Penang, Malaysia

We arrived in Penang at 5am and promptly went for breakfast, where there was purple dim sum! That was the only thing that was amusing me though. With very little sleep, I was exhausted and irritable. We drove to Jane's house. My mind was blown. She lives on top of a huge hill -slash- mountain, which is covered in tropical rainforest. The drive up the narrow, sharpely twisting and turning mud path was nerve wracking, but so cool! Everytime we made the turning onto her road, it was like we left the mundanity of civilisation behind with the concrete. Pure escapism. Jane's family own a substantial amount of the land, and profit from picking and selling the fruit from the trees, mostly durian, which is okay to taste, but smells like socks and drains, and all manner of other horrible things mixed together when you crack it open. They keep four dogs and a white rabbit (randomly enough its a long haired one). The shower, like many showers in Asia I have encountered, is a glorified garden tap. One evening I showered with a green lizard chilling on the wall in one corner and a giant moth the size of my hand in the other. Coming to Penang also meant I got the opportunity to meet Jane's son, Ken, who is eight years old. After the hardest night's sleep I've ever had, I woke up refreshed. I was buzzing, I was in the rainforest! Down the hill there is a resort where people likely spend a lot of money to stay and relax, and I was staying at the top of the mountain, for free, based on the random chance incident that I met Jane in a hostel in Xi'an and she was kind enough to invite me to stay. Life is amazing sometimes. Jane, Ken and I headed to a waterpark, accompanied by a girl my age with mental health difficulties of some kind. Ashamedly I have to say I found her annoying because she kept touching me, and I had to hold my patiences with her. Later we went to see Captain America at the cinema in the shopping mall. The undisputed highlight of the day though was my visit to Orangutan Island, a conservation park for orangutans. The babies were so human and unbelievably cute. In fact, you have to believe it, because I have pictures hehe~

The next day was Sunday. Jane cooked a quick brunch and then Ken and I power walked up to the very top of the mountain where there was a Buddhist temple. Many people were gathered there and they were friendly towards me. At a table sat a monk in an orange robe, eating. The table was overladen with home cooked dishes. It smelt delicious. I asked a lady and she told me that when the monk had eaten his fill, they were free to enjoy the food too. Then Jane drove Ken and I to the mall again and left us there while she went to bible study at church. We visited a very novel eatery first, 'T-Bowl' which was bathroom themed. There were showers on the walls, the seats were toilets and the tables made of sinks and baths. The food didnt escape the theme either. We ate chocolate ice cream in the shape of a comedy turd from a bowl shaped like a bidet. Brilliant.

Ken was keen to go to Toys R Us, so I left him there while I browsed some shops nearby. I bought a Zara cardigan from a factory outlet store. It was perfect condition apart from the label was ripped. I wanted something warmer to wear in case we went on another fiercely air conditioned coach! Jane picked us up again and we headed to an outdoor War Museum, which is also available as a paintballing course. To be honest I think it was mostly suited to that. Walking around was creepy, and they hid mannequins in dark corners to scare you. The whole experience was rather surreal. As I wandered round a beautiful piece of woodland visiting a collection of different war ephemera, such as gun turrets, an example trench, replica gallows, rooms of photographs, it felt at times silly, and at others, touching. We bought food at a Ramadan bazaar. Jane insisted I covered myself up and I felt so uncomfortable. It made me feel even more that the women of Islam who are required to wear such full clothing even in hot weather are impeded in their basic right for comfort. On the way home we stopped at the site of a Hungry Ghosts festival. August is Hungry Ghosts Month in Asia, when traditionally people believe that ghosts roam the earth freely looking for people to eat. To appease them they burn money and offerings. There was a big tent full of tables of food, an ashy pit with remnants of notes in it, and a stage, where people were busily preparing for a concert of some kind. Just down the road we visited the beach and took photographs of the beautiful sunset. The sky glowed wildly with orange and gold colours and green water reflected them, making them dance with its movement. It didn't look real, even standing and looking at it in front of you. It was as though the whole sky was aflame. Later it transformed into a deep violet purple. Easily one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.