KUALA LUMPUR

As we were leaving Pangkor Island via the ferry we actually hadn't yet decided our next destination. When we previously decided it was time to shove off from the beach we had thought we'd head to Kuala Lumpur to get a taste of the big city in Malaysia before heading back down to Singapore. But we had a few people give us mixed reviews about KL, as everyone in Malaysia calls it, that we paused to reconsider. At breakfast the morning of our departure our French woman friend was trying to persuade us to instead visit Melaka, a smaller more colonial looking city on the coast, which temporarily had us swayed in that direction. But while on the ferry we reconsidered and upon disembarking in Lumut we boarded a bus bound for Kuala Lumpur after all, and we were glad we did. KL ended up being very different from Singapore, the other big city we visited on the trip, in that where Singapore felt small, clean and safe, KL was big, frenetic and not as sterile, not that I felt Singapore was sterile. But Kuala Lumpur was definitely more like your typical big Asian city, along the lines of Bangkok.



We arrived in KL late afternoon. Our bus dropped us in the heart of Chinatown so we found a hostel close to the bus station. That evening we walked around Chinatown and checked out the main Jl Petaling market that has everything from sneakers to watches to hand bags galore. It's suspect as to whether they are all just knock-offs or whether because most of the items are made either in China or Indonesia they just get the overruns (or are stolen) from the factory to sell at cost. Probably a mix of both. Either way there are bargains a plenty. We didn't make any purchases that first night but rather just sized up our opposition to get our bargaining skills ready for the next day. After dinner it started to slightly rain so we ducked into a pub for a beer. The slight rain turned into a sustained downpour and our one beer ended up turning into several. We passed the time talking to a couple from Calgary who was on a 6-month trip around the world. From Venezuela to Egypt to Dubai they regaled us with stories of each spot and new must see places that we had to add to our already too long list of future trip destinations.

On Friday morning we woke up early to head over to the Golden Triangle, KL's business district, which contains most of the big high-rise buildings including the Petronas Towers, formerly the world's tallest buildings until 2004. You're allowed to go up to the sky bridge that connects the two towers together 41 floors above the ground. Due to the high demand of the sky bridge they limit the number of people who can go up it every day, which requires you to go over early in the morning to get a ticket for a time slot at some point during the day. Since our sky bridge passes weren't until later in the afternoon we set out to check out the rest of the city. Cutting across the town we decided to stop in the Chinatown market so I could buy a pair of sneaks as my flip-flops were hurting my feet and my other shoes, my hiking shoes, were pretty much too muddy from the jungle to really break out. After some hard bartering I scored a sweet pair of 3-stripe Adidas for the low low cost of $10 US. Not a bad deal.

After donning the newly purchased sneakers we continued on to the Lake Gardens district which sits on the hillside slightly above the city itself. It's essentially a large park that contains a variety of museums and other sights. Our first top was the National Planetarium, which wasn't impressive at all, but netted a visit mainly because of the cool air-conditioning we could feel pumping inside. From there we cruised by the Bird Park, which is apparently the largest outdoor covered bird park in the world. We opted not to enter but instead just walked along the outside viewing the birds from the street. Lastly, we made our way to the Tasik Perdana Lake, which sits at the center of the gardens. Though it was pretty much just a brown muddy lake. After walking around the gardens we made our way back to Chinatown for some lunch and for another cruise through the market as we had a few minutes to kill still before catching the subway back to the Petronas Towers for our sky bridge visit. It was about this point that the skies opened up sending everyone scrambling for cover from the rain. We waited it out for a few minutes before having to go ahead and make a run for it so we wouldn't miss our sky bridge time slot. Our crappy umbrellas provided virtually no cover and the streets were quickly flooding making it a hilarious and wet run to the subway. Just about everyone else had stopped in their tracks to wait out the deluge, except the two of us who were sprinting down the sidewalks, jumping over puddles and trying our best to stay beneath the few awnings that were providing brief cover. This was the hardest I’ve ever seen it rain so needless to say by the time we made it the few blocks to the subway we were drenched, new sneaks and all. Though by the time we arrived at the Petronas Towers it had stopped raining and a short time thereafter we were more or less dry due to the high humidity and warm weather. Live and learn.



Despite the fact that it was still a little overcast and stormy from the rain shower that had just passed over, the sky bridge yielded some great views of the city below. Due to the amount of people that they herd in and out of the sky bridge each day, for free no less, you only get about 10 minutes on the actual bridge itself. Click here to check out a quick video I shot of the tower from the sky bridge vantage point.

After taking in the Petronas Towers we decided to tackle the KL Tower next. The KL Tower is the 5th tallest radio tower in the world and looks much like the CN Tower in Toronto or the Seattle Space needle. From the top we were considerably higher than the sky bridge and actually had some great views of the Petronas Towers that we had just come from. Following the KL Tower we walked back in twilight to Chinatown for our last night in KL. We braved the market one last time, finally ready to do some real shopping and managed to pick up a few good items, including a Rolex for K's dad (which I'm quite sure was the real thing given it's $3 US cost). The next morning we boarded a bus for a 6-hour ride back to Singapore.

PULAU PANGKOR

Leaving Tanah Rata and the Cameron Highlands on Sunday we were hoping that heading west to the coast would bring back the sun, though given our rainy weather and overcast skies as of late we weren't entirely optimistic. However, the sun god or gods must have heard our pleas because as the bus descended out of the highlands the clouds slowly started to give way to blue skies and by the time we made it to the town of Lumut, right on the coast, we were stripping down from our long pants to put on our shorts and tees as it was back to the full blown sunny blue skies that we last really saw in Singapore.



From Lumut we took a short ferry boat ride to Pulau Pangkor, a small island off the west coast of Malaysia, into the port of Pangkor Town. From there a taxi ride, in a pink mini-van, around to the western side of the island, arriving into the sleepy town of Teluk Nipah, where we were greeted with plenty of sun, sandy beaches and warm water in which to swim. The town itself was reminiscent of the town of Montezuma, where we stayed in Costa Rica, with one main street, a couple of places to stay & eat and a big half moon stretch of beach fringed with jungle trees. Upon arriving on Sunday, only about half of the restaurants and guesthouses seemed open and each day we stayed on the island it seemed even fewer were still open. A couple of days in and we had one option for lunch, though never the same place two days in a row, and two at most for dinner, if we were lucky. We joked that this was the locals' technique, simply to stop feeding us, in order to turn the tourists out of town when they were ready for a new batch to arrive. Though most likely there was just no rhyme or reason to which restaurants were open given it was low season and the kicked back lifestyle of island living seemed to trump actual work.

Sunday we checked into our guesthouse, a sort of beach bungalow set up, complete with hammocks to swing on, and then made a b-line straight to the beach. On Monday we spent the day lounging around on the beach, soaking up the sun and exploring some of the other beaches nearby. Just north of our beach was a cove called Teluk Coral, or Coral Bay. The water, pictured here, was especially green due to the coral. That night we made a return visit to this great Thai restaurant that we discovered the first night that sits right on the beach and serves up fresh fish as well as Thai dishes. Little did we know that after being open the first 2 nights of our stay, and being packed, it would then be closed the rest of our time on the island for no apparent good reason. But I did get to enjoy some great calamari while it lasted and K has some tasty curry dishes.

On Tuesday we took a boat ride out into the bay to check out some of the other beaches, one named monkey beach that didn't have monkeys but plenty of dogs, as well as some rock formations, one that looked liked a whale, though was named dolphin rock, and one named crocodile rock that actually did look like a croc. We also cruised by Pangkor Laut which is a smaller island off of the main island that has exclusive access only to visitors staying in the resort that runs $300 a night. Though the rooms do look uber-deluxe as they are on stilts in the water and apparently the resort caters to your every whim. Our boat driver/guide told us it was a big honeymoon destination. After getting a view of the posh life, albeit from the cheap seats, we then got dropped off on a smaller island, maybe a half mile out in the bay from the beach we were staying, where we snorkeled for a couple of hours. We got to see plenty of great fish, green coral, and even a monkey that was checking us out from the rocks on the shore. Click here to check out a video that I shot of some of the fish we saw while snorkeling.



On Wednesday we decided to take a walk south down to a beach called Pulau Basir, which is the other big town on this side of the island. It was more resorty and the beach, in our opinion, wasn't as nice as ours, but it was good to get out and move around after a couple of days of sitting on the beach, even if we were scorching hot by the time we arrived. After a brief dip in the water to cool down we decided to get a taxi, another pink mini-van as all the taxis were pink mini-vans on the island, to head back to our beach for some lunch, assuming we could find a place open. Later that afternoon while relaxing on the beach, actually swinging on one of the many swings that hung from the trees along the beach, we bumped into the French woman and her two girls that we had initially met back in the jungle at Taman Negara. Despite the fact that only the mom spoke English, we had made friends with the two girls, especially the oldest girl, who was 10 years old, and really bonded with K. They were traveling for a couple of months, just the 3 of them, and this was not the first big trip she had taken with her daughters. It was very cool to see someone out traveling with their kids as we hope to be able to keep our travel exploration going even after we start a family ourselves. That night we took in a great sunset, listened to some locals having an impromptu guitar sing along on the beach, and made plans to head out that next day. We easily could have stayed a few more days on the island as the beach was great, the water was warm, the sun was hot and the pace of life was very relaxing. Though with our trip winding down we decided that if we did head out we could hit one more destination before we made our way back down to Singapore to fly home. That next morning at breakfast, as we were preparing to leave the island, we ran into the French woman and her two daughters again. The older girl, Alicia, was quite cute as she wanted to take photos with us and then when we were leaving, as her mother translated to us, "She wants to kiss you goodbye but she's too shy to ask." Followed by, "We're French, we kiss everyone all the time." So we said our European goodbyes with kisses on either cheek, and took another pink mini-van taxi ride back to Pangkor Town on the other side of the island to then catch a ferry back to Lumut. From there our next stop was a bus ride south to Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur, which would be quite a big change of pace from the island. More about KL in the next post.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS

On Friday we left the jungle early in the morning and traveled via mini-bus west to the Cameron Highlands. The Cameron Highlands are comprised of 6 towns, and as the name implies, are elevated from the surrounding land. The region, situated about in the center, both north-south and east-west, of the country, is probably best known for its tea plantations, but it is also Malaysia's agricultural center. Given the cooler weather, due to the elevation, it is ripe for growing all sorts of vegetables and fruits. In fact, the area produces almost all of Malaysia's vegetables and about 70% of Singapore's.



We arrived into Tanah Rata, which is the town most people visit of the 6 that make up the Cameron Highlands, around 3p. That afternoon we took a walk around to get a lay of the land before dinner. The village is fairly small; more or less a one street town with plenty of shops and restaurants, and most of its residents seemed to be Indian. After cruising the main strip we headed out along the main road, which would eventually connect you to the other neighboring towns that make up the highlands, before turning back as it started to rain. Though, we were rewarded for venturing beyond the main drag as while we were out on our walk we did discover a very tasty treat. Along the roadside a local guy was selling a variety of deep fried bananas. We tried both what looked like a donut hole but was actually banana flavored deep fried dough, as well as an actual deep fried banana. Both were delicious. After our banana snack the rain started to pick up a little so we decided to duck into one of the local shops. We ended up picking up some new pants due to the fact that we both muddied up our only other pair in the jungle and it was much cooler here, though not cold by any stretch.

After making our purchase we headed back up the hill to our guesthouse, which looked as if at one point it was an old manor type estate. We had a great room that opened to a garden and also had its own shower, a nice perk. We actually lucked out scoring this room as we arrived at the same time as another couple who was also interested in the garden/shower room. We decided the only fair way to decide who would get the good room, there were other more dorm-style rooms also available, was to flip a coin. Thankfully K nailed the heads call, which I knew she would, and were set up with the garden vistas and our own hot shower. Combined with the rolling green hills in the backdrop and the architecture of the buildings in town, and Tanah Rata feels very British. It even has a golf course next to an English style pub & steak house. Unfortunately the other thing the town seemed to have in common with merry old England was the weather. At least during our stay it was especially foggy and rainy. As I mentioned back in my Singapore post, after we left Singapore we didn't really see blue skies for a while, and definitely not during our stay in the highlands. Talking to a French woman who we met back in the jungle and would later see again at our next stop at the beach, and apparently we just had bad timing as she was in Tanah Rata a few days after us and had glorious weather. Despite the rain and the dreary skies, the temperatures were still pleasant.



On Saturday we booked ourselves on a tour to see the local sites which consisted of a visit to a Buddhist Temple, a botanical garden, a tea plantation, a strawberry farm, a butterfly/insect farm, a bee farm and a local market. Before the tour, that morning we set out on a walk to the next town over. We made it as far as the before mentioned English pub & golf course before turning back around to refuel with some lunch before our tour.

Unfortunately it rained on and off the entire tour, though it was still scenic even if some of the vistas were obscured by the rain & fog. The highlight of the tour was probably the tea plantation. We visited the Boh Tea Plantation, which is one of Malaysia's oldest and well-known tea growers. After a brief tour and explanation of the tea growing and producing process we got to take in the views of the gorgeous rolling green tea fields. As our tour guide called them, the green carpet giants were definitely amazing. The strawberry farm visit yielded a tasty strawberry milkshake. The butterfly and insect farm was also cool. More so for some of the great insects that our guide was freely letting us hold, whether we wanted to or not including some scorpions that were piled upon a Scottish guy on our tour. As our guide explained, they were only a little poisonous. Not sure the Scot was too thrilled with that reassurance. The butterflies were also quite beautiful, though it definitely didn't feel quite right that they were caged, albeit with a net, not bars. But not exactly the carefree, running through a field chasing a butterfly image that you might conjure up. By the time we made it to the bee garden it was pouring, so we didn't really get to experience the bees and their hives in full force, though we did get a free taste of honey. The local market was also pre-empted due to the rain. Even though the entire day was fairly touristy and it was raining, it was still fun and we did get a good sense of the surrounding area.

Due to the weather, and the fact that we had more or less seen everything we came to see, we decided that 2 days and 2 nights would suffice in the highlands. So on Sunday morning we set out via bus, to continue our journey westward in search of sun, surf and sand on the island of Pangkor situated off the west coast of Malaysia. More on that portion of the trip in the next post.

TAMAN NEGARA

Picking up where I left off, on Tuesday morning we departed early from Singapore via the "Jungle Train" which goes to the central and eastern portion of Malaysia, as opposed to the other non-jungle train line that predominantly serves Kuala Lumpur and the west coast. We opted for the local train and it's 25+ stops that left in the morning and arrived in the evening, rather than the overnight express train that would have gotten us into our destination at 3a. We figured that since we were just getting adjusted to the right time zone that we wouldn't mess with an overnight train ride, plus a 3am arrival didn't sound too great either. And unless the ticket agent's math was wrong, the overnight express train was only 1 hour faster than the local. So long story short, we had 9 hours on the train and plenty of stops to see the countryside and local people.

As advertised, the jungle train netted some great tropical scenery. After first crossing the border into Malaysia, it was quite wet. This region, Johor, which is the southern most in Peninsular Malaysia, was hit by a monsoon and subsequent flooding a few weeks before we arrived and the effects were still quite apparent. The fact that it was raining on this day as well certainly didn't help. But since we had no control over the rain anyway, from our standpoint we didn't mind it so much, as after 2 days of sun and blue skies in Singapore, the overcast rainy weather was well timed given it was a travel day. (Little did we know at the time, but it would be several days before we really saw blue skies and the sun again). So, other than taking in the beautiful, albeit wet, scene from the train window, the ride was mostly uneventful.

We arrived to our destination, the town of Jerantut, which is the jumping off point to make your way into Taman Negara national park, about 6p that night. After settling into a hotel room that was not much larger than the double bed that it contained, we cruised the one street town for some dinner. The town itself was a little depressing, or put it this way, I was glad that it was a transit spot for us and not our destination. Though, that being said, I actually had one of my better meals on the trip here, a lemon chicken that was sweet and sticky but still crispy. As K's dad would say, "It don't get no better." As a side note I would point out that the Colonel has invaded Singapore & Malaysia full force. So beware. That would be the Colonial Sanders. As we would notice throughout the trip, KFC is everywhere, including this small rural town in Malaysia. Though I suppose fried chicken is universally well liked and in a predominantly Muslim country that doesn't eat pork, it makes sense. And in case you're wondering, the before mentioned outstanding lemon chicken did NOT come from KFC. After dinner we had a briefing on our impending departure the next morning - bus to the jetty and then a 2 hour boat ride up the river to the town of Kampung Kuala Tahan, which is the main access point to get into Taman Negara. We had a mini money panic that night as well, in that we had only changed what little Singapore cash we had left at the train station before we left into Malaysian Ringgits, however since this was our first stop in Malaysia and we knew there would be no ATM in the jungle, we needed to get some money to get us into the jungle and out as well. It was also 6p, so the banks were closed, and our bus left at 8a, before they would be open in the morning. A local told us of 2 banks that had ATM's and after an unsuccessful visit to the first, which had us thinking we were going to be spending another day in Jerantut, we hit gold with the second, ensuring our escape that next morning. Flush with cash, we decided to cruise the local market, which is always an experience in a foreign country, to pick up some snacks for the bus/boat ride. We also decided that given what we had read about the leeches in the jungle, that we would pick up some additional long socks for protection.



The next morning we departed bright and early on the bus to the jetty and then hopped into a long tail boat for what turned out to be a 3-hour boat ride up the river. It was actually quite beautiful and very reminiscent of the boat ride we took up the river in Bolivia on our jungle trip there. It rained off and on during the ride, but fortunately the boat was covered. The park itself is set up with a small 'village' of hostels and floating restaurants on one side of the river and then a more deluxe resort and the park on the other. According to our LP book, Taman Negara is one of the world's oldest preserved jungles, by that they mean it was not affected by the ice ages or burnt down by any volcanoes, so it has stood, as it exists currently, for an estimated 130 million years.

After finding a hostel and some lunch at one of the floating restaurants, we ventured into the park to check out the canopy walk, which is a series of suspended walkways in the tree tops. After navigating the first walkway, which is essentially wood planks over a ladder that rests on a series of mesh ropes and wired cables, very confidently we were somewhat shaken on the next 2 longer walkways as they were maybe 100-125 feet above the jungle floor and quite wobbly, though very sturdy and safe, at least we hoped. The views were great but it was definitely a mixture of exhilaration and fear, though probably more of the latter. Fortunately it wasn't raining when we were up there, though it did open up shortly after we touched down. It was already pretty muddy, as it is a rain forest and does pretty much rain on and off all the time, but we were getting quite wet. After the trail we were following petered out and we decided to head back to camp is when we first discovered the leeches. K, who promised to scream when she saw one, did oblige. They were actually quite small and brown, sort of like tadpoles, though they moved like inch worms. While small, they were relentless, as soon as you flicked off one, you could look around and see others standing on end, sensing your presence, and preparing to mount an attack towards you. Apparently the bigger black ones that you might be picturing, as I was, from movies and the likes, do exist, though we didn't fortunately see any. In our first encounter we were able to flick off the leeches on our shoes and pants before they had settled in for a drink, though it did thoroughly freak K out. I pretty much had to run to keep pace with her as she hightailed it out of the jungle. If we were in an alternate reality, in a spy drama perhaps, and one needed to elicit information out of her, one word: leeches. She would be singing like a canary in no time. After escaping the rain and leeches we then spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and soaking up the jungle atmosphere.



Malaysia is quite beautiful. It also proved cooler than Singapore, though Singapore was oppressively hot, so the slightly cooler temps were welcomed. It did rain in the jungle off and on, but as one of the locals said, "There is a reason they call it a rain forest." Malaysia is sort of the opposite of Singapore in terms of ethnic mixes - it's predominantly Muslim with Malays comprising the majority and Chinese the minority. Though not quite as well versed in English as in Singapore, everyone does seem to speak it for the most part. And everyone is quite friendly. In fact, one local treated us to a fruit taste testing. If you recall the photo of the theaters in Singapore, nicknamed after the fruit the durian, we had the real thing in Taman Negara. After lunch on Thursday a local implored us that when in Malaysia you must try the durian. Given how stinky it was, and it really does stink, I didn't have high hopes for the taste. The fruit itself is sort of like a pineapple in that it's spiky on the outside. However, it's very different on the inside. Instead of sweet mouth watering fruit, it contains 2 giant seeds that you suck the pasty exterior from. It was neither sweet, nor sour, just sort of thick and creamy but not good. The most disconcerting part was that the taste lingers even when you try to wash it away with your drink. K initially thought she liked them, but subsequently changed her mind. What's worse is that once you've tasted them, simply smelling them conjures the taste again. But hey, when in Malaysia...

Later on Thursday we decided to take another trek into the jungle, this time to a vista point that has some spectacular views of the surrounding jungle. This of course was after I did some gentle coaxing and reassurance of K that the leeches wouldn't be that bad this time. This in fact turned out to be a lie as they were worse, as it seemed like we were constantly fighting off leeches most of the 2 hour hike. Actually the hike up wasn't so bad, but coming back down the trail was quite wet and it rained intermittently, which didn't help our cause. But despite the leeches, the mud and the rain, the jungle was definitely a great experience. After our successful leech-free exit from the trail, and by leech-free I mean we didn't have any still on us, we had a celebratory beer. This was at the resort itself, as the village didn't serve alcohol given that it's predominantly Muslim. So we plunked down the $7 per beer, figuring we had earned it.



For K, I think the entire experience can be summed up in these two quotes:

A local upon our arrival in Taman Negara,

"Leeches can be overcome."

K as we are exiting the jungle,

"I still don't think leeches can be overcome."

As she would accurately explain, leeches are too crafty to be overcome. Which is true, they are crafty. So maybe we didn't overcome them, but we survived.

Friday morning we left the jungle to head out west to the Cameron Highlands and the tea plantations, which will be detailed in the next post in a few days. Again, if you want to be automatically sent new posts via email, just drop your address in the box on the upper right.

NOW DEPARTING FOR...

We've been belaboring the destination of our next trip abroad for a few weeks now. Seeing as we're trying to travel the middle 2 weeks of January, we're getting a bit of a late start on the planning. Originally we had intended on going to Argentina using airline miles, which didn't end up working out. Airline miles are vexing that way. Our next choice was buying tickets to New Zealand, but that proved wildly expensive. So with our first two choices off the table, we broke out the atlas and started playing the where should we go next game. We dabbled with some other destinations in South America, but since our last 2 trips were to Costa Rica and Peru & Bolivia, we decided to head to a different part of the world. I was intrigued by Moscow, but after a check of the weather we ruled it too cold. Kristin zeroed in on Egypt. I then became fixated with the South Pacific. Basically we were all over the place. So last night we broke out the wine and the laptops and invited our friend Andy over, who in his own right is a walking & talking atlas, and started searching the globe. About a bottle of wine down, we finally zeroed in on south east Asia and then after finding cheap tickets and hearing a good sales pitch from Andy we ultimately decided to get tickets to Singapore. We're also planning on checking out Malaysia. So should be a good mix of uber-modern city and then jungles and parks. Assuming we can avoid a caning it should be great. Can't wait.