As mentioned previously I had decided to climb up Penang Hill to see the views, apparently the sun set is fabulous from the top.

I used Google Maps to look up the walking track, and hit the road. Really looking forward to doing some physical activity after a day in the car.

It all started well enough, nice little streets, friendly dogs, easy directions – optimism was high.

The walk went up, out of the urban streets and into farms, trees, views, and nature. Really, very cool.

Essentially the walk should have taken me 2-3 hours to complete. 5 hours later? Enough said.

Initially I saw people, mostly locals, and a few even stopped to check if I was ok and purposely walking this way. The most common question was “you are one????” this was also accompanied with a show of 1 finger and the look of bewilderment.

Translated to “you are alone?” or “you are mental in the head?”.

Amazed that I had decided to do this, and do this alone. At the time I thought it was funny, yes I was hot, sweaty, out of breath, but I was loving it. For now.

Another hour in, I was beginning to wonder about the intelligence of embarking on this walk, without telling anyone, late in the day when it was becoming dark, on my own, limited water, one cell phone with waning battery…

But as you know, I am not a quitter, even when it is quite clear that is what I should do. And, to be honest, I am not sure I would have found my way back.

So up and up I went. The paths were very narrow and seemed to wind their way through different farming plots. I caught sight of a few people working the land.

Often it sounded like someone was using a skill saw or a little mulcher or something, quite a disconcerting noise, but I kind of ignored it. I was more concerned with finding my way up.

Google Maps had ceased to be helpful, sending me up and down little pathways which lead to nothing or nothing useful. At one stage I came across the train tracks WAHOO. There is a little train that takes you up and down the hill (now why didn’t I think of that), sitting across the tracks was a lady, surely, she could help me.

SAVED! I can catch the train, or she can tell me where the path is! Or not. As it turned out.

The only way to board the train was from the other side of the tracks, and there was no way to cross them, not without certain death. Insult to injury, the train guard did not speak a word of English, she did smile and wave though. Sigh.

Back the way I came, again, with the buzzing sound of the skill saw intermittently ringing in my ears.

Back to the interchange of little pathways and I opted to follow one of the paths that I had not tried, and a path that Google Maps kept ignoring. It looked like it was going upwards, so why not!

As I traipsed up the path I found a sign! Miracle of all miracles, an actual sign. In Malay, with no indication of what it might mean. No arrows pointing a direction, no skull and cross bones offering a warning, just a sign. For all I knew, it may have said “turn back now”. But I couldn’t tell, so I kept walking.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, go the saws.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, go the mosquitos! I had been clever enough to bring my bug spray with me (well done Jo, collect 200 dollars and pass go!). However, when one is dripping with sweat the bug spray does not adhere well to one’s skin, and the local bugs seemed to think of it more as a bug on, than a bug off.

Still, it made me feel better, so on went the spray.

As I was standing on the path of my doom, spraying myself with bug attractor, I noticed the buzz, buzz, buzz of the skill saw seemed to be following me. In fact it only really happened when the I was passing by large trees or bushes.

OMG OMG OMG, it was not a skill saw, it was bugs, it was very large, very loud, very scary bugs. And they were going to eat me. I would be found EVENTUALLY, and my body would be home to millions of skill saw buzzing bugs. I would be one of the Darwinian stories used as an example of what NOT to do. Bugs living in my skull, camped out in my ribs, using my mummified flesh as a tent!

As you can imagine I did not overreact at all – this was all completely plausible, I have spent many hours studying the discovery channel.

Well, if I was not motivated to move prior to the bug discovery, I certainly was now.

I continued up the path of last resort! The light was beginning to fade and I was down to the last of my water.

The bugs continued to taunt my path and I steadfastly ignored any rustling noises coming from the undergrowth, I really didn’t need to know what was living there, they would soon become tenants in my half rotting corpse if I didn’t get a move on.

Another hour of walking and there were signs of civilisation, a road, a steep road, with no one on it, but a ROAD. A road I could follow, where there are roads there are other things right???

I followed it and sure enough I popped out on another track, where there were lots of tourists on golf carts zipping back and forth. Damn, one of those would have been handy three hours ago!

But I made it, to the top, in one piece, I made it. Perhaps I would not do that again though!

At the top of Penang Hill there are restaurants, souvenirs, lots of tourists, and a pub. I deftly found my way to the restaurant at the top of the hill, where I downed a jug of water, two Mojitos, and a large glass of wine in very quick succession all before my food arrived.

Dinner was average but the alcohol more than made up for it 😊

I decided I would take the train back down 😊 enough walking for today.

The sunset was beautiful and the views were lovely, I was very glad I had done the walk, and very, very glad it was over.

Time to head back to the apartment. Train back down, uber to the apartment, very, very hot shower, and into bed.

I had been putting bottles of water into the freezer so I had cold drinks during the day and the evening.

There was also some vodka in a plastic bottle. Without thinking I grabbed the wrong bottle, climbed into bed and took a big swig. Straight vodka is not my thing! I quickly swapped it for water and went to sleep.

The end of an exciting day.

There were more adventures to be had tomorrow! I needed my rest.