Twas a Day to find some Monkeys

So my last day traveling with sushil and max was to be a walk in the park.  The plan was to go to these Botanical Gardens just outside of Georgetown (which is the city area of Penang).  In a nutshell, this is a park where there are supposed to be tons of monkeys.  Enough said.  I like monkeys.

Once we got the these gardens, we were not disappointed.  Right away we were greeted by several monkeys and asians getting married.  It was a very exciting start to a day.  While looking for what is supposed to be a beautiful waterfall we decided to walk up Penang Hill.  This is where things got a little silly.  We were only dressed for a walk in the park; this means i was wearing flip flops.  Flip flops are fine for walking around, and even mild hiking, but don't forget that my foot is still healing from road rash.  We begin our trek up the hill heading up some stairs.  these end up being the steepest stairs, through thick woods for about a half hour.  holy crap.  when we get to the top of the stairs we see many more monkeys.  Including a big family of monkeys that starts getting a bit aggressive.  I have a video that I'll post one of these days of a couple chasing after me a bit.  It was both funny, and a little scary.  these little guys were aggressive.  Monkeys have learned to use tools, and as I try to learn from monkeys, I picked up a stick and earned me some monkey respect.  Don't worry, no monkeys were harmed.  They just know to respect a gentlemen who is a member of the UPenn Kempo club when he's carrying a stick.

Jean Claud Van Monkey.  Notice the bunch in the background before they started chasing me 

We then headed up a winding paved road for a little bit til we reached a shack.  at this shack were a few groups of 60 year old malaysian people who walk up this hill for fun every day.  They then stop at the shack for free (by donation) coffee and biscuits.  I donated a bit, and had some coffee.  good thing too.  I guess the elderly folk stop at this point but we were half way up, might as well finish our way up the hill.  Little did we know what sort of hike this would turn into.  Next thing i know we're climbing up steep, muddy paths with lots of undergrowth.  Then it starts pouring rain (luckily I have my ziplock bag in my bag to provide waterproof protection to my camera).  so we're hiking along in the pouring rain up what is called a hill, but its a frickin mountain.  For a while, my sandals were so slippery i just had to hike barefoot; sorry foot wounds.  the last leg of the journey we were guided by the local security guards, to essentially climb up this drainage half-pipe up a mountain through fallen trees.  It was insane but quite fun and exhausting.

We got to the top.  I guess after all that climbing we were expecting a great view and who knows what else.  but what we got was an asian tourist destination with an expensive restaurant, expensive stands and lots of well dressed people.  I guess most people don't take the hiking path, but take the little tramcar up the mountain.  Dripping wet and tired, we were happy to take all the way down the mountain.   Hill my ass.  but a good last day traveling with Sush and Max