Monday, October 13, 2003
The following day - 29th September was a day of activity
James and I had decided to check out Penang Hill which is a short bus ride from town
At the bottom of the hill is the massive Kok Lok Si buddhist temple
It is spread over 4 floors and is very chilled - lots of enormous gold buddhas and a statue which is on the hill and you get to by taking a lift which goes up on a slant - its massive
In Thailand there are temples everywhere - or so im told but this was the first one I had seen and it was really good - lots of good photo ops (including the pool containing hundreds of turtles all climbing on top of each other) - One thing I have noticed about Malaysia however is that they seem to have an incredible habit of ruining good photo ops by building power lines, stupid signs or in the case of the huge statue having a shop with an incredibly ugly stripy tarpaulin roof right in front - it seems to happen time and time again - i think its a conspiracy
The temple was good but the hill itself was even better - there is a funicular railway up to the top of the hill (thats a train pulled by a cable cos the hill is too steep for a normal train) and once you get to the top the views are breathtaking - you can see the whole of Penang (and i didnt realise how sprawling it was) - the bridge across to the mainland - (longest in south east as - of course) and the mainland as well
At the top we decided to find the jungle canopy walk which was cool as well - not the longest but still pretty wobbly even with just two of us on it (Focus, Focus)
That night we met Jo from England and her mate Gill from Canada who had just come back from Australia and were on the final leg of their travels - really nice pair actually and they seem to have a habit of attracting people to a party - so the four of us went out for a few drinks but four was soon increased by Anthony an Australian guy on his way up to vietnam, Tommy an Irish guy we were playing at pool and his friend, then as we were walking down the street Julia from Essex who I have now been travelling with for over a week and two of her German friends Ellen and Ruth joined us and finally a load of Australian soldiers on leave from Butterworth on the mainland got in on the act
It was a very fun night - lots of random banter - and a lot about Thailand and the full moon party - the seeds were sown and it seems i am a lot more open to ideas when i am drunk (as i am now in Thailand and have just been to the full moon party - keep up)
James and I had decided to check out Penang Hill which is a short bus ride from town
At the bottom of the hill is the massive Kok Lok Si buddhist temple
It is spread over 4 floors and is very chilled - lots of enormous gold buddhas and a statue which is on the hill and you get to by taking a lift which goes up on a slant - its massive
In Thailand there are temples everywhere - or so im told but this was the first one I had seen and it was really good - lots of good photo ops (including the pool containing hundreds of turtles all climbing on top of each other) - One thing I have noticed about Malaysia however is that they seem to have an incredible habit of ruining good photo ops by building power lines, stupid signs or in the case of the huge statue having a shop with an incredibly ugly stripy tarpaulin roof right in front - it seems to happen time and time again - i think its a conspiracy
The temple was good but the hill itself was even better - there is a funicular railway up to the top of the hill (thats a train pulled by a cable cos the hill is too steep for a normal train) and once you get to the top the views are breathtaking - you can see the whole of Penang (and i didnt realise how sprawling it was) - the bridge across to the mainland - (longest in south east as - of course) and the mainland as well
At the top we decided to find the jungle canopy walk which was cool as well - not the longest but still pretty wobbly even with just two of us on it (Focus, Focus)
That night we met Jo from England and her mate Gill from Canada who had just come back from Australia and were on the final leg of their travels - really nice pair actually and they seem to have a habit of attracting people to a party - so the four of us went out for a few drinks but four was soon increased by Anthony an Australian guy on his way up to vietnam, Tommy an Irish guy we were playing at pool and his friend, then as we were walking down the street Julia from Essex who I have now been travelling with for over a week and two of her German friends Ellen and Ruth joined us and finally a load of Australian soldiers on leave from Butterworth on the mainland got in on the act
It was a very fun night - lots of random banter - and a lot about Thailand and the full moon party - the seeds were sown and it seems i am a lot more open to ideas when i am drunk (as i am now in Thailand and have just been to the full moon party - keep up)
