Into November

Well here is November! While many of you are putting on cozy socks and sweaters, I put on shorts and a tank top every morning! Sure does not feel like fall here! The sun shines bright every day and with it comes 80+ degree weather. But it's not all that bad, the morning is also greeted with exotic birds singing and the smell of jungle rain in the air. Its quite a refreshing start to the day!


Today Donovan and I went on a hike at the Penang Botanical Gardens. What we thought would be an easy hike, turned out to be the hardest hike ever. It was a 5 kilometer hike, and we made it a quarter of the way. Took us about 30 seconds to realize we were way out of our element. The entire hike is uphill, and very very steep. You practically have to walk sideways to keep from slipping. The people passing us, had legit hiking gear and were ready to push to the top. We however, with our 1 water bottle (already half gone) and 2 small apples were not. We realized, that this "small 5k" takes most people around 4 hours to accomplish, because of the steepness of the climb. We laughed at our stupidity but decided to hike as far as we could. We made it about a fourth of the way there, drenched in sweat and turned around to face the slippery slopes back down the mountain. We plan to do the whole hike before we leave here though! Next time with all the proper gear, and clothes! It was fun to say the least, we got a butt kicking workout...and we got to see a family of monkeys in the trees!

After our hike, we walked around the Botanical Garden and saw beautiful trees, flowers and more monkeys! They were everywhere! Donovan tried to pet one, and in return it hissed and chased him! It was so funny! Then we headed back home, into the crazy rainy weather of Penang. But we got some local pineapple from a old lady first! Yum!

To keep up with traditional fall festivities, I actually baked in the apartments oven! I made some banana bread with the islands local sugar and apple bananas, its super yummy! Most people never bake here, because it makes their houses so hot, that is if they even have ovens, but I couldn't help it! I just love making goodies! 

So enjoy fall my friends!