Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->
After the cultural wasteland which is the East Coast of Australia, I was really excited and equally nervous about our travel around Asia. I had all the usual fears, like security and food and all the things that everyone warns you about.
We did however ease into the whole experience nice and slowly so as not to scare ourselves too much. We arrived in Singapore to find it very similar to the many cities we had already experienced. It was nice and clean and the public transport was AMAZING! We have come to hold public transport very dearly and find it at the top of our must have list when assessing a place. So with our tick list satisfied we found Singapore a very easy place to be in. Initially we stayed in a reasonably nice hotel, there was a promotion for two nights which we booked at the airport, but we couldn't afford it after those nights so moved to a wicked place in Chinatown. We've come to realise that Chinatown is always a good bet for decent accommodation, yummy food and really fun night markets. We stayed in a dodgy looking place, which turned out to be really nice and the big fat chinese guy that looked after the place was always smiling and couldn't do enough to help. He had to stay up till stupid o'clock to make sure no one arrived late then just slept on a bunk near the door, fully clothed and snoring SO LOUDLY!!!! He was really sweet though and really made our time there really good. We had a look around the millions of shopping centres and replaced our camera what broke and went to the Zoo. We have come to love our trips to the zoos of the world. Some of the enclosures were amazing and huge, but others clearly showed the animals to have gone NUTS! The polar bear looked so sad and mad, it really upset me so we didn't stay there long.
After Singapore we traveled by very spacious coach to Malaysia. They were very interested in all white people with backpacks, shooting our foreheads with a thermometer to check for signs of swine flu, which by the way I was SURE I had at one point in Australia.
Our first real experience of Malaysia was Melacca. It was the nicest sweetest town I think we've been to, again aiding to our gradual immersion into Asian culture. We stayed in an incredibly basic hostel, but again the people were so lovely you did not need anything else. This was my first real encounter with the Malay toilet. Now all those who are close to me understand me and my fear of public toilets, something that I have had to conquer countless times on this trip, but nothing and I mean NOTHING, (so far) compares to the Malay toilet. Fortunately, however, I have now overcome even this battle and am quite a fan now, most of the time!
In Melacca we did lots of the regular touristy things. Melacca was once the trading capital of the world. For six months of the year Western traders would be brought their way on the monsoon winds from that direction and as it changed to the other direction, the West went back and the East had their turn and so on. In the 15th Century it was at the height of its success and became the biggest most important city on that side of the world. After several different occupations however, Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese, it has now struggled to regain it's identity. We think it's done pretty well.
Next we went to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as its annoyingly known. I am sorry to say, I am not a fan of KL. It was dirty and more importantly hectic and chaotic, not what I like. The public transport system was RUBBISH. Nothing connected to anything else and it was expensive to keep buying single tickets for everywhere. We did however run into some people we had met in both Fiji and Oz and went for dinner with them which was lovely. Then we attempted to visit the KL tower, but much to our confusion we couldn't find the entrance and when we finally did, it was shut.
Whilst in KL we heard of a few places that we thought sounded good. We booked ourselves onto an all inclusive type tour trip to Tamen Negara National Park. Tamen Negara is a jungle and it was great. We had to travel by bus to a tiny village with a jetty then onto a long thin boat and down the river for two hours. I loved it. I finally felt like I was really traveling and experiencing new and amazing things. I was mesmerised the entire time by how beautiful the jungle and the river was. The park itself was beautiful. We went on a canopy walk which was...tiring actually. Longest of its kind in that part of the world and you had to stay at least five metres from those in front so it was quite a slow process. Good fun though. Then we hiked up a hill to get a look of the whole park. Everywhere you want to go is accessed by the river, so to my great pleasure we spent a lot of time in the boats. We also traveled to a village tribe. That was cool, if not a little weird. We were told of how the blow pole weapons are made then had a demonstration and could have a go ourselves. Dave was of course very good at it and so bought one! We also went rapid shooting which wasn't as good as it sounds. The rapids themselves were pretty tame, but we amused ourselves by splashing each other madly and then all jumping in the river for a swim, while our lovely guide Jai, bailed all the water back out. I would like to say in our defense that he started it! The group we were traveling with were a group of eight Northern Irish students, great fun all of them. Only traveling for three weeks before they go back to uni.
After Taman Negara and a lot of chicken and rice we traveled to the Perhentian Islands.
These islands were recommended to us my Lauren who we met in Raro, she raved about them so I promised her we'd go. It was worth it. We continued there with the Irish mob. The islands were beautiful. We stayed there just three nights but loved every second. We spent a whole day on a snorkeling trip which was awesome. We saw big ass turtles and reef sharks and loads of cool fish. I thought I would be scared of the sharks but they were actually fine, just big fish really. Although I do have a sneaking suspicion that one was following me! The rest of the time was spent relaxing on the beach or playing in the sea. I did also experience banana boats for the first time. Mad fun, if not a little painful. Every time we came off we all smashed into each other causing all manor of injuries. Suffice to say I think once in a lifetime was enough.
After our time in paradise, we moved on to hell. Yes, I mean it. Kota Bharu is, in my opinion, the worst place we've been to. It was smelly, dirty and rubbish. To top it off everywhere I went people stared and whispered about me as I was white and had my ankles showing! I have come to greatly respect the Muslim faith. When in KL we visited the National Mosque and met a man who taught us all about the religion. I found it really enlightening. I was incredibly naïve in the past and am sad for those that follow the faith because of the bad name that has been created through terrorism and the Western media. I do therefore have no problems with covering my head out of respect and trying to be mindful in every way possible so as not to offend. I do not however think its ok to laugh and point at some for being different!
And so we left there as quickly as physically possible. We in fact only left the hotel to go to the post office, book our ticket out of there and go to the shop to by pot noddles do we could make them in our room! Anyway. We got a very long coach journey to Georgetown, our last stop on the Abbie and Dave Malaysia Express. I like this place. Many cities we've been to have there poorer districts, but most of it is relatively wealthy. The whole of Georgetown however, seems to be on the same-ish level, or from what I have seen anyway. All the streets look very similar with many closed down shops, antique shops, silk shops and cafes. We are staying on the coolest street! Its where many of the hostels are, but it has nice little bars and lots of nicnac shops to spend hours looking through, and then not buying anything! I am going to be sad to leave Malaysia. It truly is such a charming country with a colourful past. It will forever be held high in my esteem as my initiation into Asian culture and for that I am very greatful to it.
- comments