Sport rock climbing at the Jesselton Park Penang in Malaysia (February 2026)

After the Kleinis had left us and took an airplane to Kuala Lumpur, we went to a nice little climbing area in George Town: Jesselton Park.
We pitched our tent right in front of the crag and the location was wonderful.
Here you find that climbing area on theCrag.com
Not too many routes, but a lot of shade and very silent.
And of course it felt very good to climb again!
The wall was very different than the other ones we had already visited in Malaysia: less tufa, more rock slaps.
Odin (a friend we’ve met at Toni’s Guesthouse and who went with us to the Thaipusam) came visiting us and had his first climbing experiences.
We had to clean the easiest routes because the locals didn’t really use them and had a good time.
And in the evening Racki and I went to the still ongoing Thaipusam to have some dinner and witness the festivities some more.

A wonderful temple and the impressive Thaipusam festival with more than one million visitors (January 2026)

Next we went to the biggest temple on Penang, the Kek Lok Si Temple. It was so beautiful!
Getting some good spirits.
Made of jade.
About 10.000 buddha statues in one of the buildings.
After the temple, we joint the Thaipusam festival. It is one of the major Tamil Hindu festivals with one two one and a half million visitors and it was crazy, colorful, and interesting. The main things going on are two wagons going through the city. One silver and one golden one.
Holy cows.
At the wagons, people donated money, food, and all kind of things and got blessings for themselves and their children in return.
Smashing coconuts was one of the main activities for a fortunate live. The coconuts actually have a deeper meaning. It’s interesting. Google it.
Small temples all over the place.
More coconut smashing!
And then we reached the area of the main activities! It was crazy! People carrying dragons, dancing, praying, super loud modernized, electronic, Indian chanting-style music, …
… some carried big, self-made things (about 30 kilos heavy) on their backs, …
… some put weighs on hooks through their skin, some carried blessed milk, and more dancing, chanting and everything! See the video at the end of this post.
We had a good time! It was fascinating and kind of magical.
And a lot of food: a lot of the companies of Penang were offering food of all kinds for free.
And of course there were more temples.
And then we reached the destination of all the visitors of the festival: the Arulmigu Sri Balathandayuthapani Temple (Waterfall Hilltop Temple). Everybody went up the big stairs with hundreds of steps.
And in the temple on the top of the hill, after waiting in line, the ones who carried the blessed milk, gave it to the helping people, …
… who then were pouring the milk over the main deity statues of Lord Murugan (the Hindu god of youth, war, and virtue). Thousands of liters of milk.
It was fascinating and a nice final experience with the Kleinis before the left for Kuala Lumpur.

To Penang peninsula in Malaysia and encountering the nasty monkey (January 2026)

Our luxurious bus brought us on the Penang peninsula which was a pretty touristic and crowded place.
But we found a very nice accommodation: Tony’s guesthouse. It was such a nice and calm place with a big community kitchen, eating table and everything. There were very interesting guests and the atmosphere was just nice.
Especially meeting somebody of the rainbow family gave us a nice and interesting perspective on life and the balancing and struggling between planning and just flowing and positive vibes.
And there were a whole lot of graffiti arts at the whole place.
Of course we went to the beach on which some interesting things got stuck …
… or constructed.
And the famous cat beach, a medical station and temporary accommodation for cats which helps them a lot.
About ten cats per visitor.
In the canals there were a lot and very big monitor lizards.
But we sticked to the mango, sticky rice with coconut sauce.
The other day, we went to the monkey beach.
A touristic, but still beautiful place.
With a lot of monkeys who looked kind of nice and innocent like always …
… until they attack you to steal your food, drinks or whatever. One grabbed me on my leg which let me to improve my defensive strategy: louder yelling, rising and waving the arms, and walking towards them until they back off.
We visited a beautiful botanical garden.
Had our feet cleaned.
And almost got stuck in the children slides.
On the way to a hike, the door of the bus broke down and we helped our thankful driver to repair it and were able to continue our ride.
The hike was interesting and nice and it felt very good to have some exercise-like movement again.
The locals stayed mostly at the artificial swimming ponds in the river and we tried the hiking paths.
And met a beautiful lizard.
And found a pretty much broken viewpoint structure from which we had a good overview of the small town. Here is our hike on komoot with many more photos.