Over hill and dale

To get to know the rest of Penang a bit, we drove to 'Taman Negara Pulau Penang', the national park there, on Friday of our second week.

At the entrance, we all had to register. Apparently, people have gotten lost in the park before, which is why registration was introduced. (By the way, everyone reappeared!) We already encountered the first monkeys here. There was also a little Chinese girl with us, whom we had met on the bus and who couldn't speak a word of English. We were all equipped with hiking shoes, as they were strongly recommended for hikes through the national park. Our Chinese friend apparently hadn't looked into the situation, as she started with flip-flops. ;-)

It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to Turtle Beach, our first stop, and it went over hill and dale, up and down... Along the way, there were simply missing large parts of the so-called stairs or paths, or there were thick tree trunks blocking the way. It was quite exhausting and sweaty as a result. But somehow manageable even with flip-flops, because we all arrived safely at Turtle Beach. Here is a breeding station for turtles. Unfortunately, we couldn't see any free-roaming turtles, only some in tiny little pools where there was absolutely no room for swimming... We couldn't swim here either because of the countless jellyfish.

Therefore, we took the boat from here to Monkey Beach. A beautiful beach with hardly any people. Unfortunately, there was a lot of garbage lying around everywhere. The water was bathtub-warm, but we enjoyed our first day at the beach to the fullest!

When we arrived at the park entrance again by boat, nobody seemed interested in the fact that it was us leaving the park. It doesn't seem to be considered a big deal if one or the other tourist disappears in the park! :-) Well, luckily we made it again!