The highlight of our stay in Penang was a trip up a hill. Penang Hill to be precise, apparently naming the island exhausted the creativity of people naming stuff in these parts. The hill is eight hundred metres of lush forest and has survived the development of the rest of the island for the usual reason. It was too steep to build on so eventually they made it a park and babbled on a bit about biodiversity to cover up the fact it was too damn difficult to get a bulldozer onto most of it.
What they did manage to get onto it was a funicular which sounds like it might be one of those small blood vessels that nobody’s heard of until the day it gets blocked and you drop dead unexpectedly in the middle of a conversation and every one says how shocking it was. Actually a funicular is a type of railway designed to go up very steep slopes. They’re very popular in Switzerland which, incidentally, is where this one comes from.
The funicular is how you get to the top of the hill unless you want to walk. You do not. Any inclination towards walking that I might have possessed vanished when I saw the inclination of the funicular. Once at the top both delight and disappointment awaited me.
It had been my intention, while in Penang, to visit the Owl Museum (don’t ask for reasons). However a glance at a not particularly good map had convinced me that getting there would be too hard. Imagine my delight when my roommate informed me that the Owl Museum was here on Penang Hill. Giddy with excitement I dashed off to immerse myself in all things owl. It was closed! Slump shouldered I returned to my companions and poured out my tale of woe. They had the bad taste to find it rather funny.
So there I was stuck at the top of Penang Hill with nothing but amazing scenery, cute monkeys and the worlds most spectacular sunset to entertain me. Life can be cruel, or so I’ve been told.
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