Today started very early, with a walk to the waterfront to catch the sunrise. It was completely worth getting up early, but I wish we had stayed longer. The girls I was with wanted to grab breakfast though, and to be honest I was also kinda hungry, but I took a video none-the-less.
After breakfast, I headed to the bus stop and went to Kek Lok Si Temple. It was fairly imposing driving up to it, but was a mild let down when I got there, with only tourists there, and an elevator to get to the top.
I don't know why, but it's always far more impressive and awe-inspiring when you have to climb up to these things. It feels like the people are more dedicated rather than just a tourist trap.
Either way, from afar it was fairly spectacular. The giant Buddha was pretty huge as far as Buddha's go as well, to give them fair credit.
After the temple, I headed to Penang Hill. For this, I was glad for the cable car ride. The view from the top was pretty great, and would have been incredible on a less overcast day.
I made the ill-informed decision to walk down the mountain back to the botanical gardens. It was beautiful walking through the jungle like that, but it was incredibly steep. In some parts, it was literally almost a 45degree angle, I swear.
The cars were really struggling up, you could hear them from miles away, and the heat coming off them was insane, but the people walking up (yes, people were walking UP) looked even hotter and more struggling. I saw almost 10 people walking up. I'm curious to know how many turned back and struggled down!!
The gardens were pretty boring in the end, with not a lot of shade, and a lot of angry monkeys, but it was still a nice end to the walk, seeing all the flowers greeting me!
For the bus ride back, I didn't have the right chance, so was going to be stuck paying triple the fare, but the driver was really lovely and said he would wait for me if I wanted to break the note down by buying some fruit from a stall close-by. The fruit was an odd price though, so they didn't have the right change either, so they ended up just breaking down the note and giving me a free piece of pineapple!! The people here are incredibly generous, and just so lovely.
Tomorrow, wandering the streets xx