Typical

Want to know a secret about budget travel? Here it is; nothing goes as planned.

Observe:

After a day of lounging poolside at our hotel we decided to explore Penang. We woke up ready to start our day at 7:30am. We left the hotel at a quarter to eleven. Our plan was to take a taxi to the Penang National Park and from there hike an hour and a half to monkey beach where we would spend the afternoon.

We found a taxi by the mall who said he could take us to the national park. We found it to be a reasonable price so we hopped in. Thirty minutes later we arrived at a park. It was a pleasant looking place with a botanical garden and an extremely steep hill with a paved walking/biking path. We asked the driver which way monkey beach was and he pointed up the hill. It was at this point through a series of loud bursts we discovered that the other building on the premises was a rifle range. We went to a booth by the hill where a park ranger informed us that Penang national park was very far away but we could walk up the hill for 3 hours to get a nice view of the city. We decided to amble around the park enjoying the sounds of nature and rifles. We did find monkeys and fed them until one charged the girls fangs exposed.

We found another taxi drive to take us to real national park. It was only an hour further. When we arrived it was roughly 1:30. I found some sort of soup with fish heads in it for a quick lunch (it was only $0.33 and we started our 1.5 hour hike. We were told that the park closes at 6pm and that we should started walking back at 5:30. We were also told there were boats there that could take us back to the entrance for $25. We hoped to not have to take the boat.

The hike was lovely. It only took us an hour and it ranged from concrete boardwalks to sandy beaches to jungle paths. The beach was nice too and it was entertaining to see groups of monkeys going through the garbage, drinking from pop cans, and stealing from tourists as they helplessly stood by. I came prepared with sticks because we had heard tales of practically whole tourists being stolen by monkeys.

One pleasant surprise was that a boat taxi came to ask if we wanted a ride back and told us he would only charge $5. We took him up on the offer and earlier than we thought too because within 45 minutes of being there it threatened rain and within an hour the threat turned into a promise. We were back at the entrance by 4:30.

Our return journey consisted of a 2 hour public bus ride a search for a taxi and a half hour taxi ride. In the end we spent 4 hours in transportation and 2 hours outside. Not quite what we expected the day would look like.

In the end it did not work out how we expected or would have wanted but from this side of the day it was wholly enjoyable. Nothing goes as planned!