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What an incredible week. We were so sad to be leaving Pedang Pedang but unfortunately our visas were running out so it was time to move on. We managed to fit in a couple of days surfing in Kuta before we left which was great. I have moved on from a foam board to a fibre glass one which was much easier to use.
We arrived in Kuala Lumpa last Thursday which proved to be a massive culture shock. We had become so used to the streets and architecture of Bali that Kuala Lumpa was slightly jaw dropping. I felt a bit like a country bumkin seeing the city for the first time. The place was packed with sky scrapers and designer clothes stores. It was ethnically very diverse with Chinese, Indians and Malaysians living in very segregated pockets. The food was a delicious concoction of all three seved in food halls or from street vendors.
We managed to upset our taxi driver when we first arrived by asking him to put the meter on. He was adamant that It would be better for us to have a set price. We realised why when we arrived in Bukit Bintang as the meter read at about 75% less than the price he suggested. We felt bad so we gave him a tip.
Our accommodation was lovely and super cheap. We had our first hot shower in over a month which was very much appreciated. It's the first time my hair has felt salt free in a long time. I'm starting to look like I have a birds nest attached to my head. It's lucky I have a boyfriend really!!!!!
We expected to hop in and out of Kuala Lumpa but found it strangely endearing so spent two days wandering around the city. You can't miss KLs twin towers which loom over every other building in the city. They are beautifully built and extremely high towering over the rest of the city. I can't remember exactly how high they we but it was enough to hurt your neck when you look up at them.
The city is a perfect example of man verses nature. The modern sky scrapers are situated within stunning protected parks which add to the appeal of the city but my favourite place was a huge dense rain forest smack bang in the city centre. It was ridiculously humid whilst we walked through but worth the sweat. It proved to be quite good exercise as there were a million steps and then strange exercise suggestions along the way. It was a bit like open air circuit training with no one controlling it. Very bizarre.
As with all cities it had it's dirty seedy side. We walked through here for the experience, felt pretty uncomfortable and left fairly quickly. The country is very strictly Muslim so, even though i was covered up, I attracted death stares from women and creepy stares from men.
We soon realised that when it rains in Malaysia, it pours. Literally. This is supposed to be the dry season but every afternoon there were torrential down pours. We dealt with this by going to a very convenient cheap cinema. I managed to see the last Harry Potter which I thought was ace and we also saw captain America which was pants but Trev loved it. The tickets, pop corn and drinks all came to about £8. Bargain :)
This wasn't the case for all things in KL. It s much more expensive than Bali, particularly tourist attractions which we carefully avoided. It's not even worth bothering with alcohol as the prices are more expensive than London. We would have quite liked to walk up one of the towers but it would have meant eating into over half a days budget so we gave it a miss. It's amazing how careful you become with money when there isn't much of it.
We were all citied out after a few days so we headed for the jungle not entirely sure what to expect. The coach there was a welcome experience, after the mental indo taxi drivers, with air conditioning and heaps of space. We were greeted on arrival by a very organised and lovely tour company who provided us with all the info we needed about the jungle and were soon ferried onto a long boat which took us for 4 hours through the jungle to Taman Negra. We expected to break ourselves in gently but this wasn't going to be the case. The room was literally a room with a bed. The shared toilet was a choice between a hole in the ground or a toilet in the pitch black darkness. The latter would not have been so bad if you didn't have the very real possibility that something poisoness would crawl out at any time. The shower was shared with cockroaches and a friendly frog. It was 8 pounds a night so we can't really complain.
We signed up to do a jungle hike leaving the next morning. This was most definitely my most memorable couple of days of the trip. We spent the first couple of hours on a tree top canopy tour which involved walking a rope bridge suspended 40 ish metres
in the air. It gave a fabulous birds eye view of the jungle although knees a little wobbly at times.
We returned back to base to pack our backpacks for ou jungle excursion. This included 2 days worth of clothes, 3 bottles of water, food for a couple of days and another few essentials. The guides provided the food and water as we would all be cooking together later. My backpack weighed about 12 kilos which was fine initially but soon became heavy when traipsing through the jungle. We walked 8.6 k on the first day which doesn't sound much but when you factor in the hills, tough terrain, a heavy backpack, sweat drenching humidity and a guide who thinks hes Usaain Bolt it proved to be pretty tough. It was worth every second though. The rain forest was beautiful and teaming with life. You soon get used to the chorus of the jungle that surrounds you continuously. It has a very calming effect. Perhaps they should use those noises for meditation tapes.
I thought my main concern would be spiders and snakes which were everywhere but it turned out that leeches were to become the bain of our trip. They were everywhere. They're much smaller than I expected and look kind of similar to a catopilla. When they sense footsteps they lift there heads to see where you are and then latch themselves to you. Most of the time you don't even realise they are there until you see blood trickling down your leg. Trev and I sprayed our shoes with insect repellant and sprayed a ring just above the shoes on our legs which was a life saver. A poor Italian girl in our group was inundated with them and totally freaked out. I sprayed her shoes in the end and they seemed to leave her alone.
The inevitable thunder and rain came towards the end of the first day which was fine but the wind was a bit scary. Our guide, who was very good, seemed to have this phobia of trees falling down. He informed us that if we hear a big crack you have three seconds to move out of the way and he hoped we made the right decision of where to go. Hmmmm thanks!!!!
Any hoo, we arrived at a cave at about 18:30 which was to be our home for the night. The cave was huge and perfectly dry. We showered with saucepans in a close by stream and set our beds up for the night. This consisted of a big plastic sheet and the 6 of us in the group laying down our sleeping mats and and bags. This made previous camping experience seem luxurious. We all cooked together on a small gas heater and came up with a debatably edible meal. We were all reluctant to eat or drink too much as the toilet was just a designated area if the cave which wasn't particularly concealed.
After dinner Ajip took us on a night time tour of the cave so we could see what we would be sleeping with us. There were bats, massive spiders which looked a bit like scorpions and all sorts of other little creepy crawleys. Needless to say I got about an hours sleep. The sounds were incredible though especially the bats when they returned to the cave. It sounded a bit like a helicopter propeller.
We packed up and left early the next day for another 8 K hike stopping for lunch at the river. We all had a swim and attemped jumping in the river like Tarzan on a ripe swing. It was quite entertaining. We stopped on the way back at the Orang Asli tribe village. These people count the jungle as there home and all live as a family of about 30. The children don't go to school and all of their medicines and food are obtained from the jungle. They taught us how to use blow sticks and make fire. I hit a balls eye with my blow stick. Perhaps I have just unleashed the inner jungle lady in me.
We were absolutely exhausted by this point and were even glad to see our dodgy apartment. We attempted to get clean, washed our back packs, packed our back packs and left the next day on the earliest coach.
After the dirt and sweat of the jungle we decided to treat our selves to some time on the Parinthian Islands. It took a 7 hour drive and a crossing on the speed boat. The island is beautiful but we have unfortunately come down with a kind of gastro virus. Either that or it's a more sever food poisoning than last time. We haven't been able to venture out too far but fortunately our room is right on the beach so we have gone for frequent swims. The water is so clear and the marine life is wonderful. We're hoping to get out for a snorkel tomorrow.
Thank you so much for all my birthday messages. I loved them. My birthday was fairly quiet but Trev was great despite being I'll. I feel like this whole year is one big birthday so I'm very lucky.
I think we will be off to Vietnam by the end of the week so will update again there. We are both very excited about mum coming out to Thailand. I have a shopping list the size of my arm for you.
Hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer.
Lots of love to everyone. X x x
- comments
Christy hey so nice to read your news, glad you had a lovely birthday and an amazing time travelling. Enjoy Thailand I love it there can't wait to go back one day. Have fun, miss you xx