Penang 4-9.7

We were really excited to enter Malesia and leave Indonesia behind. Mainly because we had heard that Malesia is much cleaner and wealthier than Indonesia. At this point, after a month of streets filled with rubbish, toilets that are really just a squatting place and a hole in the floor as well as the never-ending "mister misterrrrr" yelling we were hoping to upgrade a bit. And we sure did since we landed to Georgetown first. The paradise of food! So many different cuisines represented; Indian, Chinese, Malay, Thai, Western, you name it.

We stayed in a heritage hostel, which was situated conveniently close to Chinatown and Little India. Before reserving our accomodation we had read from the internet and our lonely planet that the cheapest hostels should be avoided since they might actually be running a bordel as a side business. So we were happy to see no peepholes in our walls! They actually do warn about those in the guidebooks, which felt really crazy to us.

 But anyway, Georgetown and the whole island of Penang felt safe to us. Luckily there was also a mixture of religions which meant that Rosanna was able to wear what she wanted outside.

Penang has plenty of things to do and to explore, so we decided to stay in Georgetown for three nights and in Batu Feringhi for two nights. The first day we headed straight to the weirdest coffee shop ever, the Purrfect Cat Cafe. Drinking coffee with a lazy group of weird looking cats was an unexpectedly funny experience :D

As already said, the streets in Malesia are normally quite clean and this was the situation in Penang too. Many tourist items and small snacks were sold in stalls. Georgetown had some really nice street art which we tried to spot whilst walking along the streets. Also modern and quite western cafes and bars seemed to be starting to dominate the streets of Georgetown. It was surprisingly easy to find a western kind of breakfast with either yoghurt, bagels or croissants. A welcome change to the mee and nasi dishes we had mainly been served at breaksfast.

From Georgetown it was easy to take the public bus to Penang Hill and to the Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens were home to some cheeky monkeys, which were not happy at all to have their photo taken. Slow as hell those public buses though. It took us the whole day to visit the two places, but still we felt like they were both worth seeing.

What we really enjoyed the best in Georgetown was the food. We ate dinner at the nightmarkets a couple of times and enjoyed also Indian food in Little India. The nightmarkets are such a fun way to have dinner! One can choose almost what ever kind food to eat and everything is so cheap. After choosing what you would like eat and ordering it from one of the stalls, the food is delivered into your table and money exchanged. So convenient.

We were very lucky to be in town for the Heritage Anniversary celebration. The locals celebrating the aniversary of Georgetown being listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Both of the days were filled with different happenings. Some streets were closed off from traffic and filled with free shows and snacks. In Little India we came across a lorry covered with decorations giving out food. The atmosphere was great at the party and we enjoyed it a lot.

After some days in Georgetown we took the public bus to the Batu Feringhi beach. This place used to be the only reason why tourists came to Penang before the bloom of Georgetown. What we saw when arriving to Batu Feringhi was a tired and worn out turist town. Big hotels on the beach dominated the scenery. The beach itself was okay, nothing special though. To our big disappointment the water was grey and had some jelly fish :( 

Our hostel was located in partly deserted shopping mall building. The reception was located outside the building and to get into the rooms we had to enter the building and ride with a shady elevator to the top floor. Our room didn't have a window but with the price we paid for it we hadn't expected there to be one. Still it was really clean and comfy. The only thing bothering us at night were German football fans...

The same afternoon we arrived to Batu Ferringhi we headed to the Butterfly Farm not far from the beach, again with the local bus. The Butterfly Farm was a beautiful place with tens of different butterflies and some creepy crawleys to see. We were lucky enough to get a couple of butterflies to land on us :) 

After returning to our hostel we watched the sunset at a beach bar while enjoying some drinks. Batu Feringhi had a couple of nightmarkets also where we chose to eat after such good experiences in Georgetown. We were not let down!

We decided to save money and spent the whole second day at Batu Feringhi on the beach. Of course on that day it rained once in a while. But all in all it was nice to have a beach day between the cities we had visited and would be visiting in the future. 

In the evening we went to massage place which also had a tank of fish for the famous feet fish treatment. It was such a funny experience, we recommend it to all :D And our feet felt so soft afterwards!

Later we watched the sunset on the beach and ate dinner again at the nightmarket.

Next morning we hopped on a local bus and after a two hour ride arrived to the bus terminal, where our bus to the Cameron Highlands left from.

Berastagi 28-30.6

Berastagi wasn't on our itinerary originally but we changed our mind about going to coffee plantations in the Gayo highlands and in stead took a public bus from Medan to Berastagi. The journey took about 2 hours which felt a lot longer because the woman sitting next to Rosanna kept on falling asleep on her and the bus was veeeery old and the road poor. As usual, the driver drove like a maniac. 

We stayed in Serdika Pavilion B&B for the two nights we spent in Berastagi. The temperature dropped from Medan's 30 degrees to a comfortable 20 degrees so our room had a warm blanket instead of aircon/fan. The bathroom sink was replaced by a plastic bucket. Serdika had three puppies running around the premises which were barking quite loudly even during nightime. Proper guard dogs to be, one could say.

We arrived to Berastagi in the afternoon and went to look for a place to eat. Lonely planet guided us to Raymonds cafe, which had okay food. Later we went to see the fruit and product market which was clearly directed for tourists. All sorts of Berastagi junk was sold as well as pets such as rabbits, hamsters and dogs. Tourists could also ride a horse around the block :D Later we learned that locals do have rabbits and rodents as pets but the dogs that were on sale could also end up on to the dinner table.

Berastagi is one the biggest producers of fruits and vegetables in northern Sumatra because of its nutritious soil, so everything was fresh and ripe. We saw some fruits that you rarely see in Finland like the local passion fruit marquisa, mangostine, salak (also known as snake fruit), durian and rambutan. Durian is a really smelly fruit which is also supposed to be extra delicious, "the queen of fruits" as Indonesians say. We liked mangosteens and passion fruits the best, but left the durian tasting experience for later. 

We had reserved a Sibayak volcano trekking tour from this fellow Abdy, who runs Nachelle homestay B&B in Berastagi. He was supposed to be the best guide in town according to tripadvisor and he definitely didn't let us down. He came to pick us up from Serdika at 4.30 am (we chose the early trek since we wanted to see the sunrise) with a minivan and we drove up to the volcano so that we didn't have to walk all the way up to the summit. The Sibayak volcano is 2200 metres high, so even after that minivan ride there was still a lot to climb. So there was still a one hour trek left to the summit, which was plenty for us. We both had a cold and we could feel the climb in our lungs. Still the trek went well and we were at the summit early enough to eat breakfast and watch the sunrise. A shame that it was so cloudy that day that we couldn't see the sunrise properly. Luckily the fog faded away and the clouds moved after a while so we could see more. The views were breathtaking. 

As usual the locals asked to have their picture taken with us :) 

As a great surprise to us, also bees can live in those altitudes!

After wondering about the summit and taking pictures we started going down. First we descended to the crater of the volcano. Sibayak hasn't ruptured in years but its still releasing sulfur (the yellow stuff) and hot gases from it's depths.

Then we continued our way down. On our way Abdy told us many things about Indonesia in general, it's politics and the upcoming presidental election and the nature around us. He made us smell the plant that tiger balm is made of and cut small pieces of a cinnamon tree for us to taste.

After descending from Sibayak we got back to our minivan and drove to the hot springs near the volcano. There were pools with different temperature of water in them so that you could choose the one that best suited you. We were also happy to spot a rabbit island in the middle of all the pools! :D

Next our tour continued to a Buddhist Golden Temple. We weren't almost able to see anything in the sunshine because of all the sparkle of the temple! Inside the temple was a tree and on the branches of the tree people had hung their wishes or prayers to Buddha.

Berastagi has a mixture of different religions and so we got to see a Christian church as well, built in a local traditional way. We also climbed inside a traditional tribal house.

After this complete tour we were quite exhausted but at the same time very happy to have seen and learned so many local things. We didn't do much with the time we had left in Berastagi since both of us still had colds. Especially Rosanna was feeling tired all the time. 

The day after our tour it was time to pack our bags, hop into a turist bus and head to lake Toba. Last but not least, you can enjoy this wonderful sight of Berastagi, the giant cabbage.