Habitat at Penang Hill

by Child 1

From February 8th to 11th, we went to Penang for Chinese New Year. Penang is an island in Malaysia with a lot of ethnic Chinese people living there. Among the many things we did, we went to Penang Hill, which is a high hill in Penang overlooking Georgetown. We took a funicular railway up the hill. It was much cooler up there than on the ground.

One of the things we did on Penang Hill was the Habitat at Penang Hill. We took a walk through the tropical rainforest (on a path). Here are some of the things we saw:

Part of the walk was a big bridge high above the ground below. The view was amazing, and you could see trees towering from the ground for miles.

The next part was the Treetop Walk, a big round walk high above the ground that was supposed to make you feel like you were walking on the treetops. Up there, the view was even more amazing and you could see all of Georgetown. Next to the Treetop walk you could see an old building, and a placard said that it had been built in the 1800s as a sanatorium by the British for the British who were suffering from tropical diseases and couldn't afford the long, expensive journey home. It later became a popular honeymoon destination around the 1920s, and then became unused during the World Wars. After that it became a boarding school, and around the '70s it was abandoned.

We watched the sunset, and then lanterns were handed out and we were given a tour back. There were two tours, one in Chinese and one in English. There was one other family who went on the English tour with us. Along the way back, the tour guide pointed out geckoes and other animals. She even pointed out two tarantula nests, little holes covered in spider webs. In one of them, we could see tarantula legs sticking out for a second before it crawled back in.

That was our exciting trip to Habitat on Penang Hill. We had lots of fun, and we hope you had fun reading this!