Round Island: 23 Sept 2007

The day starts out to be sunny and bright. A nice weather to go hiking or nature walk. :) This is an outing to show our Milpitas collegue, Michio the natural beauty and charm of Penang. Being a Penangnite, I proud to take the lead and kick start the following journey.

First stop, Muka Head. There are 5 adults and 2 kids (age 3 and 10). The initial part of the journey is great. Every one starts to walk to burn those extra fat we gain in office. May be I am burning the most. Then, when we reach USM reseach centre, we could not proceed further. The tides are in. Making the remaining journey to be tough unless we want to swim... :( Bad idea. So, we decide to stop and picnic under the trees. As I turn around to open my bag, a monkey was on the tree waiting to grab what I hv in my bag. Scary! We shift to the open ground hoping the monkeys will leave us alone. No luck, they tag and always on alert to grab our food. Very disappointing, we have to quickly wrap up our picnic session and head back to Kampung Nelayan to meet up with Bee Theng and her husband. She could not join as she is carry a baby. Reminder: try not to bring kids younger than 5 years old unless u intend to take boat to Muka Head/ Pantai Kerachut.

2nd stop, lunch. Not much place to go, but we managed to find a hawker stall which still open and we have prawn mees. It is opposite Caltex. We do order Roti Canai from next door, dumpling and pao as well. The prawn mee is not bad.

3rd, Batik shop/ factory. The shop is so so.. and the factory is not operating.. so, nothing much to see.. sigh..

4th, Butterfly farm. Have not been there since 1989. Never did think of coming here as well. The place seems bigger, may be because of the structure added at the entrance. But I found it to be interesting especially when we try to find the "moving leaves". Off course, there is plenty of collections... depart about 3:00 pm.

5th Tropical Food Farm. Not durian session, so we decide to sit and savour the tropical fruits they have to offer... $$$. I think it is worth it as there are breezes and cooling feeling. Some more the orchard care takers are friendly people. Plenty of greenary. Good place to rest. So, we sat there for more than 45 mins then decide to move on.

6th Sam Poh Temple. Since it is too late to go aquarium and War Museum, we headed for this place. The place is getting more commercialise than before. Well, it is not the same as it was several of tens years back.

Last on the list,, Dinner... Hurray, finally the end of the journey. We went to Northen Food Court for dinner to complete our round island trip. That night, I reached home about 8:30pm. I am out for the whole day... One full day..

My body was sore the next day... Not enough rest. But will I do it again.. Yup, but different planning. Next time, Georgetown. It is amazing, I still have couple of places in Penang that I have not been to yet. Need to explore more...