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Bonus. This is what Malaysia was to me...a bonus. When I originally decided to go back to Australia, I found a cheap flight from Singapore...so I thought, why fly back from Bangkok when I can keep on travelling over land and see another country? So it was off to Malaysia for the 3 of us.
So we took an overnight bus from Krabi, in Thailand, and made our way down to Kuala Lumpur...known as KL. It was a long journey, but we were well used to them by then. When we got into KL it was late at night and we didn't know where we were going, so we jumped in a taxi and asked the boy to take us to our hostel. So we agreed on 20 Ringgits and off we went.....in a big circle. Turns out the bus stop was only a 5 minute walk away from our hostel, but this driver fiddled us good. If I wasn't so tired and glad to be there, I might have argued with him for ripping us off or just thrown 5 Ringgit in his face....but I was wanting to get my head down on a pillow....so I just learned my lesson.
The Haven was a pretty cool hostel though. The owner was very relaxed and I'd be surprised if his assistant wasn't stoned the entire time we were there...he never really seemed to be quite with it. Plus there was free toast and coffee...24 hours...so that was abused as often as possible.
KL is a fantastic city, well worth visiting if you get a chance. I knew less than nothing about this country before I came. I actually imagined it to be quite impoverished and only in a developing state, like Vietnam. However, the opposite is true. This a land with a rich history of trade and cultures dating back a thousand years. Due to it's location, traders from the West, the Orient, S.E Asia and India all converged in Malaysia to do business, making the country extremely prosperous. The Portugese eventually colonised it before the British claimed it, but in 1957 they finally gained their Independance, which they are very proud of.
Malaysia also has something that I was pleased to see. A real mix of Asian, Malays and Indian people, all co-existing in a peaceful manner. A lot of lessons on racial equality could be learned from this place I reckon. If there are any undercurrents of tension between the cultures, I certainly never noticed them. Not like in Fiji where the Fijians and the Indians tend to keep to their own and compete against each other.
KL itself is a beautiful city, with impressive buildings surrounded by patches of forest trees. The locals have made a big effort to conserve a lot of the vegetation in the city to make it more appealing on the eye....and it works. The monorail which runs through the city is also very cool being as it's around 30 foot above ground level.
There are modern developments everywhere in KL but none more impressive than the Petronas Twin Towers, KL's pride and Joy. The Petronas are the tallest twin towers in the world (now) and are linked by a walkway, half way up, which the public are allowed to cross for free, on an organised tour. Mind you...we weren't too impressed with it. We had to get up at 7:30am to get in the queue for the free tickets yet I still had to wait nearly 2 hours in line to get them, while Baz and Chris loafed around. Then we found out that our tour wasn't until 2pm, so we had to wait another 4 hours before we could go up. So off we went to the Menara Kuala Lumpur, which is KL's answer to Canada's CN Tower. From here we got great views of the city, and of the Twin Towers. There were also free binoculars up there, from which you could read a car registration from about a mile away...they were well powerful. However, I think I saw Baz trying to find some windows to peep into...what a naughty boy.
Anyways, after we saw that, it was about time to go back to the towers for our tour, so off we went. It was toasting though, and still very humid, so we were quite sweaty when we got there. Then, when we went up, we were told we had 10 minutes to look out from the walkway. This took no more than two minutes and the views were rubbish compared to the Menara. So we were quite annoyed that we had wasted so much time in the morning to see this. If anybody goes to KL....'DO NOT GO UP'.
Well, after that carry on we booked oursleves on a trip up to the Perhentian Islands, which are back in the N.E corner of Malaysia...so after another long bus journey and a 40 minute boat ride, we were sitting in another piece of paradise. White sands, blazing sun and a tropical backdrop. We had been advised these islands were some of the best in the world.....it's possible they are, but we saw less than one day of the sun, before a tropical storm started moving our way. We were staying in the cheapest lodgings on the island, and the accommodation proved it. I happened to notice that my bed had been inconveniently been placed in the way of an army of ants. Not to be bested by my bed, the ants chose to climb over it to get where they wanted. So I thought it would be best if I didn't sleep there that night...or ever. So me and Chris had to move huts where there appeared to be less insects. Speaking of beasties.....Chris actually called me over one day when he found a monitor lizard. I'm not sure what I was more surprised about...that there was a 6 foot Lizard crawling under my hut, or that Chris had not climbed up a tree to get away from it.
Anyways...the next two days were spent trying to get from our huts, to the bar at the end of the beach, without getting too wet from the ensuing rain. We tried the Monkey Juice on our first night....a strong spirit which tasted quite horrible...but it helped me get to sleep better that night...what with all the potential beasties that were in my bed. We did have some fun in the water though. Chris and Baz played frisbee for a while in the shallows, while I spoke to a soaking wet kitten. But when I say they played frisbee, what I mean is they threw a frisbee and then went swimming to fetch it every time because both were useless at throwing and catching. Then, then next day, despite the weather, I showed Chris how to snorkel. But when I was in the water I couldn't get my flippers on. So I left Chris with his mask and snorkel in hand and went to give Baz my flippers on the beach. Imagine my surprise when I returned 1 minute later to discover Chris had somehow lost his snorkel (which had been attached to the mask when I left him) and hadn't even realised it. So we spent the next 30 minutes swimming around trying to find the snorkel that was somewhere in the sea, and even had to recruit Barry to help us. Eventually Baz found it though...so no fines for lost equipment.
But the weather really did turn bad the next day. It soon became apparent that we needed to leave the island sooner rather than later...because we had a bus booked to Singapore and a flight from there to Oz. I decided we needed to leave as soon as possible, because the storm was getting so bad there was a real risk we might not get off the island for several days! So we followed our guide to the other side of the island, where we met a load of other evacuees...all looking to get on the one boat scheduled to take us off the island. Luckily we were told there was 3 boats turning up.....so we managed to get on one of the two that actually did turn up and off we went...into the choppy sea.
Try to picture the scene....a boat, maybe designed for 12 passengers, with a cloth canopy and open sides, bouncing along in stormy seas, with about 20 people on board, plus luggage, in the pouring rain. We soon found out that we had to go and pick up a few more passengers from the neighbouring island, so we did that, then went all the way back to our own island to pick up even more passengers!! This had already taken us 1 hour, in the rain, and we were back to square one. So off we went again...with about 25 or more people crammed onto one boat designed for half this many people. Visibility was very poor, and the general concensus of the passengers was that the driver didn't really know which way to face his boat when we lost sight of the island! He stopped at one point and spoke to a madman who was fishing in the smallest, flimsiest looking boat possible, in the middle of the sea, in a storm. He pointed the way for us then laughed at our driver for being lost.....not very encouraging. There were a few people who were genuinely concerned for our safety because of our situation. Not me though....I thought this was hilarious. I was only concerned for my big camera.....which I was trying to keep dry. Besides, we had life jackets on. Anyways...after a total of two hours we made it back to the mainland, cold, wet and hungry. But we really didn't think about anything other than getting back to KL to end the nightmare. So we managed to book seats on a bus in the main town and eventually got back to KL, where we were happy to fall into our beds in the comfort of the Haven.
With a couple of days extra in KL we put them to use, visiting Little India, and the Central Market. We were too late for the little India market, but we ate in a great Indian restaurant before heading home. I would have to say that KL is far and away the best place I have ever been to for food. I love Korean food, but in KL you can eat whatever you want. Because of the peaceful blend of cultures and creeds there is no end to the diversity of food on offer. Western, Oriental, Indian, Malay, African...it was incredible. We found a great Indian street stall one night where we ate like kings, and paid pennies for it.....it was so cheap. So we went back again the other night...and ate even more!
On our final night we went back to the Petronas Towers, because everybody told us that it was best seen at night. They weren't kidding. Their electricity bill must be enormous. Every light in the building seemed to be on, and it looked stunning set against the dark background of the night sky....really quite impressive.
But before long we had to get on another bus and head down to Singapore, where we had tickets for a cheapie flight back OZ. So off we went, on another overnight journey. When we sat down Chris took his hat off to put his earphones on...a move he will regret for a long time I reckon.
When we got into Singapore we really weren't sure which way we should go to find the hostel we wanted to stay in (nothing new there then). So we just sat down for a while to think about things. But after about 1 minute Chris jumped up "My Hat!" That's right, the dummy had left his hat on the bus, which was now making it's way down the road. This put Chris in a bad mood for about 3 weeks. Have a look at pictures on this website and see how many you can find where he is not wearing his favourite hat.
Anyways....we eventually decided to walk to the hostel, and after being told we had to wait several hours before we could check in, the boys went off to sleep in the lobby, while I made eggs on toast for brekky.
There's not really much to see in Singapore though. We only spent 1 night there, but that gave us enough time to hunt for what we had been talking about for weeks....PSPs (portable PlayStations). We all ended up buying one from the same store because we got a pretty decent deal, and to be honest, I've hardly put it down since. I also managed to find AstroBoy. I had been searching for an Astroboy T-Shirt since Korea, and now I was presented with a shop full of them.....but none of them were any good....so I reckon I'll just wait till I go back to Korea to buy one. Singapore is not much of a place to visit though. More of a stopover place. It'd be fine if you had heaps of money and all you wanted to do was buy things. I don't reckon I have ever seen so many shopping malls next to each other. So really, it's quite a boring place...unless you are a rich chick.
So off we went...back to Oz, on Tiger airways. The flight was smooth and me and Chris were looking forward to getting back to Oz so we could earn some money. There was one Asian surprise left in store for us though. Two air stewardesses came around and the first one asked us all what we would prefer to eat for lunch...chicken or fish. '3 fish please' was my response, and everything seemed hunky dorey....until the second stewardess moved closer and said...'that'll be 24 dollars please'. 'WHAT!!?' No thanks..I'd rather starve if you don't mind.
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