Trekking & Treetops, Batu Ferringhi

Our next stop in Penang was Batu Ferringhi, a beach town resort on the other side of the island. The sand stretches for miles along the coast giving way to beautiful beaches broken up by small bays when the tide comes in.

We intended to spend some time relaxing on the sand but got distracted by all that Batu Ferringhi has to offer and instead did quite the opposite. In just four short days we ended up on two three hour treks in two different National Parks. The first was a three hour climb up Penang Hill where we found the best views of the island and the second was through the jungle to reach Turtle Beach (where we found absolutely no turtles.) 

Another day was spent at Escape Adventure Park which is like a Malaysian version of Go Ape but much bigger and with more variety. They had all sorts of attractions, the kind that back home would be exhilarating but not so much frightening because you can pretty much always rely on the scrutinising British safety checks. In Asia though, it's a rather different story. The whole way around the park we came across fraying ropes held together with masking tape and wires that were too thin for their pullies. On one particular ride called Atlan's Leap, the guide asked us if we wanted to free fall from the higher platform even though it was closed. Of course we wanted to but why the hell was it closed? In slightly broken English he tried to assure us that it was just the netting on the stairs that was deemed unsafe and as long as we were careful in the climb we'd be absolutely fine on the jump down. He presented the idea as a such a privilege that it was difficult to say no. He was risking his job by letting us up there but I couldn't help wondering whether we were risking more by taking him up on the offer. Our lives, for example. All I kept thinking was 'this would never happen in England' and 'someone please tell my mum I love her'. 

Fortunately we survived and did the typical child-like 'again, again' thing as soon as we landed. We hurtled ourselves down six more times before deciding we'd tried our luck enough for one day and moved onto other, slightly tamer attractions. Our favourites included the Flying Lemur, a series of zip wires through the jungle canopy, Tubby Racer, a giant dry ski slope that you skid down on a rubber ring, and the Coco Tree which you had to try and climb to win a free coconut! 

I wish we'd had more time in Batu Ferringhi to explore the rest of its attractions and make the most of the beautiful beaches. However, we've been promised that our next destination, Langkawi, is home to even nicer shores so we hope to fit some sunbathing in there!