Day 270: A Walk in the Jungle

I finally had to figure out the bus system (not much of an accomplishment) to get to penang national park since it was on the west side of the island over 20km away. Even on the bus it took quite awhile because of a fair amount of traffic slowing the single lane much of the way. Once at the park there were a few choices. The park is crossed by quite a few trails, but they all mostly lead to Monkey Beach or Turtle Beach (which has a more sophisticated name I can't remember). Monkey Beach is far more touristy and crowded, and I've already seen plenty of monkeys, so I decided to aim at Turtle Beach, but taking an indirect route of trails to get there. Along the way I did another canopy walk, but unlike the reinforced steel one in Singapore this one was made of rope, so it was at least a little more exciting to walk along.

Crossing between the main on a smaller trail through the interior of the jungle was a bit of a workout. It probably was only an hour of walking, but some parts were blocked by fallen trees or slippery slopes of wet clay. Worst of all, the humidity was insane, and by the time I reached the beach I was covered in sweat. The beach itself was nice and very quiet, but apparently not the time of year when it actually has turtles.

There may not have been any turtles, but the jungle flora and fauna was still interesting. Two things especially impressed me. First were the zealous ants, who make the ants back home look lazy and unorganized. The ones here had elaborate trails stretching up trees, over crossing branches, back down another tree, etc all over the place. Next were the monitor lizards which I saw both along the beach and in the jungle, some of which must have been over a meter long. They were quite shy, rushing off whenever they heard a noise, so I wasn't able to get too close.

I only saw the monkeys after I left the park and was walking through the surrounding village. Food must be a lot easier to find rooting through garbage. I'm not even sure this monkey could climb a tree anymore.