Solo Travel

I been lucky. Even though I am traveling alone, I always have at least one other person going to places/seeing things with me till Penang.

The two people I met on the bus can't go do tourist thing with me. The English guy I met is on visa run, so he been to Penang many times and has no interest playing tourist. I met an American girl on the bus as well. She has one of the coolest job HP. She gives seminars on HP financial approach to executives at different part of world, though she is only 25. Just last year alone, HP sent her to 25 countries. And she gets to tag on vacation to spot she likes. She's at Penang to give another seminar at some golf resort. Thus, yesterday was the first day I was really traveling all by myself. In the morning, I kept running into this middle age English woman at every places I went, so we had lunch together. She is a 4 months around the world trip and is leaving Penang that day at 2pm.  In the late afternoon, on the Cheong Fatt Tze's Mansion tour, I met a fellow Californian whom is here on a 4 months vacation (he is between job and MBA school). Later that day, I met up with him and the English guy for dinner and drinks. We had some really good hawker stall foods and very stimulation conversations as both of them are very interesting people. Alas, both of them leave Penang early today, so I went all over Penang by myself again.

I did tons of walking today. I thought the bus would stop in front of Kek Lok Si Temple (largest temple in Malaysia with a 100+ feet tall Quan Yin), so I took the bus. The people on the bus was so nice. I showed them a picture of the temple and they told me where to get off and how to get to the temple. Unfortunately, the bus dropped me off at the bottom of the hill, so I spent 20 minutes walking up the hill. Walking under the blazing sun with jean and long sleeve is not fun! The temple is full of buddha statues. I don't think I ever saw this many statue in many life.

I was thinking of either  taking a taxi or bus to Penang Hill. While asking  the restaurant owner for direction, she told me Penang Hill is really close and  I should just walk. It's walkable, but unfortunately, it's  another 30+ minutes of walk in blazing sun.  Walking by yourself in blazing sun and with too much clothes  is a torture.  At  least I can take a  cable car up to the top of Penang Hill instead of doing a  4 hours hike . There was monkey along the  ride up.  The view at the top is really nice. There is the ocean, the beach, the loooong bridge (suppose to be longest in the world), Georgetown; the entire Penang island is visible from the top. There is a restaurant and hotel on top, as well as a botanical garden. I spent an hour hanging out up there  as there is not really that much to see.

Right now, I am tire so I don't want to go anywhere. Just killing time before going to Ferry.  I don't know why people say Thailand is cheaper because from what I see so far, stuff in Malaysia is cheaper.  Since this is only the middle of my trip, I can't buy anything yet because I don't want to walking around carrying more stuff than necessary.

I think solo travel is great in that you meet so many interesting people. However, it is not so great if you have to go everywhere by yourself. I like having another person to share my excitement, like telling someone "oooh, look at that, so pretty." I didn't meet anyone in hotel because, well, it's a hotel! It was very nice to have hot showers but I think I will try to go find a guesthouse in KL instead of hotel as you can meet other people that are doing the tourist thing. Plus, I may meet up with friend's friend in KL, so hopefully that will make KL more fun.

My hair is getting long, if KL is as boring as some people have told me, maybe I'll go get a haircut there as well.