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Hey hey, I'm now in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. I'm in an internet cafe with two fellow group members and it's 0034 Tuesday morning. This cafe closes at 5am and is full of Malaysians playing multiplayer Counterstrike, whilst Wiagn Vs Villa is also on the TV. The atmosphere is so exciting!
Anyway, yesterday after my last blog I went for dinner at an Indian restaurant. That's two consecutive Indian dinners in a row! The thing I forgot to mention about the day before's Indian meal was that my fellow group member, John, ordered a pizza off the Indian menu. It came up as 'Indian pizza'. However, he ordered it after his main course and without a menu. Thus, he was ordering it assuming that the waiter (who looked like an Indian Mario) knew the menu. He told Mario, 'Pizza, Beef, not too spicy, and to share between me and him *pointing to Alan*'. So, Mario went back and took about twenty minutes before two waiters came up - Mario and Luigi. Mario unveiled a tiny plate with a single piece of beef I.E. pizza or "piece of" beef. As they unveiled it, both the waiters looked confused and were unsure whether they'd served the right thing. Everyone at the table stared at the single piece of beef in disbelief and confusion. John managed to clear it up with the waiter before eventually receiving a beef omlette! It was hilarious and we were all in stiches.
Anyway, yesterday's dinner was truly authentic. We had a leaf to eat our dinner on and I had some lovely beef curry with garlic naan bread. We then left and went for a drink at a local bar in Penang. We had a beer each and were then joined by a random and drunk Malaysian of Indian origin. He came up to our table outside and started speaking to me first in a drunken slur of Malay. Although mostly incomprehensible, I did decypher that he thought I was Canadian because I had a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt on with a White star on a red shirt. He then proceeded to pinch my cheek in his drunken state whilst again speaking a drunken slur. In complete confusion, I was trying to hide my laughter and looked at my group of friends. As I looked back at the Malaysian drunkard, I saw he had moved onto his next target - Rob (group member). He began stroking the back of his neck and singing to him. Rob looked horrified and confused. We then decided to get up and leave as the drunken gentleman sat down looking as if he was about to throw up. He then began to follow us before crossing the road. THEN, as we were on our way back to our hotel, we passed an elderly trishaw driver by his trishaw. (A trishaw is like a rickshaw except a cart on the front with two wheels and a driver behind cycling to push it forward). He looked at us and we could see he too was drunk by his bloodshot eyes, and the fact that he was topless didn't help matters. He then shouted at us, 'come on!'. We said, 'no, thanks'. He repeated louder, 'come on!!'. We looked back at him thinking, 'what?'. As we continued walking he then screamed at the top of his voice, 'COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'. I burst out laughing with my friends as we found his transport promotion skills incredibly funny. We laughed for hours and continued into the morning.
This morning, I woke up early (0600) as we had to make the journey to the Cameron Highlands. We took a ride in a people carrier before then taking a bus (like national express) to the place. It's a remote town (though less remote than Khao Sok) and is home to the famous tea plantations. Having tasted the tea, I can honestly say it is some of the best tea I have ever tasted. The best going by the name of 'Tea Tarik'. It's on my imaginary list of 'top teas' along with Mauritian Tea. Tomorrow I'm actually visiting the plantation site along with a strawberry picking site. In addition to picking up some tea bags to take home, I'm also gonna get me a nice strawberry milkshake heralded as one of the best.
Once we got to the Cameron Highlands (which are, to no surprise, at a high altitude), the group went for a walk which turned into a semi-trek, except no leeches. It was great fun and it later started pouring down with rain very heavily. Being only in a shirt and trousers, I got soaked. I was lucky I wasn't wearing sandals too! Rob was worse off though, as he was in a T-Shirt. We all had a good laugh out of it and enjoyed the walk anyway. We all walked together and trekked in the rain until we found road (passing a waterfall and across high forest land overlooking the tea plantation), from where we attempted to walk back to our guesthouse together. Realising we didn't exactly know the distance from where we were to our guesthouse, we ended up hitch-hiking on a small, elderly Malaysian gentleman's open-back truck. It was great fun as we held on and enjoyed the long ride. Thank goodness we didn't walk! The gentleman didn't except our money and dropped us off. We then went for dinner at a Steamboat restaurant. There, you get a gas stove on your table with a huge pot on top. The pot contains two different soups - one spicy and one not so spicy. You're then given the ingredients to add to your soup. We separated our group between 'fish, meat & veggies' and 'meat & veggies'. Due to a fish allergy, I was in 'meat and veggies'. It was great fun as we all worked together and added chicken, beef, coriander, lemongrass and other stuff to our soups, before finally adding noodles. It was like DIY dinner. I had a great meal. We then went to a lovely cafe to eat scones and tea and had a great chat, before returning to our hotel top watch 'Snakes on a plane'. A cinema classic. Honestly, awful.
Okay, so that's yesterday night and today. I'm keeping up to date with what's going on at present whilst I know there's still a gap between the present and sometime last week in Krabi. Don't worry, all will be revealed.
So, it was our second day in the beautiful Krabi. Frankly, I could live there. Okay, so there's a lot of tourists, but to Hell with that. The place is still beautiful and the area is full of fun! Maybe it's more a young thing that won't last forever.
Anyway, today was the day we would go by boat to explore the nearby islands and go snorkelling. So, we went on a boat from the beach and sat up the front to go to the first island. Bad idea. The front of the SPEED boat takes the brunt of the hard waves. I.E. you bounce up and down. If you're sitting, that means you smack your backside against the seating. If you're kneeling against the side to see the water ans the view, it means your knees get smacked up and down on the seating. It hurts...a lot!
So, we got to the first island my backside very sore - and chilled there. We then found out that we would be switching boats, as ours had some problem with the dilly-o (that isn't a real thing, by the way). However, the other two boats had been rented out by a bunch of Slovaks. Nasty, fay and lazy Slovaks. They weren't best pleased when they found out a group of people they didn't know would be joining them. It was hilarious. I couldn't hear one of them speak English yet they were all shouting their heads off. We just once again (and foolishly) sat in the front. As we arrived to the next few islands and I went snorkelling, I had an amazing time. It was incredible putting on the snorkelling gear and seeing so many different and beautifully coloured sea creatures. I even got some bread the guide brought with her and put it in the water. I then had to back away as soon as possible for my life, as the fish went crazy for it! They were like Piranhas going for it and taking anything they could get. I even saw fish fkapping out of the water as they splashed in competition for the bread. It was even more spectacular seeing the different fish come out to get some food. So now I've fed elephants and fish up close! :D
After swimming around, snorkelling and even exploring the beach where 'The Beach' was filmed, we went for lunch. By this time, I was feeling sick as I'd been sitting in the front of the boat and bouncing up and down a lot due to the violent waves. Needless to say, my stomach wasn't feeling great. So, after having some Spag Bol, I took some advice to sit kneeling on the bench at the fron and facing the sea. That helps because you see the waves coming up and expect the bumps. It did help, but not for my knees. Me and my group of friends ended up screaming in agony everytime we were plunged inches into the air and smacked back down onto the bench, knees first. It killed our knee-caps. I honestly don't think my knees have ever withstood such punishment. I was surprised to be able to walk again after our 45-minute ride home at the end of the day after more snorkelling and swimming.
Later than night, we went for pizza with the group and it was good. After that, I think we watched movies on the top floor of our hotel (where Fiona was staying) and chose one of Rob's DVDs hat he got for cheap when in Vietnam. So, we watched 'Blood Diamon'. It was fantastic, though only three of us made it through the entire movie.
Now, I can't remember everything we did because it seems like ages ago. I know, I know - it was only last week. But, for those of you that know me well, you'll know my memory doesn't serve me for more than 48 hours at the best of times. So, I'm skimming here. Be thankful, as then I'll have more stories to tell when I get back and remember these snippets I'm missing out as they come back to me. It'll provide future laughs and stories over meetings to come when I return. Happy? Cool.
So, I spent the morning after going kayaking with John and Rob. It was superb!!!!!!!!!!!! We got driven to a beach and John and I were seated in a kayak together. We followed a guide and were taken around the different mangroves and stunning lagoons (hence the picture above). However, the best bit had to be going through a small bit of forest in our kayaks. Why? I'll tell you why - monkeys! There were loads of them jumping from trees all over the place and coming down to play, as they knew we'd bring food. And that we did. Our tour guide passed bits of pineapple around to us beforehand (which I didn't know they liked but can now assure you that they do) and I had my own little taste. As soon as we got to the monkeys, they were jumping all over our kayaks and smelling the pineapple and eating it from our hands. It was amazing just passing them the pineapple hand-in-hand. John, at the front of the kayak, wasn't too fond of the little fellas and so threw the pineapple into the water. The little fellas jumped into the water and swam out to get it! They then swam with it and climbed onto the nearest kayak to eat it! It was just astounding. Later, one came onto my kayak and saw my 1L orange juice carton tied down infront of me to the kayak. He touched it but couldn't lift it, so gave up. Anticipating that the next monkey may also take an interest, I untied it and left it there. As I thought, another did take an interest. This time, I opened the funnel and he put his mouth around it and licked pulp. He liked it. So, I poured some and it went everywhere. It was hilarious, but he loved it! He held the carton and had his tiny fingers on my hand as he grasped it. I continued pouring it until another monkey came along and scared him. This monkey started drinking but didn't like the funnel. So, he took the juice and tore the carton apart on Rob's kayak, pouring juice everywhere! It was hilarious. He was a much more vicious monkey but still enjoyed the juice! He then proceeded to leave excrement on Rob's boat. Nice.
Overall, it was an incredible experience. So that's feeding an elephant, fish and monkeys - wooo!!!!!!!!!!!
Later that day I pretty much chilled out and later had an 'all you can eat BBQ' for 220 Baht (about 3 quid) including ice cream. I stuffed myself waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much and hit the sack afterwards. The next day we were up early - we were leaving for Penang, Malaysia.
Got to go guys, more to come from Penang before finally being up-to-date! Until next time, take it easy and take care.
Darryl
P.S. Happy belated Easter!
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