After another lovely morning of tea/coffee and coconut pastries (and Ray trying hard to backwards engineer them in order to figure out how to make them back home), we set off for the bus station to catch a bus out to the northern part of the island for a “beach day.”
Our first obstacle of the day was trying to find our bus. We saw it just leaving where we thought we should pick it up, but the map by the stop showed a different location of where we should wait for it. After finding that location and three buses passing us without stopping, a local woman directed us down to the next stop. We waited there for a long time in the heat before our bus finally came.
We rode until the end which was the stop for the Penang Butterfly Farm. This was a really magical place, with thousands of paper-thin butterflies swooping and fluttering everywhere you could see in this vast, open space. We saw large white butterflies that looked like washed-out monarchs, tiny orange and blue butterflies, iridescent butterflies, butterflies on fruit, butterflies on flowers, butterflies on butterflies!
We also got to hold a lizard, see cocoons being hatched, observe snakes and giant ants and bugs and frogs, and release newly hatched butterflies.
The second half of the exhibitions were much more education-focused and, while we learned some interesting facts (monarch butterflies’ populations have decreased dramatically in the last 20 years), they were certainly less magical than the first part. Between a silly giant bug city, strange smells, and lots of sound effects, Ray started getting claustrophobic and my tummy got rather upset.
We took a taxi over to The Spice Park. Grabbing the audio tour devices and slathering on bug repellent, we started on down the path.
Before long, my tummy troubles worsened and, unfortunately I ended up spending most of our time there in the bathroom. Fortunately I had the audio tour with me, so I feel like I still learned a lot, LOL. Emerging from the park with a settled stomach and lots of bug bites, we crossed the street to a beach.
I’d really been looking forward to beach time here because it has been SO hot. The water was beautifully warm and just as I was making my way in, Ray yelped. He’d been stung by a jellyfish. He said it was worse than the last time he’d been stung in Mexico and I started worrying. What if he became paralyzed? What do I do? How do I find a hospital? Thankfully, this sting was just that – a sting – and he emerged just fine.
Ray, just prior to getting stung by a jellyfish
After the clouds rolled in, we packed up and headed to the bus stop, passing the time by watching a bunch of monkeys crossing the electrical wires from the spice park, across the street, and to a tree perch above the beach.
After waiting for quite a while, a friendly young guy who was parked in the lot by the bus stop asked us where we were going and if we wanted a ride. Something about his kind face told us that, although this day had had it’s drawbacks, this might be a nice turn of events. Thankfully we were right. A highlight of the day today was getting to know Bam, a young Malaysian entrepreneur who loves fishing and is visiting his grandma in Penang. He has a degree in tourism (even though that’s not his current career) and gave us a casual tour of the area. After dropping us at the door of our hostel, we took some selfies and he gave us his card. “I just love everyone I’ve met here,” Ray reflected later.
Having skipped lunch, we were quite hungry by this time and excited to try some more local specialties at the food carts on our street. We had Assam Laksa (a hot, sour noodle soup) with eggrolls, Char Koay Teow (similar to Pad Thai), some Dim Sum dumplings, and for “dessert” we had Nutmeg Juice and Soy Curd with Brown Sugar. We also made a stop at the postcard-size art store Ray’d mentioned yesterday, but found the style did not particularly mesh with ours, so made our way back home.
This afternoon, Ray had realized (gasp!) this is our last day here! We’d been under the assumption that we had one more day. Fortunately, after coming back and looking at a calendar, we realized we actually do have one more day! Despite what I perceived earlier in the day as signs that Malaysia wanted us to leave, the day ended with more of those smiles and unsolicited bits of kindness that makes me excited to extend our visit – even if just for a day.
Oh my! Me: “oh, poor Jess”….”oh,poor Ray” “Awwwwww” …. you guys certainly have had the variety of fun and challenges! All is well.