On The Beach 3

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On the Beach 2

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On the Beach

It took us an hour hiking through the forest in the sweltering heat to get to the beach, we’d been hoping to see some turtles but they weren’t home. Instead we got a beautiful white beach all to ourselves….

Naturally when you have a beautiful beach all to yourself the first thing you do is take out your macro lens….

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Hill Station

The Plan:
Take the train to the top of Penang Hill, explore the wonders of the hill and walk downhill to the botanic gardens.

Unforseen Factors:
1. Chinese New Year
2. The Lure of Penang Hill
3. A lack of paths

The Reality
New Year comes and the islanders are gripped by an instinctual urge to ascend the hill, all reason and sense are abandoned, replaced by this uncontrollable urge to climb the mystical mountain of Bukit Bendera. We were not immune and soon found ourselves drawn towards the hill to join the crowds flocking around the train station.

The queue was amazing, you’d think that the hill was the only thing to do on the whole island, I’d have thought that the residents would have already been to the top and didn’t need to go again but it seemed like the whole population was there waiting to ascend, it was almost like the line to get into heaven, everyone waiting patiently, silently hoping that they would measure up and be admitted to paradise.

The problem was that the train carried 50 people and took 30 minutes to get to the top of the hill which would make you think that it was a big hill but no, it was just a really slow train, you’d probably be quicker walking which was something I considered but apparently there are no paths to the top of this Mount Olympus from the station, the train being the sole portal to this paradise…

After a hour queueing in the heat, it was our time, we had reached the entrance, it was 12.15pm, the sign said, “Now selling tickets for 4.45pm”. All that queueing and the next train was four and half hours away, we decided to get to the Botanic Gardens the conventional way and leave the mysteries of the hill to the people in the queue behind us.

Two buses, some noodles and a ice-cream later and we’re at the gates to the Botanic Gardens.

It’s interesting to walk through the gardens and try to inmagine what it was once like. The gardens boast an orchid house, palm house, herbal garden, cactus garden and a sun rockery, more than enough to keep the keen flora-lover busy. These houses and gardens are carefully sprinkled around the gardens so there’s always something to discover while exploring and like kids with faces pressed against a toyshop window so we too meld with the cages to get that little bit closer to these tantalising plants. We admired from afar, enjoying the little we could see and wondered why such beauty was kept locked up…

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Homeward Bound

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Greetings from … the shops

It’s a shopping mecca, you’re only a few paces away from the next shopping centre, you can spend hours on that street popping in and out of the many and varied shops. Big fancy shops selling famous labels that are vaguely familiar to my crass eyes and ears, small local shops and a whole shopping centre dedicated to technology….

Night falls and the glory of shopping fades, only to be replaced by the seedier side of Bukit Bintang. As a western man rambling the streets on my own, I am the mother load. Outside the seemingly innocent massage shops with ordinary looking masseuses, the touts will whisper quietly that a young girl for “massage” is only a phone call away.

In the respectable bars of the many five-star hotels, good music plays in the background, the atmosphere is relaxed and you can relax after a long day shopping. It’s best not to make eye-contact with any of the better looking girls as they’re not there for a conversation…

Ramble away from the bright lights and another creature of the night approaches, the ladyboy. With the loss of the glitter goes all pretense, these girls are honest about what they’re offering and yet they see to be the most desperate…

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Greetings from …the open sea

It wasn’t easy to get here.

I had it all planned, jet-lagged as I was, I thought I’d take it easy, get up not too early late and take the 10.30am ferry, only there wasn’t a 10.30am ferry. The Plan lay there on the ferry office floor in shatters. I could stay another night in KK or I could go with the somewhat convoluted Plan B.

An indescribable compulsion drove me to the bus station and onto the bus to Merumbuk, never really knowing if I was hurtling towards a dead end…

I ended up sitting in the afternoon heat waiting for a speedboat, why travel by ferry when you can take a speedboat!

Well, they called it a speedboat…

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Greetings from …the top

It’s 5.30am and it’s freezing. Somehow I managed to be the second person to arrive here. Despite the rain and the slippery surfaces I felt invigorated, racing ahead of the other two then stopping to let them catch up. The batteries in their headlamps died after the first hour and bobbing on their heads now is my spare lamp. It’s a good thing too, I wouldn’t want to have done that climb in the dark.

Not that there was much to see, just the steps and when they ended, the smooth endless rock, and the rope, it’s whiteness glaring in the light of the lamps, showing the way like the unbroken line in the middle of the road.

We’ve been sitting here on the cold wet rock, huddled together, letting the chill seep deep into our bones as we wait for the sun to come and share it’s warmth but we’re covered in clouds, there’ll be no sun here today…

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Journeys to Anywhere – Bintulu

Tell any Malaysian that you’re going to Bintulu for a holiday and they’ll look at you with incredulity. The polite ones will gape a little before catching themselves and pretend to nod interestedly, while the others will look at you in horror, they’ll look at you as if you’re out of your mind, they’ll look like they want to shake you and ask why, why, why!!!

You can choose your friends but you shouldn’t really choose them based on where they live and so I found myself flying into the oil town of Bintulu…

Before I experienced Bintulu in its entirety, I did a bit of research on the net and as you might expect I didn’t find a lot of interest but one thing that caught my eye was that the airport was right in the middle of town and you could stroll from your hotel to the airport in a matter of minutes, it sounded perfect.

Sometimes I get all excited about a thing that I don’t think it all through so of course I never considered that an airport in the middle of town would be a bit noisy! However it turned out to be academic as I landed in a brand-new shiny airport, 20 minutes drive away from the town. So no strolling into town from the airport, talk about disappointment!

From my room you could see the old runway and it’s become a public space, by day you’ll see people strolling up and down or playing basketball or football, in the evening after it gets dark you’ll see motorbikes and the occasional car going up and down. It would be nice if it could stay in its present form, become a focus, the living heart of the town.

It’s a quiet town, after a day I was ready to escape, trying to find the quickest way to get away but as I stayed longer, the place started to grow on me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing to do there, you just have to adopt a different attitude.

I even went to mass. The Catholic Church is the McDonalds of the religious world and like McDonalds it seems to be this huge unchanging monolith but if you probe deeper you find that there are local flavours incorporated in every country. It’s interesting to go to mass in other countries, to see what the regional flavours are, see if they are doing it right and by right I mean like we do it in Ireland!

For instance, most churches in Ireland are of the classic cruciform shape where as the one in Bintulu was hexagonal or octagonal. And then there was the music, all very sombre meaningful hymns, I didn’t recognise any of them, not too surprising really since I’m more used to folk groups and gospel songs at mass. The funniest part was after mass, the rush to get to the cars the completely unchristian way the driver forced their way out of the car park, being kind to your fellow man was not a consideration!

The sight to see, only comes out at night, you drive to the coast, park the car and look out across the bay at the lights of the oil and gas platforms….

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