Turtles in Penang National Park <33 (Day 129 of the world tour

11.01.2020

Similar to yesterday, we started this morning around 7:00 am. Wake up, breakfast, pack snacks, and this time we also took four water bottles with us, as we learned from yesterday ;-)

Our destination was Penang National Park, located in the northwest of the island and can be directly reached by our favorite bus, the 101:)

Unlike line 10, the 101 feels like it runs every ten minutes, so we didn't have to wait long at the bus stop;-) It was crowded again and we didn't have a seat at first. I held onto the handles above, but the bus driver had apparently never heard of progressive braking :D :D

Every time the bus stopped or at a red light, I was pulled forward and I almost fell once. Jonas just commented, "you do Taekwondo," so I should have balance. I replied that, in my opinion, you can't compare the two: p :D :D

Eventually, all the locals got off, and we had a seat for ourselves <3 In the end, only a Polish couple of our age was left on the bus. Like us, they rode to the last stop - the entrance to the National Park:)

In the national park, there are several hiking trails, but the two most popular ones lead to Monkey Beach and Turtle Beach. Until recently, you could walk both completely independently through the jungle and then arrive at the beach, but this is no longer possible for Monkey Beach. You can walk the first part, but then you have to take a boat to reach the beach.

For this reason alone, we decided against Monkey Beach and for Turtle Beach. You can also reach Turtle Beach by boat, but that would have been "boring" again for us: D: D

Instead, we left the boat tour sellers behind, registered at the park entrance, and started walking:)

The first part of the path was paved, and Jonas's mood deteriorated^^ If this is supposed to be the national park, then what is it? What makes an area a national park, and why is the operator/country allowed to build in it, even though it should be a protected area? :O

So many questions ;-)

After a few minutes, there was a bridge, and when we reached the turnoff to Turtle Beach, Jonas's mood brightened because there was no longer a paved path but a "jungle trek." It wasn't particularly special, but it was definitely beautiful!

The first few meters were uphill over roots and quite high steps for my taste^^ I quickly ran out of breath, even though it was much less demanding than yesterday. Jonas couldn't quite understand it, but he didn't have much choice if we wanted to walk together. He adjusted his steps to mine: p

I let the Polish couple pass us, but then my pulse was back in rhythm, and we could maintain a comfortable pace: D: D

Occasionally, there are information boards on the trees, but honestly, we can never remember them for long anyway, so we didn't study them closely;-)

It went up and down repeatedly, and especially on the "down," you could still feel a bit of yesterday's workout, but overall, the path is not challenging:) With enough breaks for drinks and some friendly greetings to the hikers coming towards us, we made it to the beach in a leisurely 2 hours.

Before reaching the beach itself, we passed the Meromictic Lake. This is a lake that carries freshwater from below and saltwater on top. According to the information sign, this phenomenon only occurs 17 times in the whole world:O

When we were there today, the lake was almost completely dry :( But that also meant that some creatures felt comfortable in the mud again. The crabs carried shells larger than themselves - a really cool spectacle!

The beach itself is quite long and wide, so the number of visitors is well distributed;) Most seem to arrive by boat, but there were also hikers coming out of the jungle like us^^

The great thing is that there are trees, so parts of the beach are shaded. The downside is that the whole island is surrounded by dangerous jellyfish -.- So swimming is prohibited at Turtle Beach, and even though we couldn't see any jellyfish with the naked eye, we obeyed the sign;) Jonas, however, went knee-deep into the water at least.

All wet clothes felt good nevertheless^^

A "highlight" at Turtle Beach is the Turtle Sanctuary. Turtles often lay their eggs on the beach, and for several years now, an organization has been taking care of protecting these turtle eggs.

At night, the eggs are collected to be hatched in the station and then raise the baby turtles in a protected environment before releasing them into the wild.

During our visit today, there were three pools. The first one had baby turtles, and oh my god, they were soooo cute!!! <333 Not only were they small and cute, but they also swam quite clumsily, as if they were just figuring out how to move their limbs to move forward^^

In the other two pools, there was only one turtle each, but this time they were fully grown. Jonas and I weren't quite sure if that's a positive thing. Do they keep them there just for visitors to see, or is there actually a reason to keep the two turtles in the sanctuary instead of releasing them?

Hmm. After visiting the rehabilitation station, we sat down in the shade of a small bush with a view of the water. Boats kept coming, and sometimes we were persistently asked if we wanted to buy a ticket for the return trip:D But no. We wanted to walk! :)

While we were sitting there, we goofed around a bit, but actually, I was feeling quite sluggish and preferred to watch Jonas trying to sprint up the "dunes" with amusement: -)

Since we were both completely exhausted:D: D, we finally started heading back around 1:00 pm. But instead of taking the same path, we took an alternative route, thanks to Maps.Me, which was also quite cool:)

This way, we passed by a Canopy Walk, where you can walk from tree to tree at a few meters high. Unfortunately, it was closed... Oh well. And the path there was significantly less crowded. When we passed by a monkey, it growled at us aggressively, so we quickly continued walking:D

After the Canopy Walk, there was another area with two concrete "swimming pools." An Asian guy was swimming there, but for me, it wasn't an option anyway. A sign prohibits swimming in "improper clothing," and there's a swimsuit crossed out on it. Well. We are in a Muslim country after all: -)

From the pools, the last stretch of the path led back to the entrance, passing by the beach, which produced some beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, there was also quite a bit of (washed up) trash, which is especially sad in a national park...

By the time we arrived at Turtle Beach, there was a local cleanup operation going on, with young people cleaning the beach with trash bags and tongs, which was great to see<33

Back at the national park entrance, we debated whether or not we needed to sign out, but in the end, we just walked back to the bus:D: D

We waited for the bus for about 20 minutes, and funny enough, the Polish couple from the morning also came running up at that moment:)

The bus driver took us a few stops further, where he took a break, and we had to change buses. And well, the new bus driver seemed to be in a hurry, as he ignored people at a bus stop twice:D: D But luckily, the bus runs regularly: -)

Back in George Town, besides the urgent need for a shower, hunger was a real mood killer: p So we simply exchanged our hiking shoes for sandals/slippers and headed to the Indian restaurant.

Actually, I wasn't really a fan of Indian food, but I still had hope of finding something that's NOT spicy:) Plus, Jonas was super hungry, and Indian food always fills him up:)

We went to the same restaurant as a few days ago, and this time I ordered a Thali, and Jonas ordered his own dish with bread, although he ended up helping me with half of my Thali again:D My food was actually fine, but one of the bowls had something spicy in it, and I couldn't get rid of the spiciness no matter how much neutral food I ate -.-

Since "spicy" means "stomach ache" for me, Jonas took the rest of my "spicy" food, and on the way back, we bought me an ice cream<3 So everyone was happy: D: D

We'll see what's on the agenda tomorrow. We'll probably drive to another forest/park where there are waterfalls and natural "pools" where you can swim, but let's see how we feel tomorrow.

For today, we are both completely exhausted:D: D But - those baby turtles were the cutest things I've seen in a long time<333