Penang National Park is at the northwest corner of the island. It’s a primeval jungle, overgrown, full of animals calling (why do most wild animals sound like ringtones?), with a few paths leading to the main attractions. The Canopy Walk consists of 250 meters of 30cm wide walkways strung between trees some 10 m above the ground. The bridges are suspended from cables, and shake and twist when walking on them.

Another trail leads to a couple of beaches. Most of it is a muddy, rocky trail covered with roots leading up and down the edge of the water, quite difficult to walk without hiking boots. Saw a few monkeys in the trees; we watched them and they watched us, but we had cameras and they didn’t. At the USM Cemac beach, young veiled women in shorts were playing and laughing. We also went to the Butterfly Garden two km away; they not only have lots of large tropical butterflies in a large greenhouse full of tropical plants, but also spiders with hairy legs, scorpions, an iguana, turtles, and assorted other local animals.

Chewing gum is legal in Malaysia but it’s still very clean. I saw people sweeping the jungle today with brooms. There are no floating plastic bags and bottles like in so many other Asian countries. Most people speak broken English.