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Hey guys, sorry we have not updated the blog in a while. We have just finished our three week intrepid trip -The Trail of the Gecko- and as we have been with a group of fellow travellers we have been busy day and night (el chango did flow)! We have not stayed in any place for more than three nights and have seen some of the delights of both Malaysia and Thailand. We are currently in Bangkok (a great city) planning our next move. Anyway we'll now try to round up our trip as best as possible. Miss you all.
After our day and night in Melaka we headed by mini-van towards the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is known by the locals). We travelled to KL via Kuala Gandah, an elephant conservation sanctuary that helps translocate elephants that find themselves too close to plantations. We had been eagerly anticipating the visit to Kuala Gandah ever since we booked the trip and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of our lives.
Our interaction with the elephants was split into three stages and during part one we got to hand feed them fruit and sugarcane. After the fun we had feeding them it was time to take a short ride on the back of the elephants. Whilst queing for the ride the mahouts (the guys who train the elephants) asked for two volunteers. Mandy and I immediatly shot our hands up and where chosen, much to the disappointment of a young Australian boy (well he has age on his side so he can always go again!!). We then got to ride the largest and oldest of the elephants about 200 meters down to the river for bathing. Mandy was holding on to the mahout for dear life, especially when we where going downhill! Once we got into the river the elephant crashed onto its side dunking us into the water. I went right under, with the elephant almost landing on top of me and Mandy stayed afloat still clinging tightly to the mahout! We were then joined in the river by two baby elephants ( both three years old) with whom we bathed and played with for half an hour. This too was alot of fun, with one of the babies trunking me from behind and another pooing in the water with the floating turd following Mandy every which way as she screamed trying to get away from it!
After saying goodbye to our new found friends we visited a nearby Malay tribe. The tibe only has about 200 people left and they make their living from the land with the males being expert jungle trackers. The tribe live in almost absolute poverty with everything they own very basic. The people here were very shy and it was a really humbling experience.
Arriving in KL we were greeted with a completly different culture. Although Hong Kong was extremely busy and fast paced it maintained an air of oraganisation. KL on the otherhand (or maybe just the area we stayed in) was very hectic. There are very few pavements and on the ones they do have you have to be constantly on guard against the hordes of scooters that use the side walks to avoid the heavy traffic! The cities main attraction is the Petronas Twin Towers. We visited this as well as the KL Tower and these are the 9th and 13th tallest freestanding structures in the world (we saw the tallest in Dubai) with the twin towers been the third tallest building in the world.
On our way out of KL we visited a pewter factory and the Batu caves. At the pewter factory we saw the trophy for the Singapore F1 grand prix being made and got to try to make a pewter mug ourselves (Mandy was the best in the group at this!) The Batu Caves is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India and is thought to be around 400 million years old. At the caves we were blessed by a Hindu priest as well as being scared by all the monkeys that live in the caves (they may look cute but they can be quite aggressive!).
We then set off for Kuala Kunser and our two night homestay.
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