Monkey Sex

We had a particularly satisfying day recently. We rose early, got coffee and noodles(Jenny has recently mastered the noodle-spoon soup-ingestion technique), and took a bus to Penang National Park. Just past Batu Ferringi and taking up the whole north-western tip of the island is the smallest national park in the world, a wonderful collection of hiking trails and beaches where we spent a long day but could spend several more just exploring. Best of all, it was free! The office hands you a map of the trails when you arrive with some spiel about the park and conservation and then you're on your way. All around the beginning of the hike are boat operators, trying to get you to ride their boats around to the most common destination, "Monkey Beach," which would skip an hour or so hike there on foot. And really, where would the fun be in that. We set off around 11:00am for the light house on top of the mountain at the very tip of the island, around 8km round trip.

The first leg of the trail ran close to some rocky beaches which allowed for some fun exploration en route to the first destination, a research complex situated on a beach. After here was where the hiking really got fun, and where we ran into a family of monkeys just hanging out on and around the trail... and we'll have to let the video below speak for itself.

Monkey Sex!


Looking for creatures in the rocks

Surveying for monkeys

Then we reached Monkey Beach, a nice strip of white sand so named for all the monkeys that inhabit the forest at the edge, waiting to steal your stuff if you leave it unattended. The water was piss-warm and not as muddy as Batu Ferringi, all in all a decent way to cool off.

Mother-monkey fussing

As we walked down the beach towards our next destination, we made a friend. We named him beach dog, and after I stopped to horse around with him he came with us for the whole hike to the light house, which Jenny barely made herself.

Puppy!

So when we finally reached the light house, we saw a big "OPEN" sign on the gate. But any sense of relief was lost when we saw the on the sign in much smaller letters that it had been closed for more than an hour. Cursing the girl at the desk who forgot to mention this tidbit, I took the best picture I could of the view from next to the light house and we started back down. It didn't feel like a waste, since we at least accomplished something in the hike, but Jenny was on death's doorstep and didn't want to hear a word. Once we came back down B.D. wasted no time cooling off in the water and going to lay down under a familiar tree. We were relieved that he stayed there and avoided breaking our hearts by following us all the way to the bus stop.

The best I could do

Fucking light house

With all the tough uphill climbing behind us, it was only 2 hours hiking back to the beginning. We just marched straight back, except for an encounter with some monkey bridge guards. It was around 5:30pm when we finished. Below is a great action shot of a monkey screaming at me when I stuck a camera in his face.

Sentries

Monkey scavenging a coconut

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I cheated with the camera's color settings, but this was actually a red tree

It's two days later and we're still pretty sore and still very sun-burned, but it was a great time and we can't wait to go back and hike a couple of the other trails if we can. And all this in flip-flops.