Lonely Penang-> Lovely Penang (second day)

1.  Take a rest

I had had a deep sleep last night and woke up at 9:30. My hostel-named Love Lane Inn- would be full today so I had to move to another hostel called Ryokan. It’s just about 200 meters from Love Lane Inn. I checked out and left my luggage there to go out for breakfast- lunch. One more thing, I had forgotten to bring my camera the day before so I also planned to walk around to take some photos. I wanted  to have lunch in the cuisine area in Time square. Unfortunately, that is NIGHT cuisine area so there were 2 or 3 stores open at noon.

I decided to eat some Laksa- a kind of noodle.

On the way back to my hostel, I came across a Chinese temple. Today was the first day of Chinese new year so there were a lot of people. To help you imagine the temple easier, I may describe it as a combination of Smoke- Crows – and Red. Yes, those are what pass through my mind when I think about the temple. The temple was encompassed by many street booths which sold incense and other stuff. Traffic jam happened in every streets toward the temple. Pieces of red paper were in the ground or were blown by the wind. In the sky flied around many crows. Talking noise, loud cry from the crows, the temple sound and the smoke from incenses, all of them created the special atmosphere of the temple in Chinese new year :).

I had a drink in a Malaysian restaurant. When I queued to pay, I saw something covered with a strange leaf in the counter. I guessed that it must be a kind of cake and decided to buy it. However… it is quid of betel- the thing that old people often eat!!!! I had to say that it had “unforgettable-taste”!!!!!!! (noted: “unforgettable” here doesn’t mean “delicious”)

2. New hostel

I was back to Love Lane Inn at 12:30 and took my luggage to Ryokan. I had booked a FEMALE dorm in Ryokan. However, there was something wrong with my booking so I had to choose a MIXED dorm instead-> and we had a men in our room K.

This hostel cost me 40RM but I think it is worthy. It’s clean, art, nice, new, comfortable, convenience, etc :D… We had air-condition, and hot water. There were some cute couches along the corridor and they are very enjoyable.

The only inconvenience thing is that you had to share bathroom. I also had to share bathroom in last hostel and everything was ok. However, in this hostel,… there were some guys from Europe and they walked around the bathroom area with… an only underwear! OMG!

3. Batu Feringgi

In the afternoon, I took a bus to Batu Feringgi Beach. Normally, the bus takes me around 40 minutes to get there. However, because it was holiday time, I had to wait nearly 30 minutes for the bus coming and then spent 1hour 30 minutes more on the bus.

Batu Feringgi is not too beautiful but pretty enough to have a rest on. Penang beach impressed me by the clean choppy blue sea.

The night time coming meant night market open!!! I went “window-shopping” for a while and then had a big dinner there!

That was the end of my second day.

It was time I had thought about the plan for my last day in Penang. Actually, I had planned to go to National park but I had better find someone to go with me. 

An idea came into my mind: “Hostel’s staff told me that My room had 2 girl… maybe I should try asking them…”.

The best part of living in a dorm room is that you have new friends :).

4. Make a decision:

I came back to my hostel at 10:30pm and asked the receptionist for the earliest bus to National park. The first bus comes at 6AM. Great! I need to be at Sungai Nibong at 2pm to back to Kuala Lumpur so maybe I would leave the hostel at 6:30AM. I reminded him about my early checking out the next morning and went to my room. 1 of 2 girls was in the room..

- Hi, my name is Zany, I’m from Vietnam.

- Hi, I’m […], I’m from Finland.

[…etc...]

- I’m going to visit National Park tomorrow…

- Oh, we also planned to go there.

[Woa………………. Everything ran smoothly!!!!!]

- What time are you going to leave?

- Maybe ….9AM. I’m not sure :).

[What L((((((((( ????]

- I think that it will be very sunny if we come there at noon. Moreover, because of Chinese new year, there may be traffic jam and it will take us around 2 hours to get there. How about leaving at …7am?

- No no, absolutely not 7am. We cant get up too early. I’ll discuss with my friend but I think the earliest time should be 8am :).

If I go with these girls, I cannot be at the station on time… The comfortable bed also told me: “Hey, stay here, why so rush…?”. Yes, The bad thing of staying in a nice hostel is it will make you lazy!!!

“What should I do? If I still want to go, I have to go alone. I have to get up early and also try to take time in the forest. I was back late today… The hostel is so comfortable.. Having a rest here is a great idea, I won’t need to be rush…Ahhhhhh”

Second thought: “Ok, I come here for traveling, I wasted a morning sleeping so I don’t want to waste another morning! I decided!”

Thuy Duong Phan (Zany)- Vietnam