HAVE NOT DONE THIS FOR A LONG TIME..

After more than 30 years or so, I finally step into Penang again last Friday. What prompted me to visit Penang? Well a hiking friend whom I met at Johor says he was returning to his hometown after quiting his job at Johor and invited two other friends and I to pay him a visit and he will take us to Penang hill for a hike. So we did the necessary arrangement like booking our air tickets. As the day draw nearer I wrote to him, but the was no response , either on his facebook nor my sms messages.  About the same time I got to know another friend who happen to hail from Penang and he extented the invitation to hike at Penang if I happen to visit the island. So I told him I will be there the following week and if he was available. What luck and so I informed the rest of the team member. Later I learnt  from my friend our mutual friend had done a Houdini and won't be back during the time of our visit at Penang.
Anyway what we perceive to be a easy hike turn out to be almost 10 hours hike from Botantic garden to ayer hitam and back. It was very challenging and an eye opener as I did not know Penang has so many tough trails. The last time I had a long hike was many, many years ago about 12 hours hike.
I arrived Penang hours before my friend on Friday afternoon. It was good to meet up with my blogger friend Eugene and his family. My friends arrived late in the night and we had dinner, bought some stuff for our hike the following morning.  After enduring the tough hike on sat, we thought we could have a good night sleep and planned to get up late, but that was not to be. We were rudely awaken by some ill manner and iresponsible guest who talked so loud without any consideration for other guest. All of a sudden I heard my friend got up and shouted to them to keep quite. I did not know the exact time, but I knew it was very early in the morning .  Have you ever had such bad experience before?
Sunday was spent going around town and taking photographs of some interesting places.

Another Red inn similar to the one we stayed.

this is how it looks inside the inn. (a mixture of old and new)

Peter,our guide for the hike

My two friends from Johor

one of the few boulders which is a common sight here.

I was told there were thousands such steps.

taking a short break

one of the many station, where people rest.

this is how far we covered. photo credit:Peter

                                         

We took the trail beside the drain all the way up to the train station, food court.

                             

Our reward after a tiring hike.

some of the street art found around Penang street/lane

sample of some of the street art on print