Chin Farm to Forest Reserve

For most of my time in Batu Ferringhi I have been running the aquaduct path by Uplands school in Batu Ferringhi. It offers 6-7km of wide paved path and it connects to a number of hiking trails. Usually I run along the road through Batu Ferringhi to the parking lot across from the Bayview Hotel and from there a dirt track for about 2km to the end of the aqueduct. If you head this way follow the gravel road that heads into the jungle just across from the Bayview Hotel. There is a small parking lot at the start if you drive there. Once on the gravel path you will soon reach a fork. Head right, there is a small shrine at the junction. The path then starts to go up hill and you will see a red and white striped bar gate. Go through. Shortly you will reach a water tower and and then just after that a green fence. Keep on this dirt trail and shortly you will reach the dam and reservoir.
Just beyond the dirt track where the paved aqueduct trail begins there is a connecting trail that appeared to connect to another trail going to the Forest Reserve Entrance in Teluk Bahang. I never took it as I never had reason, but I got the chance this past week when my friend Emma needed to scout it out for a class hike. So we left the Bayview parking lot around 830am. I estimated that it would take about 1 hour to connect to the junction of trails on the first hill in Forest Reserve and that was about right. Most of the trek after the waterfall is steep and I was soaked in sweat within 10 minutes. There are two steep ascents broken by about 10 minutes of flat terrain on the way to the junction. Once there we took the path to the right which led us downhill towards the Forest Reserve, taking another 1.5hours. At one point there is a wooden platform with a great view. Once you reach this you are about 20 minutes from the end of the trail in the Forest Reserve. In the reserve there is room to camp and pools to swim in as well as some small restaurants and snack stands by the gate.

It was well enough marked and from the junction on the top hill you can make your way all the way to Penang Hill if we had taken a left instead of the right to head to the Forest Reserve. I reckon it would be fun to hike from Bayview to the top, but that would take all day and my days here in Penang are winding down. Hopefully I will get in a few more hikes, but probably not any that long. 

SamPoh Temple

 

SamPoh temple, located on the south western shore of Penang, has been a target visit for me since I moved to Penang. A few years ago I worked in a humanities department whose head was rather knowledgeable about a man called Zheng He (Cheng Ho). In the early 15^th century he is known to have made many very long voyages from China to explore the world. It is confirmed that he sailed as far as east Africa on ships that were many times the size of European explorers of a similar age. Zheng He's first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen. He would make 7 more vogayes before dying sometime in the mid 1400’s. There are a few temples attributed to him in Malaysia, but this one was a bit unique since there is a footprint in the rock there which is supposed to be where he landed. The footprint is rather large and seems like it is carved into the stone.

While being a neat little visit in Penang, this temple is now flanked by a construction site for a new residential/shopping plaza. The rate at which construction is happening in Malaysia is mad and even more so for the disregard for the heritage for the area. Who knows how long this temple will stand there.

Forest Trail

The trail from Teluk Bahang forest reserve to the top of Penang Hill has been on my list to do since before I arrived here. Searching through possible hiking treks around the island this seemed to be the most appealing as the distance and time required better matched what I have previously done on longer hikes. However, after being here for just a short while and trying some other hikes around the island it occred to me that hiking here would not be like hiking in Japan/the US/New Zealand and that each step would take a bit longer and be a bit more uncomfortable. The thing about Penang, and about Malaysia, is that the heat and humidity can be oppressive. Most days when I arrive home it’s a struggle to not just lay down on the couch and never get up because the heat is just too much. This has lead most of my hiking here to be in the 3-4 hour range max. Plus, there aren’t too many people to whom a 6-8 hour hike clear across the island would appeal to and it’s a trail where you don’t want to be alone due to proximity to help. Should you twist an ankle it would be at least a couple of hours hike on healthy legs, let alone a sprained or broken one, to get to help.

 

So when my friend told me that she was going on an exploratory hike in advance of a club she would be leading later I jumped at the chance. So too did a few of my colleagues and 6 of us set out at 12:45 from the Teluk Bahang Forest reserve this past Saturday. Most estimates put the hike at 6-8 hours and so we assumed we could make it to Penang Hill at or just before nightfall. There we would meet up with another group of teachers at the Methodist Center, a sort of run down bunkhouse where we could camp.

It took us just about an hour to climb the first section from the base of the Forest Reserve to the top of the first hill where we took a 15 minute break for water and snacks. This part of the trail starts out fairly flat, but the latter half begins a steep ascent where ropes are fixed in some places (yellow line).

After that is a small series of up and down hill before a long steep ascent up to the juncture/right turn off to Titikerawang. This juncture took just over an hour and a half to get to from the last stop making this about 3 hours into the hike. We stopped here as well for 15 minutes to snack and rest. There are some views here to the west and north and the reservoir at Teluk Bahang as well as Batu Ferringi are easily seen here.

After that stop the trail goes right down the other side of the mountain and is very steep in some places where fixed ropes are the only way to safely descend. I can’t imagine what it looks like in the rain. This took us another 40 minutes or so. Once at the bottom of the hill we stopped for a quick rest and water at rain gauge 11 before heading up the final large hill to the edge of the Western Reserve (red line). Though it appears on the map as if there is a turn off just before rain guage 11 to hike to air itam dam we never saw that.

It took us about 40 minutes to make it to the edge of the Western Reserve where a red circle with white dash told us to turn right. This followed about 10 minutes of steep downhill, across a small creek, then steep uphill for another 10 minutes or so. Then you are spit onto the road on Penang Hill. From there you take a right off the trail to get to the tram. Keep going straight along the main road and you should get there in about 45 minutes to an hour.

Overall the hike was good, but if you are using the maps from the Forest Trail book of hikes be careful. Maps are not nearly to scale or representative of distance relation of objects to one another. Many trails have turn offs not listed. Bring plenty of food and water. I went through 4 liters over the 5 hour period and was still very thirsty at the end. The hiking is easy in some points, but all of those points are broken by very steep sections. This hike requires stamina, so do not attempt for a leisurely walk.

Thaipusam In Penang

Last year I avoided Thaipusam because I knew traffic would be bad and also I just plain got lazy, but this year seeing as it will be our last year in Penang Aya and I decided to go see what all the hubbub was about.

In Malaysia there is a pretty big Tamil community and Penang I feel like even more so. Thaipusam is a word meaning the month of the star, or something close to that, and is celebrated by Hindu devotees. The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a Vel "spear" so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. I can’t pretend I know any of that though, wikipedia tells me so. What I knew about the festival is that it involved moving a heavy silver shrine from Lorong Kulit temple  in Georgetown to Arulmigu Sri Balathandayuthapani Temple near the botanical gardens, people would be making offerings of milk, and there would be a lot of devotees making the long walk there with hooks and spears in their bodies. Yeah, you read that right. Carrying kavadis, or burdens can be done as an act of penance. Usually in Penang this is done by carrying pots of milk, being speared, or both. Upon reaching the temple, devotees will fulfill their vows, offer thanksgiving prayers and penance to Lord Muruga.

We didn’t get speared or carrying any milk. More or less we wandered around Jalan Waterfall to see the speared men making their march to the temple and to get some street food. Aya ended up getting some henna done on her hand as well. After snapping a couple of pictures we left, mission complete. On the list of things to do in Penang, one more thing checked off. Now, I have to get Aya to climb Penang Hill with me!

Betel Nut

The island where I live is named for the tree which grows here, Pinang. This tree has a unique feature as many people chew the nuts from the tree. Before coming to Penang I researched the island and discovered this fact, which peeked my interest. A couple years prior I first heard of betel nut from a co-worker who had lived in Yap for many years. He said that everyone there chewed betel nut, even kids in his classroom. Earlier this year I tried to locate some, thinking Little India in Georgetown was the best place to find it, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Thankfully I have recently made friends with a local and when I told her that I wanted to try it she brought me all the ingredients the next day! Not only that but a few days later we did a little "walking tour" and she showed me a few hole in the wall stores where I could buy more.
Taking the meat from the center of the nut, you wrap it in a leaf, add some lime/chalk, chew until gooey and then put into the pocket of your cheek/teeth chewing gently until there is nothing left. It turns your mouth red as the nut is ground down, a sure sign of someone who is using it.
I had read that it would give you a slight buzz and I found this to be true. I felt a light headed feeling, but nothing too severe. Perhaps a bit of a general good feeling too. Now that I have tried it, I don't think I will do it again soon. The nut is bitter and for what it does, I don't feel that it is worth using, but a nice experiment none the less

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Penang Toy Museum

Working through the list of places to see in Penang my finger fell on the Toy Museum on a recent weekend. I had heard a bit about it in the local papers as it had moved locations from the basement of the Copthorne hotel to a new location in Teluk Bahang. It was a bit hard to find as I thought it would be right by the roadside, but in fact it was set back from the main thoroughfare. My friend and I arrived around closing time and we asked if we could still get in. The owner told us it would take 30-60 minutes depending on how much we liked the things. We had about 45 minutes to the close so we thought we would go for it. The array of toys and memorabilia was amazing and we had a good time walking around taking photos of different things. It took us about 40 minutes to go through it all. When we finally emerged the owner chatted with us for a bit and told us that some people don’t last more than 10 minutes. I can see why this is. Though the toys are interesting, the best part was associations made to my childhood and toys that I may have had. If you are an American male between the ages of 25 and 40 this would probably be interesting for you. If not, maybe you should budget 10 minutes. At a price of 30 ringgit (about 10usd) for admission I was just satisfied with my experience.

Down to the Wire in Malaysian Election

Though Malaysia has a king which follows a line of hereditary ascension AND is elected Malaysia is mostly modeled on a parliamentary system. Despite the availability of Malaysians to elect leaders, more or less the same party has been in power since Malaysian independence 55 years ago. Barisan Nasional formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance is the ruling party and it has been that party or say coalition in charge as long as most Malaysians can remember. This party is mostly ethnic Malay and indigenous people which make up about 60% of Malaysia’s population. Interestingly, especially where I live in Penang, there are a lot of ethnically Chinese Malaysians often called the Straits Chinese (at least in Penang). In the last election BN was upset by the winning of other parties on a scale large enough to set up opposition parties in state governments. Penang being one of those as it is ruled by the Democratic Action Party (DAP) which is largely an ethnically Chinese party and part of the Pakatan Rakyat, an alliance between three parties including two others which Islamic leanings. This election is expected to be even more contentious and though BN is expected to win the overall election the margin is set to be close. Penang will almost certainly remain in DAP control, but who knows about other states.

BN has certainly been making an effort here in Penang. Last week they held a free banquet in Batu Ferringi which I heard hosted 3,000 people. I have heard that they are giving away free grain and other goodies to communities, especially ethnic Indians, in the hopes that it will sway voters their way.

Personally I hope the alliance wins more seats. BN has an ok record, but the racism and corruption are too much. I was talking with one of my students the other day, an ethnically Indian girl, who told me she had gotten a scholarship to a local college but choose instead to come pay for our school because after college she had little chance of getting into a university in Malaysia. When I looked up the statistics I saw she was right. 70% of slots are allotted to ethnically Malay while they make up only 50% of the population. This kind of overt racism, touted as a way to help the under-achieving Malay population, hasn’t worked. In addition, I need only look to the efforts on the part of BN to buy votes to see the corruption, but I’m sure that issue goes much deeper.

Last night my friend and I stocked up at the grocery store for what could potentially be a few days at home. The election is contentious enough in our state that our school even put out an announcement that Monday would possibly be a holiday if rioting occurred. I’m hoping that no one gets hurt of course, but it sure would be interesting if that were to occur.  Probably the most interesting thing for me is that the rioting may not occur along party lines, but racial ones. 

Snake Temple

Last weekend I went with my friend Reed to the Snake Temple just south of Georgetown. I had heard about this place and wanted to see it, but my wife is deathly afraid of snakes so didn't get to until she was gone. Anyways, we rolled up to the temple, which is flanked by numerous shop selling rubber snakes and I heart Penang t-shirts to find a relatively normal temple. The only big difference being that there were vipers strewn about resting on alters, branches, and the tops of pictures. Signs here and there reminded us not to poke them and that we should not worry since they had no venom. Fair enough. There was a wall of pictures with people draping snakes on themselves. I can only assume this was a wall of death, intended to chronicle those who foolishly lost their lives by placing poisonous snakes on themselves.
The real attraction is next to the temple. For a 5 ringgit fee (about 1.5 usd) you can enter the Snake Farm. Not sure why its called a farm, but whatever. Right away when we entered there was this cage with a huge albino boa lolling in it. The guide told us that she and her mate (the smaller yellow snake she is encircling) had mated that morning and that is why she was so chill. I'm no snake expert, but I was skeptical. Anyways, the guide repeatedly told us to stroke the snake. I'm not a huge snake fan, take em' or leave em' I say, so I wasn't in any hurry to touch the snake. The guide proved how safe they were by picking up each snakes head and kissing it. Ok, I get it, the snakes are docile, still the kissing was a bit weird. Finally Reed got the gall to touch it and did so rubbing it from head to tail, which was about 6 meters. Apparently its good luck, but all Reed got was snake on his hand which he promptly washed off (losing the good luck in the process I might add). There were lots of other snakes in the "farm" all along a wall surrounding a courtyard. I would estimate in the walls there were about 50 different kinds of snakes in aquariums. Vipers, adders, even a N. American rattle snake. When we asked about it the guide hit the cage to rile it up and show us the rattle. We asked him if it was de-venomed like the others and he said no. When we asked if he had anti-venom he said no, but the hospital about an hour away did. Though a rattle snake's bite will kill in much less time than that so if bitten you better just make your peace. He then asked if we would like him to go behind the wall and stick his hand in the cage to rile him up more. Uh, no, thanks.
There were turtles, and iguana, a couple of other lizards, monkeys, and chickens. Two other snakes were of note. There was an 8 meter long boa, which was amazingly big. Its head was bigger than my closed fist. There was also a king cobra, pictured. King cobras are disturbing, not because they are cobras and deadly, but because they exclusively eat other snakes. Something feels wrong about that.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion or the blue mansion is a world heritage site in Penang so naturally I thought this would be a good place to visit with someone from out of town. I also had not been there myself so was curious as to what it looked like. We arrived just in time for the last tour of the day. There are three daily and make no mistake, if you don’t take the tour you can’t just wander around the house. We entered the foyer of the mansion to wait for our tour to begin, but when it did the guide took 25minutes of the 1 hour tour standing in the foyer explaining the mansion and history. Basically a Chinese migrant had come to Penang, amassed a fortune, and built this opulent house sometime in the 1800’s. It was then left to rot until the early 90’s when it was restored and given the heritage site distinction. The tour’s pace was aggravatingly slow and we were not allowed to take any pictures or stray from the tour. After 25 minutes we took about 10 steps and entered the inner courtyard where she went on for another 15 minutes or so before taking 10 more steps to enter an adjacent adjoining room. By this point we were all a bit itchy to see the rest of the house because we had basically not seen anything more than what was in our site line when we first entered. A few other people had the same idea apparently because they kept wandering off to take pictures only to be scolded by the house security to not take pictures and stay with the group. Eventually we said nuts to that and wandered around on our own for a bit, got scolded, and then left before the tour was finished. I would NOT recommend this if you are visiting Penang. It is a beautiful places, but aggravatingly restrictive. You would be better off doing something else.

Ben's Vintage Toy Museum

Ben’s vintage toy museum was something we just stumbled upon. I am not sure of the origin of the museum, but it appears as though the father collected the toys and now the son is running the museum. There are two floors, the first being shelves of smaller toys and the second being mostly larger toys. It cost us 10rm to get in which is about 3 dollars US. I don’t know if I would say it is worth the price. If you are into vintage toys then it probably is ok. I always get a bit creeped out by old toys. There is something sad and scary about toys that are largely forgotten with paint peeling off and such. It’s like I am entering world that was meant to be left behind. However, the owner was quite nice and the toys were also neat to look at so I would recommend a look.

Penang to Langkawi and Back Again

Last weekend we had a friend visiting from Hong Kong and so decided we would do some touristy stuff since had done very little ourselves. Since he had about 4 days we thought we should split the time between here (Penang) and Langkawi. After doing some research we decided that the best route for us would be to drive to Kuala Kedah and take the ferry from there. At 23rm and 1.5 hrs it seemed like the best option vs. over 40 from Penang at 2.5 hours or taking a flight which was more expensive, yet faster, but wouldn’t mesh with our times very well. So we took the Kuala Kedah ferry. I was expecting something larger. What we got was more of a large cruiser than a ferry, though I imagine about 100 people were on board. The ride was nice enough. They played Expendables 2 and I napped most of the way there. I can imagine during rough seas it would be a terrible ride, but was fine for us. Arriving in Langkawi we were picked up by our hotel staff. As it turned out she was the owner. Long story short (believe me, it was long) she and her husband had recently retired and bought what was formerly a hotel property not intending to continue running the hotel. After allowing a few family guests to stay word of mouth spread and they got 5/5 stars on Tripadvisor leading to her opening up the place again under the old name, Fox Hill. The place was nice, but more on that later. The first night there we didn’t do too much. We had a dip in the pool, went into town to a night market to eat and peruse and then got foot rubs before heading back and to bed early. The next day we were up earlish and off with a car we rented from the hotel. We went to take a ride on the cable car, which I would say is well worth it for the views. The cable car had advertised itself as the steepest in the world. I haven’t confirmed that, but it did seem pretty steep on the ride up. The views were great. Next we drove to the island’s crafts center, not really worth it since the prices were out of our range. Finally on to Tanjung Rhu beach. After stopping for lunch at a roadside restaurant we located the beach and were immediately set upon by a tour guide. Our hotel owner had told us that it cost about 250 for a boat tour so when the guide said 180 we said yes. The tour was really fun for a number of reasons. The driver took us to see hawks feeding, a bat cave, a fish farm, a private beach, and lots of wildlife along the way. Driving through the mangroves was especially cool. We saw monkeys, dart fish, a monitor lizard, and lots of birds. The bat cave was neat, but kind of small. Near the end we had asked to spend some time swimming and so the driver took us to a private beach. We had it all to ourselves. As we sat in the bath warm water we watched fat purple storm clouds rolling towards us and finally decided we had better go. At that our driver came running out of the jungle in his tighty whiteys and swam out to the boat. Apparently he didn’t anchor it properly and it was floating away. He drove it back up to the beach and just as we were settling back in it began to pour. Rain was coming in sideways and it wasn’t long before we were all completely soaked. It was really fun and we all had a good laugh. Eventually we pulled in under a cliff outcrop to wait it out. We rung out our towels and waited a few minutes before the storm started to ease. Then we drove on to the fish farm. This was really interesting for me because I love fish. Not eating them persay, but just seeing them. We had a young man guide us around to different corrals and show us the fish inside by through some chum in and watching the fish scramble for it. The entire farm was a series of docks interconnected to form square areas were a large net had been attached so each square had different fish inside it. There was also a restaurant serving fish, if you can imagine. We saw Barracuda, grouper, and manta rays (pictured with mouth open) among others. After that the driver brought us back to the beach where we had a snack at a local booth before departing. On the way back to the hotel we went for foot rubs, again, and then arrived back for supper made by the hotel cook. It was delicious. The next day we were up early to get to the ferry and back to Penang. By the time we had taken the ferry and driven back it was mid afternoon. We decided to visit the Blue Mansion which turned out to not be as much fun as we thought. Being a bit dejected from that experience we headed home for a quick nap and then out to the night markets in Batu Ferringhi. Alex and I both bought lamps for our families for Christmas presents and then we had a drink on the beach at Bora Bora ending a long day well. On his last day we had some time before his flight so went to see Khoo Kongsi family …temple? It was quite hard to find and on the way we discovered Ben’s Vintage Toy Museum. After looking through the museum we had a walk through the temple and then went on to China House for lunch. China House is a really neat place. More or less it is a huge building with entrances on opposite sides of the block containing a couple of different restaurants/bars/art galleries that all seems to open onto one another. We had a lovely lunch and then shuttled Alex to the airport to say goodbye. It was very nice having a visitor and Aya and I enjoy having a friend that both of us like well. It was also good to have a catalyst for us to get out a bit to explore the island and neighboring Langkawi. Luckily for us he doesn’t live that far away and we will be making a stopover in HK on the way to Japan this winter.

This Is Where We Live

Images from top to bottom: Aya on the boat to monkey beach in the national park, view from our living room balcony, view from our bedroom, our car, view of our tower (the right one of the two)at miami green Now that we have been in Penang for around a month I feel ready to write down my initial thoughts. That and I have just been way too busy to write. After one of the longest flights of my life, 15 hours to Hong Kong, we spent the night and then took another 7 hour flight to Penang/Georgetown. As we came over the island of Penang (meaning betelnut island) the pilot informed us that we would be crossing right over the length of the island before turning about and landing on the south side. It was a clear evening and we could easily see the island with what appeared to be many jungle covered mountains and tightly packed urban areas. Upon landing we were collected by the vice principal and brought to a hotel where we would spend the next 5 days and it then occurred to me that we would be living in a place most people come to vacation at. Hawkers, sunburned skin, and beach wear abounded. The next week or so was spent in a frenzy trying to find an apartment and a car, neither of which was an easy decision. We finally settled on a place near Miami Beach which is a little strip of sand and palms a 20 minute drive from Georgetown and a 10 minute drive from my school. We tried to find a place that would put us somewhere in between so that Aya would not have to commute as far should she find a job in town. We picked an apartment in Miami Green Condominiums. I really feel satisfied with the living space here. We have a 14th floor apartment with three bedrooms/2 bath, a balcony facing the sea and decent sea views in all three bedrooms. The grounds is patrolled by security, has two pools, sauna, weight room, a convenience store and laundry and probably best of all it is set back from the main road so remains fairly quiet. It took us a little while to find a car as well, but we now own a 2003 Kia Rio. Cars here are expensive. Most of the new teachers have not gotten new cars, though I think in time they will. There is a nice transit system here, but it is still far more convenient to have your own transportation. Through an advert we contacted a Korean couple who was just about to move, lucky for us. Though getting the titled changed and insurance has proved to be a pain. Petrol/gas is very cheap. By my estimates I think it would be about 2.25 to 2.50 US per gallon. Other prices are cheap here too. Eating out at a local place will set you back about 3-4 dollars US unless you go to nicer restaurants or possibly even cheaper food stalls. Aya and I had some mediocre curry with rice, nan, and a drink each for 7 ringgit the other night. That is just over 2 dollars for the both of us. Food prices are cheaper than the US, but it really depends what you buy. Since Aya and I are prone to buying a mix of domestic staples and foreign luxuries, we aren’t really saving on that front but nor are we breaking the bank. Most unfortunate for me is that even domestic swill is 2 or 3 dollars for a 350ml can in a grocery store. I have plans in the works to start brewing my own. Services are cheaper than the US. I haven’t figured out yet if there is a minimum wage, but I have seen signs advertising no skill service jobs at 9RM an hour, which is about 3 dollars. Unfortunately Aya hasn’t found a job straight off so I keep urging her to apply for one of these service jobs, half in jest. I don’t think she has reached the edge yet, but there are only so many days you can spend by the pool/tidying the house/doing the shopping before you start to get stir crazy. Luckily she did just land a once a week tutoring job. If she can get a few more of those then I think we would be sitting nicely. Meanwhile she is going to keep working on getting her teaching degree in Japan by taking more correspondence courses and occasionally traveling there to attend classes and take tests. She may even do student teaching in her hometown this spring. Fortunately my salary, in this country, is good enough that she doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to and I think I could even save a bit as well. So far I have had one short week and two regular 5 day weeks at school. Before I came I was shocked at the schedule they were proposing that I do. That still holds. Currently I teach year 10, 11, 12, and 13 Economics. Year 10 and 11 are IGCSE, year 12 and 13 are IB. The year 13 may be confusing to Americans, it is the same as our system just notch the kids up one. The year 13s are just as old as seniors in high school. Within that I teach one section of the 10’s, two sections of the 11’s, a combined class of the 12’s (there were two sections, but it got lumped into one) and two sections of the 13’s. Of those I teach a total of 30 hours a week. I know that may not make sense to non-educators, but let me compare it to what the average teacher does in the US. If I were teaching in the US I would likely teach year 12 and 13 only, only the IB. There would likely be two sections of 13’s and three sections of 12’s. I would teach for a total of 25 hours a week. To recap, here at my current job 4 year groups totaling 30 hours a week. In the US 2 year groups totaling 25 hours a week. I’m not saying that the teachers in the US have it easy. I am saying that I have it hard. I am also now the head of department of Economics and so I am managing one person. Add on top of that a new school to get used to and I am working just about every moment of the day and weekend. This weekend we have three days off because of a public holiday on Monday and it is the first time I have spent an entire day doing no work. The students and staff seem pleasant enough. Many of the students will say, “Thank you, sir” when the lessons conclude and they seem very genuinely hard working and polite. The facilities are also on par except that the school lacks a track which I would love to have. Soon there should be another teacher who will take over part of my work load so hopefully that will help to at least have weekends a bit more free. The people here seem friendly, a bit of a change from Shanghai and another change is that the sky is blue every day. The weather here has been nice. It is hot, but not so hot that we don’t consider just opening the windows instead of using the aircon at home. Most days we do just that, but at night we turn the aircon on for a few hours to get to sleep, then have a timed fan come on to finish the job. It rains sporadically and intensely. There never seems to be a full on rainy day, just bursts of rain with big fat drops. As I said previously, most of the island is covered in jungle and low mountains. This past weekend we took advantage of that and went to Penang National Park taking a boat there and hiking back. Most westerners here warn of not swimming in the waters because they are dirty and full of jelly fish, but at just about every beach you can see locals swimming. Perhaps blissfully ignorant or perhaps just more practical. There are many beaches and mountain trails to explore on the island. There is also a plethora of temples, shrines, and old colonial buildings as well as cultural nooks and crannies and as I gain more free time I am sure that I will visit them. Penang has a very mixed culture vibe to it and I like that. I think I am glad we moved here. I think. I really don’t have time right now to confirm that and likely won’t until after the new year, which may lend to whether or not I am glad we moved here. For now, this is where we live.