Fighting Monkeys, Massive Festival, Glowing in the Dark!!!!

Hello again from Beautiful Georgetown, Malaysia. I can't believe we've  been here 7 weeks and it's the longest stop we've had in one place since we started this adventure :). A few times I had planned on leaving for a solo adventure, but then changed my mind for one reason or another.

Georgetown is great. The streets are narrow with lines of buildings on either side. There are sheltered walkways along the front of buildings and sometimes roots and plants growing off the sides or on the roofs. So hot and humid here things can grow anywhere. It's a safe place were most people speak English and it's easy to find decent food. It's nice to be stopped for awhile, but it's SO HOT!!!! It's often 35 Degrees and high humidity of about 70-80%!!!! Also the mosquitoes are huge blood sucking wenches that attack through the night. They actually got so bad the city went through with scary toxic stuff and blasted smoke through the open waterways... It helped, but who knows what the chemicals will do to us later.... Something else to add to the list of things that will probably kill me.

So since I last wrote a bunch of things have happened. To start, a couple days after my last entry I decided to go to the botanical gardens for a relaxing day... At the bus station no one seemed to have heard of the Botanical Gardens, but some old guys showed me the bus to the Waterfall park. So off I went and was dropped off at a big sign saying Botanical Gardens :).

It really was more of an open park with some nice trails through the jungle. There were a few buildings with some beautiful flowers and displays, but they were all locked up?? The orchid exhibit I really waned to see, but it was closed as well because it was the wrong season. NO problem... So I just wandered, and had to save my bag of fruit from a cheeky monkey who tried to snatch it while I was having a cat nap. I was pretty wiped out from the heat and just started heading back to the entrance when I saw the cutest little monkey. He was hanging out with his Mum and catching flies :). I guess I zoned a bit and kept watching for awhile... Then I took a couple pictures of he cutie with the fau-hawk hairdo.... Apparently kiddo thought I had overstayed my welcome or gotten too close so made this crazy noise. Me still being a bit stunned just watched curiously....... And then out of nowhere came Mummy Monkey!!! She was bearing her teeth and making Grr Grr noises and running full speed straight at me!!! I had no time to think or do anything but turn and run.... Well that was the idea, but unfortunately I turned started moving then either tripped over my own feet or fell off the sidewalk??? Either way I was down on the ground with a pissed off monkey chasing me... I turned half expecting to have her jump on my back, but luckily she had stopped, looked me in the eyes, then mad a hmm kind of motion a pissed off woman would make, and turned her back to me and headed back to kiddo. I can't even explain how terrified I was seeing those big teeth headed towards me.....

So I got and checked for damages. My camera now had a couple new dents mm's away from where the lens is, but after a few scary moments works fine. My hand was all scraped up, but my knees were the worst. Not only did I skin both of them I just ruined MY NEW PANTS!!!!! ARG!!!!! I hate shopping and it took me forever to find them. No way was I going to patch them since I'm tired of looking like a filthy backpacker..... Both knees blown out of the 3/4 length pants. ARG!!!! So remember Don't piss off Mummy monkeys especially when wearing new clothes. ARG!!!!! On the bus back to town I met up with a couple and told them my tale... The guy told me he was also attacked by a mummy monkey when he got too close to her kiddo. He had it much worse though since the monkey jumped n him and bit his shoulder. He had to fight her off and was lucky he got her off  before she broke the skin. EEK!!! So for all of you who think monkeys are so cute and sweet.... Remember they are still wild, and can leave a nasty mark!!.

Anyways, I was able to get to the mall and buy another pair of the exact same pants, and send the torn ones to a seamstress down the street to become my new shorts. Oh shopping.

One of the main events we headed to in Georgetown was the Hindu Festival called Thaipusam. This is where they celebrate Lord Murugan's Birthday. So Who is Murugan??? I felt bad when we realized he was Ganesh's brother. I know Ganesh is the elephant-headed god that Hindus pray to first before other gods, but the only thing I know about Murugan is that his riding vessel is a peacock - and although there were definitely peacock feathers all around the festival, there were very few paintings and statues of Murugan. Even on his big day it seems big brother Ganesh still gets more attention visually. He's not really mentioned a lot and I think this is his one big festival.

It's a three day festival, but we only went a couple times. The first night we arrived just in time to see the chariot being pulled along the street towards the main temple. The Hindu priests on board accept offerings from the crowd and in return give their blessings. There were coconuts being smashed on the streets everywhere.

We also went the next day when the street was filled with 1000's of people. This was the main day and you can see swarms of people filling the street and heading towards the main temple high on the hill. Most of the crowd looks like they are from Tamil Nadu India. There were some pretty Hard-core devotees that have crazy piercing all over their bodies to show their devotion. Some even have  a long metal rod pierced through their cheeks and one through their tongue leaving them to walk in the baking sun with their mouths open. I can't imagine how thirsty, uncomfortable, tired and hot these men were. We saw one guy in his early twenties, all pierced up, and his friends trying to give him water with a straw....next to impossible with your tongue out. I have no clue how they did it!!!!

****I did find something interesting about the die-hard devotees. In order to do the piercing, the man has to have a pure diet thirty days prior - no meat, no alcohol and no sex. If they do this the will not bleed when pierced. Otherwise it's believed they'll bleed a lot****

Other devotees carry offerings of milk that is carried in silver pitchers. In the crowd there were also quite a few men, women and kids put a turmeric paste on their freshly shaved heads.

I was thankful for all the stalls with free drinks and food for everyone, but even still I couldn't last in the sun more then a few hours. I did want to come back that night, or even the next morning to watch the chariot returning through town, but was way too overheated.

It was crazy to be in a busy Indian festival that was so organized and clean. Most people walked on the left side to keep the flow going and there were cleaners constantly shovelling coconuts that had been smashed, and emptying the trash cans. It was like a less chaotic India. So strange to look and sound like India but to feel like Malaysia at the same time. The festival had such an energetic feel and seemed very welcoming to non Hindus a well.

Wow this is turning into another epic entry... But I guess it can't be helped since we were here for ages :).

OK I have to admit that a lot of time in Georgetown Chris was glued to the computer and I spent a great deal of time hanging out. I met a lot of people at restaurant called Jaya. It's a 24 Jam (hour) place where a bunch of old guys go to for tea, and younger ones join them after work. I met a bunch here that I chatted to, and would spend hours on Penang Street watching some of them play a game called Dam (pronounced Dom). I am completely addicted to this game that looks like checkers but with a larger board, way more men, and much more complex. I will write the rules out and put it under the Games section at the bottom left of my home page. If anyone wants to try a great 2 player game this is it :). I plan to make my own board and try to con Chris into playing :). YAY!!!!!! I only played twice and got my butt kicked both times.... I think I could get the hang of it though :).

I have headed to the National Park a couple times just wandering around the trails, but finally I dragged Chris there. We went on the Jungle trail across the park where I met with  Radha, and Mei. Of course the day we picked was crazy hot, but I guess I'm getting a bit used to it now. Chris was having trouble in the beginning, but we had a long break at Turtle Beach. We were pretty tempted to stay there since if we woke up at 3AM there was a chance of seeing turtles coming in to lay their eggs :). But I really wanted Chris to see the other beach, and besides Turtle beach is filled with stinging jelly fish. So on we went for the brutally rugged trail vertical up only to go straight back down.... When we finally made it to the beach it was getting late already and no way were we heading back. The beach was just as I remembered, a quiet little bay away from everyone but the monkeys.

Just after we arrived Moktav (my fisherman friend) and his friend Sai arrived with an invitation to join them fishing. It sounded like fun, but I was soaked through and just ready to go for a swim. The water was so warm and salty it took zero effort to stay afloat. Moktav and Sai came back with a ton of fish and prawns and prepared everything for our feast. The only things we had to offer the meal were sweet potatoes and some cucumbers, but it was a really good combo. Thanks for the feast guys!!! Hopefully some day I can repay your kindness :).

After they left it was just getting dark and we set up the tent between the caution turtle, and no camping on the beach signs..... I'm so glad we made it there, it really is a beautiful place to be. When it got dark I wanted to go swimming. It was safe enough, and private enough so we went skinny dipping :). It's been a long time since I've done this, and once I got in the water something magical happened...... All the water that hit our bodies started to glow bright blue :). Glow in the dark blue plankton everywhere :). Now that's a glowing full moon :). It would only glow when it banged into you or if there was a current. I have never seen anything like it in my life. When we were in Kho Tao Thailand we saw the glowing plankton but it was too dangerous to swim at night there, and we never imagined it could glow so much.

We had a blast making waves splashing and even snapping your fingers under water made a massive glow. Each one only glows for a few seconds, but it's so much fun to see the bright stars in the sky twinkling and the glowing blue speckles all through the water..... SO amazing, and in such warm water :). It was fun to see Chris' face pop out of the water all coated in bright blue :). No wonder the water is so murky with all that plankton throughout. It didn't seem unclean but visibility was pretty much non existent.

There's a fresh water pipe that we could clean off all the salt and fill up our water bottles. After a long day I tried waking up about 3AM to see if any turtles would come our way, but was too exhausted. We slept with the fly off the tent and were surprised that in the morning the sun didn't make it over the hills behind us until almost 10AM. We spent the day exploring the beach and swimming and were thankful that Moktav and Sai picked us up by boat to bring us to the park entry. I did enjoy the trail once, but the thought of doing it all over again made me want to cry. Thanks again guys, you were both so nice.

YaY!!! So now again I am worried about leaving Georgetown.... I know it's time to go and we have done a bunch here, but it's nice to have some daily sameness for a change. People who know me from before the trip should know already I do like the familiar things and find them comforting.... We just got tickets to head to the Cameron Highlands first thing tomorrow. It's supposed to be the coolest temperature in the entire country, and that sounds good after being so hot for so long.... Hopefully it doesn't suck!!!

Off for now, and hopefully the next few entries won' be quite as long.... Hey did I mention the Queen Mary 2 came to town?? We were geeks and took the ferry to Butterworth so we could see more of the massive elegant cruise liner. :).

So long, and thanks for all the fish. Tee hee. Sheryl

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