WEATHER: 33 degrees, partly cloudy, 66% Humidity
Taking our time this morning, we finish breakfast and head over to the Recreation Room in an attempt to get rid of some Malaysian coins. Miss 8yo managed to play one game, but the machines did not take older coins, so we were still stuck with them.
For the first time, we walked in the opposite direction away from our hotel to the closest bus stop. The bus took a while before it arrived and there was no shelter - it wasn't pleasant standing in the full Penang sun. The bus drove past the Adventure Tree/Rope climbing park "Escape" (maybe next time?), the Butterfly Park but we decided to get off at the end of the line; the Penang National Park.
At the entrance to the park we met a lovely young lady from Germany, Nicola, who was travelling alone after visiting her friend in Kuala Lumpur. Nicola agreed to join us on a long boat ride around the National Park shore line. We split the cost of 180RM - us 120RM/her 60RM.
The captain of the long boat was called Sudhi and he took us first to Turtle Island. The sand on the beach was extremely hot and the grains were larger than we are used to back home; my sandals were not the best to walk on the beach, as the grains kept getting caught under my feet. Luckily, there weren't many visitors on the beach, so I didn't feel embarrassed about my hot sand shuffle with no shoes on.
Unfortunately, Sudhi didn't tell us that the turtle sanctuary had a rest period between 1-2pm, which is exactly when we arrived. This meant that the only turtles we got to see were very small ones locked up in tanks with wire over top or those that were already dead and put on display. Not the most exciting part of our holiday, we wandered back to the shore line to meet our boat and hopped back on around 1:30pm to make our way to Monkey Beach.
We didn't realise when we got off the boat that we would be left stranded here for the rest of the afternoon. The place was just like a deserted island with a number of stalls along the shore selling snacks, drinks and floating water toys. If you felt like risking your life, you could participate in some water sports. The most exciting part of our stay was the evil monkey encounters. We even spotted one just like Grandpa - he only had one arm!
It's funny how I would have never chosen to do this if I'd known we were just going to sit around on a beach all afternoon, but in hindsight, it was a perfect way to make us relax and just do nothing... I just wish I had brought my book along. Whilst there we ordered some chicken satays cooked fresh in front of our eyes (8 for 8RM), bought 2 x 1.5L bottles of water (3RM each), can of coke (2RM) and gave Miss 8yo 1RM to buy some bubblegum.
Miss 8yo had fun playing in the sand - she even made her very own turtle. Together we walked a bit up the beach when we spotted a big tyre swing. Along the way she noticed a crab about the size of her hand half buried in the sand. Miss 8yo says "I think it's dead" - I tell her it's only playing dead and poke it a few times before it jumps up and scurries into the water. It had her in fits of laughter! When we reached the swing, it was surrounded by monkeys. I told her to growl at them so they would run away, but all they did was hiss back at her, which made her run for her life.
Before we knew it, it was 4:15pm and the boat was here to collect us. We were back on the bus and arrived at our hotel around 5pm. Hubby and Miss 8yo went down to the pool, while my mission was to find a foot massage. The one on the hotel beach front had finished for the day. I found Hubby and Miss 8yo playing Table Tennis, so told them I was going up the road to search for a foot massage and took our dirty clothes with me. The local market stall just up the road "Galaxys Laundry Service" was charging 4RM per kg of dirty laundry; we had 5.2kg which cost 22RM to wash and dry and would be ready by 10pm that night... where can I find a service like that back home???
I located a massage place next door to where I dropped off the laundry, Four Seasons Reflexology - a small pokey corner shop where I got my foot massage (50RM for 45 minutes and she used some "special" nutmeg oil to help heal my dodgy foot).
I organised the hotel shuttle to take us back to Long Beach for dinner and waited in the foyer with another family from Melbourne to get on the mini bus at 7:30pm. Knowing it was our last time at Long Beach, we went a bit crazy and ordered like it was our last supper: Cappuccino Blended Ice drink (5RM), Chocolate Blended Ice drink (5RM), 2 x 660ml Tiger beer (17RM each), Cheese/Garlic Naan (5RM), 2 x Spring Roll (4RM each), 10 x Chicken Satay (8RM), Chicken/Hawaiian Pizza (10RM), Tai Lok Mee-Pork/Prawn Noodle (5RM), Plum Chicken/Rice (10RM), Mixed Fajita (18RM), 2 x Fried Ice-cream (8RM each). All of this cost us a grand total of 124RM / $43AUD).
Of course this meant that we had to do some more shopping on the way back. I found a different design batik style bag, similar to my favourite one I got from Bali, that is long enough to fit across my body. I couldn't be bothered bargaining hard, so just paid 20RM (it was probably worth only half of that). I also got 3 more OPI nail polishes (10RM each).
We stopped at a stall that stood alone, away from the bustle, just a short distance from our hotel. Here we met a local man about our age, who calls himself Danny. He was really friendly, so we didn't mind buying a few things from him: 3 x singlets (15RM each), 1 x Twin Tower statue (15RM), 2 x girl dresses (22.50RM each).
We picked up our clean clothes, ready a bit before 10pm, on the way past and had Miss 8yo showered and in bed by 10:15pm.
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