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Well, we set off from a relaxing few days in Koh Lanta and we arrived in Malaysia 12 hours later...
Our first destination was a place called Penang... this was the first large City on our route through Malaysia and it was certainly different to everywhere else we have been so far!!!!!
Although Penang did not have the most interesting stuff in the world we were sufficiently entertained by other simpler things... Firstly, Malaysia was the most developed country we had been in for quite some time and we took great pleasure from being on proper roads that actually allow for a decent speed!!! Secondly this was an Ex-British colony and so for the first time since we arrived in Asia 4 months ago we have actually found a country where pretty much all the locals can speak English.... it was great and made our lives so much easier!!! Thirdly and there is loads of Indians here which is brilliant because we were actually able to get away from the constant diet of noodles and have some truly excellent Indian food!!!! So even though there was not a lot to do in Penang we were on a bit of a high!!!!
From Penang we moved on to the Cameron Highlands... this was an absolutely stunning place dominated by massive Tea plantations!!!! Most of our time here was spent walking through the hills and alpine like forests with the aim of climbing one of the local mountains, which we did on our second day in the highlands.... The mountain took us about 3 hours to walk up but its was worth the effort... the walk was stunning when we finally got to the top we had to clime through some (lord of the rings like) trees to be able to see out over the valley... the view that we managed to get perched precariously over the edge of a drop was really spectacular and really rewarding after the tiring climb....
The accommodation that we managed to find was this funky (if slightly horrible) guesthouse which had a bonfire outside the bar every evening... this was perfect because our altitude meant that it did get quite chilly at night!!! Just to give you an idea of what some of our accommodation is like, we were sleeping in one large, long room that had about 20 single beds in it.... the ceiling was made of tarpaulin and at night you could see the footprints of creatures crawling on it in the space between the tarp and the roof!!!! (we reckon it was mice or rats but its hard to be sure) The really amazing thing about this is not the state of some of our accommodation but our complete indifference to it!!!! Four months in Asia really teaches you that a bit of dirt really aint going to kill you and things that we thought strange or disgusting when we arrived have simply become the norm!!!
Overall the Cameron Highlands were great and we had a very relaxing few days there which was a welcome change of pace after our high intensity month in Thailand!!! Our next destination was Taman Negara National Park which is home to the oldest rain forest in the world.. We arrived late in the day and undertook the normal task of hunting round for some accommodation... We ended up in a dorm room again but this time we had the whole dorm to ourselves.... the next day after a very hot and humid nights sleep we ventured out to have our very first look at a rain forest.. we got a local map and headed in the direction of a tree top canopy walkway which we were told was very good..... The walkway consisted of a simple rope bridge wide enough for one person that was strung up about 30 foot high and winded its way through the treetops... the views were good but not spectacular so we set off heading up a hill to a viewpoint about 50 minutes away!!!! Bloody boiling…. I am getting used to dragging my fat ass up random s*** on this trip but doing it in mega humidity in the middle of a rain forest really sucks ass….. we were both completely dripping in sweat that simply wouldn’t dry… nightmare!! On the plus side the views were cool enough to give you a sense of achievement for the long walk!!!!
Another thing of note in the rain forest was our encounter with the local tribes people the Orang Asli… We had gone here to check out their little village thingy but we ended up getting a little more involved… while we were there they were making blow darts that they use for hunting and they let me and Pete have a little go at target practice.. It pains me (greatly) to say this but Pete was by far the superior marksman… He impaled our furry little target first time while I was left spluttering and spitting down my blowpipe sometimes completely unable to hit the tree let alone the target… I think Pete will be the one doing the blow dart hunting from now on!!!!
As if we did not have enough of tropical islands in Thailand our next destination was the beautiful Perhentian Islands just off the NE coast of Malaysia. Here we put our diving licenses into effect again and went to some of the local dive sites which was a good laugh!!! Apart from that we just chilled, sunbathed and enjoyed the excellent food!!!
Right, I am sure I am going to get abused for this but!!!! The Perhentians were actually kinda boring. By contrast in Thailand we were in large groups on party islands basically dominating and going nuts…. These islands were (by comparison) dull…. There is only so much sitting and sunbathing you can do before you are thinking “FOR God sake there is nothing to do!” I feel bad saying it, but that is simply how it is….. That is why pretty quickly we bought tickets and began the 12 hour journey to the capital Kuala Lumpur….
KL was great….. we had not been in a big City for ages and it felt so good to be back in Civilization again…. Just having the choice to eat at any type of restaurant or do loads of different things was cool… First major thing was to go and see the Petronas Towers…. Jesus Chris these things are big…. One of the amazing things about traveling is that every now and then you see something iconic… something that you have seen a million pictures of and then suddenly you find yourself staring right at it, walking in it, or in this case, walking across its sky bridge…. Very cool.. After that we took in the normal list of cultural this and historic that… best thing about all of this was the continuous links to Britain and the Empire!!! It was also cool to be strolling round a very modern, but distinctly Islamic city… The contract was really interesting to see Tudor style houses and a Church on one side of the street and then Islamic architecture and a Mosque on the other… And while it can be very annoying at 4am there is nothing like hearing the call to prayer to make you feel like you are traveling in a distant land!!!!
One of the best things in KL was the aquarium. It is the biggest aquarium in SE Asia and it was quality!! As well as having massive tanks with a huge array of fish it also had an extensive snake exhibit…. s***!! This was interesting but a little unnerving for me… Pete was in an adventurous mood and decided that it would be fun to let scorpions crawl up his arms… this looked very cool especially under UV light because the scorpions glowed green…. Unfortunately for me this meant that I had to do something horrible as well. The task presented to me was to walk through a snake pen….. Great! The pen was only about 5 meters long but it had about 60 snakes all hanging from branches that were positioned across the entire length of the ceiling… ‘I f***ing hate snakes’. After a few minutes of abuse from Tanner (all on film) I was gradually being edged closer and closer to the pen… And so (remembering what happened last time I refused to something on camera) I actually entered the pen…. When I say entered what I actually mean is sprinted through the door in an attempt to get out as quickly as possible.. What I didn’t know…. What only the snake handlers knew was that the door on the other side was locked!!!! s***!! As I frantically shock the door the entire pen (and all the snakes) started to shake!! Only by divine intervention did I manage to get through the other side without dislodging any of the bloodthirsty snakes that were all waiting to descend from above!!!! This was definitely one of my finest hours!! Just to show me Pete actually decided to hold one of the little f***ers at the end…. I touched it on the tail (with one finger)…. I am a god!!!
On our last night in KL we did try and find a few bars… unfortunately big City choice means big city prices and after paying 5 pounds a pint the night never really got going…. This was fine though… Malaysia had been a really good chill out period between the madness of Thailand and what was to follow in Singapore and Bali..
After about 4 days in KL we got up early and boarded our all day train that was going to take us to Singapore.
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