My new life begins at LAX a journal of my 3 months living and working in Phnom Penh, and beyond.

Saturday morning I took the bus to from Cameroon Highlands to Pinang. The bus ride took about 5 hours. Penang is an island just off the coast of Malaysia (there is actually a bridge from the Mainland). The reason I decided to go to Pinang was because Nev (one of the CWF volunteers lives there). When I got to the bus terminal I gave Nev a call and he told me how to get to his place. I got a taxi and went to the area of Pinang where Nev lives, Mount Pleasure. The taxi ride was about 30 minutes. The island was much bigger than I had expected.

When I arrived to Nev's place, we went to the balcony of his 9th story apartment and had a beer. There was a great view of the ocean from his balcony. We didn't have too much catching up to do since, I had seen him a little over 2 weeks ago in Phnom Penh.

Penang is a beautiful island, but it was a little too overdeveloped for my likings. Most of the coast is dominated with high rise condos and hotels. It is also a popular retirement spot for westerners. Pinang reminds me of how I always pictured Florida of Hawaii.

The whole time I was in Pinang plans fell through. I was looking forward to a CS picnic, but I got the dates mixed up and missed it. Another day I met up with the Penang Hash House Harriers. It wasn't anything like the P2H3, I didn't enjoy myself at all, I ended up running straight back to Nev's place and not participating in the post run drinking circle. Then when I was ready to leave I found out the ferry to Sumatra didn't run on Tuesday like I had been told, so I had to wait until Wednesday to leave.

The highlight of the trip was a trek with Nev through the National park to the beautiful Monkey Beach. We saw lots of monkeys, cool birds and some water monitor lizards. Every meal out with Nev was also entertaining. He is extremely social and is really good at making friends at every restaurant that we went to. Nev was also a good cook and great host (not to mention a teacher of Australian culture).

Wednesday morning I had to get up at 6:00 to catch my ferry to Sumatra. Nev and I had a late night so it was hard to get up. I figured Nev would want to sleep in but he was up to see me off. We had a coffee on his balcony and watched the sunrise. At about 7:00 I decided I should probably catch my bus to the jetty. Nev and I said goodbyes and walked to the bus.