Stuif's Adventures

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Penang trip, December 2010
There are several waterfalls on Penang Island. One of them, in the Botanical Gardens, is just called Waterfall. It was one of the key attractions of the island, but is now out of bounds, as it is owned by the Penang Water Authority.

A friend of mine, Dan Low, told me that there are upper tiers, upstream of the main fall, which can be reached from the trails leading to Penang Hill. He was willing to guide me to these falls, so I decided to go to Penang and make it a typical Kwai Loh trip, which means full of variety..:-)

We arrived on a Friday and spent the afternoon sightseeing. During my last visit I had concentrated on the colonial heritage sites, this time we decided to visit the famous clan jetties. On our way we passed several places of worship, Penang is a real melting pot of cultures and religions.

The jetties (there are five of them) were still nice and interesting but much more developed than during an earlier visit, many years ago. Progress has also its negative side.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed a shop with a nice facade. Admiring it, the owner asked if we would like to have a look inside. People can be so friendly :-)

For our dinner we went to the hawker stalls at New Lane. Very scenic and nice food, fried oysters, lobak.

The next morning we met Dan, who took us to the Botanical Gardens, where we met his friend Lucy with her daughter Eunice. It was drizzling. We followed a cemented trail, leading to Penang Hill until we reached a rusty sign "Forbidden to Enter". A vague, steep trail led us down from there to the upper tiers of the Waterfall. Several beautiful falls in pristine surroundings.
After Dan, being a good host, had prepared coffee for us, we took a different route back. Heavy rain for a while, we were lucky that we reached one of the shelters in time.

After a late lunch with very good Asam Laksa and a visit of a shop with traditional Penang items, we went back to our hotel for a well-deserved rest.
Dinner in restaurant Kapitan, Indian food for a change.

The next day we met Dan at Auto City on the mainland and from there went to the Junjong waterfall. Popular place, developed, upper falls nice, but quite a lot of rubbish. After having a look at Bukit Mertajam, Dan's playground, and the famous St Anne's church, we had a delicious seafood lunch in Tambun, and then drove back to Taiping.

The next day we did some sightseeing in Taiping and next visited Batu Gajah and the tin dredge. It was my fourth visit to this behemoth, and the first time there were other visitors! Sadly, the condition of this dredge is deteriorating.
It is a shame that Malaysia has so little respect for its industrial and cultural heritage. The characteristic old Rest House in Taiping will soon be a complete ruin.

As I wrote in the introduction, a trip full of variety!


the Waterfall (ca 1900)
 

Islam
 

Hindu
3 comments

Krishna
 

The jetty region
 

One of the jetties
 

Jetty views
 

Nice Volkswagens
 

Beautiful shop facade
 

Details, outside and inside
 

Colonial architecture
 

Different building, similar style, at night
 

New Lane hawker stalls
 

Delicious fried oysters
 

Hiking in the rain
 

Forbidden to enter..:-)
 

Steep descent
3 comments

The upper tiers of the Waterfall
 

The top of the main Waterfall
 

Nice waterfalls
 

Eunice posing as water nymph
 

Paul, enjoying his bath
 

Dan, posing as daredevil
 

Dan and Eunice
 

The top tiers of the Waterfall
 

Rain shelter on the way back
 

Also for the monkeys
 

The best Laksa in town!
 

Delicious!
 

Shop with traditional Penang items
2 comments

Kapitan restaurant
 

The menu
 

Tandoori Chicken with Cheese Garlic naan
1 comment

Air Terjun Junjong
 

Well developed
 

Lower fall
 

Lot of rubbish
 

Upstream
 

Paul taking another bath
 

Upper falls
 

Bukit Mertajam pools, no water
 

Because of leptospirosis!
1 comment

An old dam, Bukit Mertajam
 

Nice construction
 

No longer in use
 

Fish in the reservoir
 

Frog farm!
 

The frogs
2 comments

So cute!
 

St Anne's church, Bukit Mertajam
 

Interior
 

One of the Stations of the Cross
 

Seafood at Tambun
 

Popular restaurant
 

Oysters, Stingray, Lala etc
 

Fishing boat
 

Pacific Swallows
1 comment

Taiping Lake garden
 

Beautiful as usual
1 comment

Taman Tasik restaurant
 

A well-deserved beer
 

The laundry field
 

Perak Museum
 

Natural History
1 comment

Cultural section
 

All Saints Church, Taiping
 

The old Resthouse, what a shame!
 

King Edwards School
 

Batu Gajah
 

Colonial style buildings
 

Court House, Batu Gajah
 

Detail facade
 

Interior
 

St Joseph church
 

God's Little Acre
 

Graves of the three planters (1948)
 

Tin Dredge, Batu Gajah
 

Popular with birds
 

Purple Swamphens
 

Entering the dredge
 

In bad condition..:-(
 

Inside the dredge
 

The buckets
 

Huge dimensions
 

The bucket part of the dredge
 

Huge size
 

Rare visitors
 

One for the album
 

wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
nice!!was there last weekend,didn't had a chance to to check out the falls thou.damn!

geetee wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
Jan, you sure this is a Hindu temple? Looks like a Sikh temple to me, but I am not sure

Kwai Loh wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
Oeps. As a non-believer, I should keep mum about religion...:-)
Actually it is not a temple at all. It is a Mamak Muslim shrine, the Nagore Shrine (built in the 1880's)

wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
george, don't be fooled by the golden topped spires. a sikh temple will have 'gurdwara' in its name. the signage does not have that. besides, it would not have green 'drapery', yellow mostly. /stephen

geetee wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
Your beautiful photos of the Lake Gardens make me homesick. All the other pics are superb too.

wrote on Dec 22, 2010:
Wow Mr. Dan, trekking in slippers only!

wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
what are these frogs for? sell?

Kwai Loh wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
Come on...:-) Are you Chinese? For the cooking pot, of course...:-)

Dan wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
This is picture turns out very nice...

Dan wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
Thanks for sharing .... will wanna visit this place next time...

Dan wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
they are actually hiking boots that looks like slippers ..... :)

wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
It really looks like slippers... That's cool! :-)

Dan wrote on Dec 23, 2010:
hmmm ... looks good, I think I should try it too..

wrote on Dec 25, 2010:
Leptospirosis or Weil's disease as it is also known is very dangerous and nasty, if not treated quickly. The problem being is that the symptoms in the early stages are flu like.
Some years ago the Crawley Caving & Climbing Club here in the UK had a long weekend caving trip Mendip in Somerset, where we visited a cave system called Stoke Lane Slocker a cave system I would think Caving Liz will be familiar with, as she has caved in that area. Anyway the stream which feed the cave passes through a farmyard which as you can guess makes the stream rather rich in cow muck.
Four days after the trip, two of the guys developed flu like symptoms, jokingly we blamed the high levels of Butcombe best bitter and Badgers screech which had been consumed over the weekend. By the next weekend both where in hospital, both in intensive care, with renal failure, and one sadly died, the other never did get back to full health.
What amazes me, is how people in Malaysia are happy to play in the various pools provided in the parks, with no regard or even maybe any knowledge of the fact that if rats are around then Leptospirosis or Weil’s disease is most likely around as well.
And when you see the amount of rubbish left in the parks, then the rats will be there for sure.
When I was a young soldier many years ago during the emergency period, we where well aware of the danger, that if rats urine infected the streams we often waded through, if we had any sores or open wounds, we knew could get infected, and we monitored any symptoms we might develop .
One things for sure I never bath in the pools, or upper stream ways in the parks if I see rubbish around. And my advice to anyone who starts to get flu like syptoms and or renal problems best to get it checked out tuut sweet.
Nice to have cheered you all up.


Liz wrote on Dec 25, 2010:
Penang items or Thai items?

Kwai Loh wrote on Dec 25, 2010:
We found the name confusing too, at first. But really, this Lim Wah Thai shop is a landmark in Penang with numerous local delicacies. Their Dragon Balls are superb.

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