On the fourth day of vacation my true love gave to me: 100 degrees weather. But seriously, Wednesday was bloody hot. We started the morning by using what time we had left with the scooter to go to a less inhabited beach. Turns out the beach was inhabited by a monitor lizard! Brandon spent the whole time watching and trying to take pictures of it with a small camera because we hadn't thought to bring the big gun. We checked out of the guesthouse at noon and took the bus back into the city, Georgetown. We walked to the ferry terminal to buy tickets to the next island, Langkawi, but weren't able to get them for Thursday so we figured out how to bus up the coast and take a different ferry over. I mentioned it was hot right? Well we underestimated the distance between our hotel and the terminal and were forced to stop at nearly every 7/11 we saw to but drinks, and 7/11s are on every street corner just for that reason. Also, on the way up to the ferry terminal Brandon spotted another monitor lizard, this one was living in the city's drainage system on the sides of the road and startled us quite a bit when it turned and ran away. As the day progressed and we weighed our options when we came to learn about a street parade/party here in Georgetown on Thursday for Chinese New Year. The actual New Year's Day was on Monday but there's a large Chinese population here and they observe the traditional 15 day celebration, apparently it's now time for a celebration. We decided to wait until Friday to go up north to Langkawi when it'll be much simpler to just ride one ferry rather than two ferries and two buses on Thursday. With the extra time here in town we walked around the historic downtown area in the evening.
Day 5, up to 5pm
This morning we went and bought our tickets for Langkawi, leaving Friday at 8:15am. After that we walked around the old colonial Fort Cornwallis. Then we took a tour of Cheong Fat Tze's mansion; Cheong was a Chinese businessman that went from rags to riches in the early 1900s and became the Chinese Rockefeller, but without the lasting dynasty. Around 1 o'clock we sat at the wrong bus stop for half an hour and then moved to the correct stop to catch a bus down to the Snake Temple. The name makes it sound more impressive than it really was. There were snakes in pens and ones you could pose with but it seemed more like a gimic to get people out there. Brandon did get to watch a snake show, kinda like the crocodile show we saw in Thailand but with a king cobra. The man kissed the cobra on the forehead and had what looked like a few close encounters. Meanwhile, Heather was chatting with a friendly vendor avoiding any close proximity to any kind of snake. Tonight is the CNY festival so hopefully that pans out well and tomorrow morning we'll head to Langkawi. Cheers!
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