Georgetown

Georgetown is the main town on the Penang island in the northwest of Malaysia. It was founded by the English about 200 years ago and today it offers a nice old town which is also a UNESCO world heritage.

In the old town can be found a lot of old houses and on the sea side, opposite the mainland, Fort Cornwallis, which isn't very big nor intersting, but one thing the English left there. It's also possible to visit some of the houses in the old town of formerly rich people and see the interior.

Georgetown isn't very big, but in the old town it's possible to find a bit of everything: colonial houses, Chinatown, little India, Chinese temples, Hindu temples, mosques and churches... multicultural!!

So, in a few meters you change from the Chinese quater to the Indian one and in both they have a lot of food, very delicious!

In the northwest of the Penang island is the Nationalpark located. The rainforest is nice and they built a canopy walkway, so you walk on bridges from one tree to the next one, see the trees from a higher level and feel like a monkey. On a sweaty walk we went to the Monkey beach, unfortunately we couldn't see any animals there, but on another opportunity we saw some monkies and also quite big lizard (name unknown) which escaped always into the water when we approached

Cameron Highlands

After Georgetown we went on a long day trip to the Cameron Highlands, to Tanah Rata. As the name it says, it's located quite high and it was quite cold and rainy when we arrived (monsoon season has started). We spent 2 days to explore the region and walk through the jungle.

On a day trip we went to see the biggest (or one of the biggest) flowers of the world, the Rafflesia flower). To get to the place where it blooms (it blooms only during 7 days) we had to walk during 1 hour through the jungle and crossing a river. But it was worth it, have a look:

We say the flower in different stadiums: 1: 3 days before it blooms, 2: 2 days old, 3: 5 days old and 4: 7 days old

Well, now you can say, nice flower, but it doesn't really look like a big one... So, have a look on the next photos to see the size:

And here the trekking tour to reach the big flower:

On the way we passed other small flowers and many plants.

Cameron Highlands are famous for the tea plantations, there are several one's and on our tour we visited one. We had a guided tour through the factory to see what they do with the tea leaves to get the thing we drink. The plantation we went to was very big and all was green, full of tea plants.

Another nice place we saw was the Mossy forest, situated on an altitude of about 2000 meters. Here it is misty and so all is covered with moss: surface and plants are green of the fresh moss. We also saw a flower which eats insects.

And from the top of the mountain we had a nice view.

Like in other countries here around, also in Malaysia life some aborigines, they are called Orang Asli. We stopped in one of their villages and got a lession on how to use a blow pipe which they use to go hunting. Well, the arrow we used wasn't poisoned, but we could try to blow and we came quite close to the target.

On another day we went a strawberry farm, also something popular in the Cameron Highlands. Different kind of farms try to attract people, they sell fruits, vegetebales, salads, cactus and more things. The strawberry shake we had was fantastic!

Krabi

For 3 days we stayed in Krabi Town which isn't a very intersting place, nothing to see, and quite far away from the beach (more than 10 km), but a cheap and good location to go on island tours and some very nice beaches!!

One of the beach places around Krabi is in Ao Nang, some long sandy one's which look very nice. However in the afternoon with low tide, I had to walk in more than 50 meters to get the water up to my hip... a bit difficult to go swimming under these conditions.

On one day we went on a 4 islands tour, especially the first beach we went to was wonderful and for a few minutes we had it alone.

after we went to chicken island

the other islands around... Unfortunately we had some problems go to snorkeling, in the water were a lot of jelly fishes (big and small one's) which made swimming not very confortable.

and got to another one with a fine sandy beach, very nice!!

...however only if you see it from the nice side. This island was also full of tourists and boats, nearly no place left to go swimming...

At the end we went to Railey beach where we could visit a small cave.

On the other day we went on a trip to the famous Phi Phi islands!! Very nice indeed, but very, very touristy... even during low season.

First swimming on bamboo island and then we went around the Phi Phi islands and entered to some nice beaches and snorkling places between high mountains. The corals are nice, but many are destroyed or dead.

The only town on Phi Phi island, nothing special, just a beach with a lot of boats.

Finally we went to the most famous place on the Phi Phi islands: Maya beach!! Famous because of the film "The Beach". Actually it would be a nice place surrounded by mountains and a nice sandy beach.

....and that's the other side, full of tourists and boats and nearly no space left to go swimming or a towel.