Penang's National Park

Penang is an island off the western coast of Malaysia. Penang has a national park. It is out in the northwest corner of the island. In the morning, I asked at the desk of the hostel where I was staying and was told that I could take a bus from right out front and go all the way to the park. Simple enough, so off I went.

It took about an hour to get to the park. When I arrived, it seemed a bit of a sleepy place. There were no great crowds. There were only a few people about. Even the stalls that provide food and souvenirs and, possibly more telling, tours for visitors were mostly closed. A sign announced that visitors should go the office to get a park pass and register. I duly went and signed in and got my park pass. My free park pass. They wanted to know where I planned to go. I eventually decided that they wanted to know in case I didn't show up by the end of the day to sign back out. Then they could send out searchers to look for the body. I had read about a turtle sanctuary and information center in the park. I thought it would be interesting to learn about the conservation of turtles, so I thought I would head there. But when I got there, there was also a hike to a lighthouse, and that sounded interesting as well. I registered my intention to go to the lighthouse. And off I went. I first had to deal with a ferocious feline blocking my way. I thought I wouldn't have to deal with big vicious cats until I got into Africa, but I figured this would be good practice and I snuck by without mishap.

It was a very warm day and I had about a liter and a half of water with me. The hike to the lighthouse was about four and a half kilometers. It was through the jungle and there were lots of interesting things to see along the way. Just at the entrance to the park, I came across a couple who had hired a guide. They were busy staring into the nearby jungle in a way that suggested they were seeing wildlife. When I got up to them, they were watching a monkey in the mangroves. But the spot to view the monkey was on a swaying bridge and it was hard to get a clear photo as a result. I was bummed.

I needn't have worried though. A short while later, I crossed paths with this guy.

And then a little after that, I looked up in the trees and saw this one.

I reached Monkey Beach, a nice long white sandy beach. At the end of the beach the trail led up onto a hill that went up about 250 meters. By that time I had drunk about half of my water. I wasn't sure I wanted to hike up to see a lighthouse, with dwindling water on a hot, sunny day, and then trek across the park to the turtle sanctuary. In the end it seemed best to not go to the lighthouse and head to the turtle sanctuary. So I turned around and headed back towards the turn-off for the other side of the park.

And I think the reason for the name of the beach, Monkey Beach, is all the monkeys that are around. This one was just hanging out.

Then I passed a whole troop of them on the path. They gave me a wide berth as they went past.

I made it back to one of the turn-offs to go across the park. This path was supposed to go past a canopy walkway. But the canopy walkway was closed and apparently the path was as well. But the tape didn't seem to be across the pathway. So I followed it. This turned out to be a rather bad idea. I ended up bashing through the bushes on a rather hidden trail as I made my way up to where it finally met up with the first trail (from the park entrance). I was worried at one point that I might be on this path and get hurt. However, I had registered for the lighthouse trail and so they would never find my body. But I did make it through in the end and got to the other side of the park. But I took another wrong turn and took the long trail around a special lake. The lake is a meromictic lake, one where sea water and fresh water meet. The sea water stays at the bottom and the fresh water sits on top and the two don't mix. I had swum in a lagoon of this type in the Philippines, but apparently this phenomenon only occurs in a few places on the planet.

Then I headed onto the beach. The very hot beach. The burning hot beach. But there were pine cone-like things from the trees at the edge of the beach. The got between my feet and my sandals and were very painful to walk on. So I took off my sandals. But the sand felt like it was burning the flesh from my feet. I was caught either way. It was a rough walk across to the ranger station at the beach. I was hoping very hard that they had water as I had all but run out of water getting there and it would be a long, thirsty hike back to the park entrance if they didn't. Luckily, they gave me some water, from a tap, and told me that I could drink water from the streams in the park as they were safe. I wasn't completely sure that would be true, but I didn't have much choice. I was really thirsty.

They also pointed the way to the turtle conservation sanctuary. Eagerly, I headed over to learn about how they save turtles at the beach... And found a building with a couple of bored looking caretakerish looking people who did nothing to try explain anything about the operation. They barely even acknowledged the arrival of visitors. Inside the building there were a number of reading panels showing how the turtles come to the beach, lay their eggs in holes, which are immediately dug up by the conservation staff, put into protected holes safe from predators and other threats and left to hatch. The baby turtles are allowed to grow a bit, and are then released into the beach to make their way into the sea and hopefully live a good life as they replenish the population of turtles in the area. It was a long way to come to read panels and I was somewhat disappointed that I had not gone to see the lighthouse. I did see where they kept the turtle eggs in their protected holes, though.

But still, if you go there, go for the lighthouse.