Monkey Beach

We wanted to check out the beaches Penang had to offer, so we took a day trip to the north western coast of the island.

We got a couple of taxies to drive our group along the coast, passing the beach resort area of Batu Ferringhi. I had no idea how built up this area would be. It had tons of major hotel chains like Holiday Inn and Shangri La. Our cab drivers told us many wealthy people in Malaysia have beach homes and condos here. He said it is also a popular beach destination for Australians.

We wanted to stay away from the super toursity areas, so we headed to a small fishing village called Teluk Pahang. The ride to the opposite side of the island took around 45 minutes (so you can get a sense of the size of the island). The fishing villiage, Teluk Pahang, backs into the very beautiful Penang National Park. We read that the best beaches were in the park and the only way to reach them was by hiking 1-3 hours or hiring a fishing boat from Teluk Pahang to bring you there. We opted for the 20 minute boat ride.

The boat dropped us off at a small secluded beach called "Monkey Beach". There was maybe only 10 other people on the whole beach and we finally felt like we had reached paradise. However, we were unaware of the attacks that were coming our way.

While we were swimming, we heard some screaming by where we had put our things down. We swam in and noticed a group of monkeys were scavenging through our belongings and stealing all of our food. We got some locals to help us scare them away long enough for us to grab our stuff and run down the beach to some safety.

They look really cute and friendly, but trust me Cynomolgus monkeys are everything but. Once they learned that we had food in our bags they kept following us down the beach trying to attack our stuff and us. They are not scared of human at all and will run up to scare you, with their fangs out, hissing aloud. A couple of times we heard noises in the bushes and all of us jumped up and ran into the water in fear. Finally our boat driver, a local Malay, came back to the beach to hang out for awhile. He offered to be our guardian, keeping the monkeys away with sticks and noises. We were finally safe!

On our way back to Teluk Pahang our boat driver let Julie drive!

Monkey Beach was a beautiful secluded beach, which was exactly what we needed to take a break from all the site seeing we were doing thus far in Malaysia. However, we all could have gone without the monkey attacks. From now on I think I am going to skip all beaches named after animals.

The Holidays

This was my first year spending "The Holidays" away from home. It was a little weird at first but thanks to the amazing friends I have made in Korea, I have had an amazing time.

Thanksgiving: My friend Sam Lazar hosted a Thanksgiving pot luck at her massive apartment in Namyangju. We ate, drank and played football and banana grams. It felt like a typical family thanksgiving! Here are pictures of the food spread and Sam and Zoe with a bottle of North Korean Soju (alcohol) that our friend Eric brought back from his trip to the DMZ.
Christmas: Last weekend was Christmas. A couple of the girls and I spend Christmas Eve at the Nutcracker in Seoul. The show was beautiful and exceeded all of my expectations. Here is a picture of the Nutcracker crew during intermission and one after the show in front of the Christmas Tree.
After the show, we headed to a Korean fast food restaurant chain called "Kimbab Nara" to enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner.

The whole crew spent the rest of the weekend in Guri (Eric's town). We woke up Christmas morning to Mimosas and Secret Santa presents. I got a great scarf and an awesome t shirt from a bar I really like in Seoul (thanks Julie!).
My friend Justine got an amazing Secret Santa present, that I am going to share with you. Her Secret Santa was Joanna, who works at an Elementary School here. Justine loves Korean children. I mean who doesn't, they are the best. Joanna got one of her cutest kids to say a little something to Justine on camera. (We call Korean children street meat: a code name. This was done to try to make our obsession with them less creepy).

We spent the day hanging out in Guri and playing games. Christmas in Korea is actually spent with your friends. Korean's usually go to church with their families and maybe exchange a couple small presents. Then they spend the night going out with their friends. Which means the clubs in Korea are packed on Christmas. Our group didn't want to miss all the fun, so we went to Monkey Beach in Apgujeong.

Happy Holidays from Korea!