We met the group at the tourbus at 8 AM, and took a drive to the base of Penang Hill. At its peak, it is the tallest point in Penang, which our driver told us was 830 meters above sea level. We took a funicular train to the top of the mountain. It was built on a 45 degree slope, and is the third generation of trains that they have used on the mountain.
At the top we visited a Hindu temple, a Mosque, a hotel, an old house, and some fair-type attractions. It's almost like an amusement park, with lots of activities for families. Also, the Penang Hill boasts some of the best views of the island. It was fun to see the area from a new angle.
I got some shaved ice with fresh mango and popping boba. That is one of my favorite desserts here!
We went back down the hill to the bus and drove to a flea market. I love flea markets! It was really fun to see all the exotic fruits and vegetables, and I was able to find some cool antique souvenirs and haggle on prices with the vendors. We walked by a woman who was barbequeing something wrapped in banana leaves. Her sidekick told us the leaves were filled with rice, so I got one. It was 1 Ringgit, or about $ 0.30 USD. It had a savory filling, which was quite tasty! I thought it had a slightly fishy flavor, but I wasn't too worried because lots of foods are made with fish sauce over here. Later, I learned that the filling was actually shrimp. Oh well. I'm still a vegetarian, but man that was delicious.
I also got to try fresh Lychee juice from a food stand at the flea market. It was really good, but I wish they hadn't felt the need to add sugar to it. It would have been fine without! It was very refreshing, though.
After the flea market, we went to Chew Jetty, a UNESCO Heritage Site, where we looked around the Chinese Malay shops, homes, and temples. It is built on a pier, with boats often docked between houses, and bicycles or motorcycles used for the mainland transportation.
We stopped by a Peranakan Mansion, took a look inside, and kept going. It was so hot that we decided the to get as much time with the car's air conditioner as possible. Plus, we had seen the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. The mansion had spectacular architecture, and was very ornate.
We had pretty much been snacking all day, so when we got to Little India we were very excited to find a vegetarian Indian restaurant. My meal was 5.90 RM which translates to less than $2 USD.
We walked around the area for a while, looking in fabric shops and jewelry stores. We found the rest of our group in a hipster, upscale backpacker hotel. It looked like Anthropologie had branched out into the hotel industry. Needless to say, we used the restrooms there. (Why pass up a clean bathroom?) And they had toilet paper AND paper towels. It was very luxurious.
One of the highlights of our day, the Chocolate and Coffee Museum, was next. We looked around the museum area, which told the process of making chocolate and coffee. The real fun came when we went to the store and got to sample all the different kinds of chocolate and coffee. Penang is famous for white coffee, which is basically produced by adding sugar and milk to coffee beans in the roasting process. How can you go wrong with those ingredients? Of course, I had to get some souvenirs.
After that, we drove to this really artsy area of Penang that had lots of beautiful and interactive murals painted on the walls of the buildings. That was probably my favorite touristy area that we've visited on this trip, because they had really cute shops and lots of street art. There was so much to see!
We went back to the hotel after that, and the van driver was nice enough to wait while we got our laundry together, and drive us to the laundromat. Laundry desperately needed to happen. We had reached that point. Luckily, the laundromat was very nice and clean and provided free soap! Why can't they do that in the US?
We changed some money, visited Starbucks, and then went back to the hotel with our clothes. The heat had taken it out of us, but we were really hungry. We went downstairs to the open-air marketplace and ate at the same Thai restaurant where we had eaten a couple of nights ago.
The language barrier sometimes catches me off guard. When we ordered, it seemed like the waiter totally knew what we were saying because he kept nodding and agreeing with us, but then the order got a little bit mixed up. It wasn't anything too major, though, and eventually we all got our food. I got a gigantic bowl of green curry and rice, Jenna got noodles with chicken and orange juice, Tori got a mango salad, we got sticky pandan rice and mango to split, and we all got coconut ice cream. It was a fabulous meal, more of a feast really. I listed it all out just to do a comparison of food prices, because it is a lot cheaper here than it is in the US. For all that food, it cost us less than the equivalent of $20 USD.
We went back up to the room and packed because we would have to leave the hotel at 6 in the morning. We had the most spectacular view of the city lights at night, and the lightning storm that had started as soon as the sun went down. I love watching the lightning storms here--they're the best entertainment.
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