes I decided it was time
to turn back. I had reached a large bay with a inviting sandy beach. It
had buildings and a long jetty belonging to the university and was a
research base.


Walking along the sand I was surprised and excited to find a large –
well about 1 metre long- lizzard hunting for food. We agreed not to
disturb each other and I took photos while it checked out tunnels and
holes in the sand. I sat down on a seat by the research centre and a
sound made me turn around to find a couple of adult monkeys sitting on
the high wall watching me. It was an interesting few moments before they
got bored and jumped off on the other side.


The walk back to the village was equally pleasant to coming. It even
seemed shorter. During the walk I often paused to be entertained by
groups of monkeys making their way along a couple of high wires. I
assumed that they were power lines but then again they may have been
installed just for the monkey use. Some times one monkey would decide to
stop and sit down on the upper wire blocking the way. So it was fun to
watch the following tribe swing down oneo the lower wire to get past.
All of this went on for quite a while and they sort of followed me as I
walked along. Finally they swung into some tall trees beside the track
and found their evening meal.


Back at the village I took the time to wander around a few side streets
and say hello or wave to the curious children crowding around the door
of their homes. Back at the bus stop and the rain began. A deluge.

No sign of the bus and it was getting dark, so I crossed the road to the
bar/cafe to discuss bus timetables. Well in time a bus did arrive and
the cafe manager flagged it down for me. At theat sage a further two
buses also arrived. I did not have to pay but along the road a kilometre
or so, I had to transfer to another bus and this time pay.


I was only going a few kilometres along the road to get off at a famous
night market, Which I did, except not only was it still raining but
there was a lake around the bus stop and I just had to alight into it
and get through the pond as quickly as I could.


Besides all of the usual stalls selling watched, clothing, electronics,
toys, cosmetics etc there was a very large food area. Around the edge
were various ethnic food stalls with a large area of tables and chairs
in the middle. It was busy despite the rain. Mostly local groups but
also a few tourists such as myself. My estimate is that the average meal
cost under $NZ5. I think my squid was around $NZ3.50


Well the rain didn't stop and I took my chance to jump on a bus and ride
back to Komtar, the central bus station and then walk from there to the
guest house. A very enjoyable adventure.

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