15. 27- 4th Oct. Getting up close and personal with nature!

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27/09/07
The alarm went off at 5.30am and I finished packing using the smallest torch known to man. I walked along the beach to meet the others making the first footprints in the sand to find out that the long boat was leaving from my side of the beach. We all walked back and even though watching Chloe struggling with her car size backpack was funny I ended up carrying it for her. It must weigh about 20-25kgs! It was a sad occasion in a way since this was our last beach in Thailand. The sun rose over the cliffs to say good bye though as we were leaving. When we arrived on the mainland there were two old ladies picking small shells so Chloe and I went to investigate. We tried to help but for every 10 shells we picked up they kept about two of them. They thought it was funny though and we made them smile. The mini bus was on time and i spent most of the time on Lee's psp. The bus was crammed so sleeping was not an option. We stopped for an hour to sort out documents for Malaysia and our next bus was a spacious Mercades to all our delight. Needless to say we all slept! At the border crossing we all managed to pull funny faces as they were taking our photos for our visa. I think Matt done his famous smile as its an automatic reaction when ever he sees a camera!ha We reached Penang by 5pm and got dropped off at Banana Guest House where the others all stayed. I went off with my bags to find an ATM and a place with a dorm room. After a very long walk in the scorching heat and an unusual encounter with a very strange lady that ran another guest house with a dorm room that was full, I ended back at Banana Guest House where the last single room had just been taken by a very friendly girl called Hellen from England. I took a double room. Helen joined us for dinner and we had a few drinks. Matt and ·Amy went back early but the rest of us went on to another pub where a serious competition began. It was boys angainst girls playing pool and table football. Boys being boys we thought that we would whip there arses but I dont mind admitting that the night ended up with the girls ahead! They did cheat though! Chloe was blackmailing Lee with sex! Girls can always use that as a weapon and men being weak, it normally works!ha

28/09/07
We had breakfast in a local cafe and headed to the seaside. Some parts of Malaysia reminded me of Suadi Arabia and when I saw a bloke fishing from the walkway it brought back some happy childhood memories as my dad and I used to do the same thing back in Saudi many years ago (that makes me sound really old!ha). We went to Fort Corn Wallis where we learnt some Malaysian history and took the opportunity to take some funny photos as there were plenty of things lying around like fake guns, hats, tents etc. We made our way back to our guest house by 1.30pm as the heat was getting to us all and Chloe was not feeling that well. I had alot to do on the internet so spent the rest of the day just doing that. Helen (who had her first thai boxing fight a few days ago and won!) joined us for dinner again at a Mexican restaurant. After that we went to the bar from the night before and continued the battle between the sexes. Lee and I pulled it back and ended up winning...just!ha It was generally quite again. We went from pub to pub looking for a place with an atmosphere but we failed in our efforts. Helen and I ate some chicken from a stall as the others went back to their rooms. It was still an early night as I was back in bed by 11.30pm. If we ever get round to a proper night out I recon I will be so out of practice that I will be tucked away in bed by midnight!ha

29/09/07
We were all up by 10am and Lee and I went out to try and find banana and porridge for breakfast. We found a place that sold it and it tasted good! We said goodbye to Hellen as she was heading back to Thailand. She was only here for a few days as a visa run. We walked to the big shopping mall with the intention of buying a few bits we all needed. Since both my straps on my new backpack were broken I needed a new one quite badly and I wanted to put some new things on my i pod. I walked back to the guest house only spending money on lunch. The amount of times I have done that back home! For dinner we went to India town where we had an...indian suprisingly. It was fantastic and probobly the best food we had eaten for a while. Later on the boys watched football while the girls were on the internet cafe. We were talking about football with a local guy there for ages. The football finished at midnight and we called it a night.

30/09/07
Our mini bus to take us to the Cameron Highlands was at 7am and my new alarm clock that sounds like a mouse squeeking failed to go off. My body clock woke me up at 6.50. After a manic 10mins i rushed out and there were the others waiting for me. The journey to the Cameron Highlands was really enjoyable. The scenerey along the way was superb. Forrests full of palm trees for as long as the eye can see with only rivers causing the only gaps. Lee was not feeling great and at one point we had to stop the bus (it was only us on it though). Lee grabbed the toilet roll and headed to the trees. Being a caring friend...I grabbed my camera!ha We arrived at Daniels Guest House at 11.30am and that is where we stayed. The place had a really relaxed and friendly atmosphere from the very start so it was an easy decision. Within 10mins I started talking to two girls from Kent. Kathryn and Anna. We all booked an excursion for the afternoon but Lee could not move from his bed. I dont think he wanted to move to far from the toilet either!ha So the six of us got on the mini bus with the guide and our first stop was a flower farm. I know this is going to sound a bit gay but I a really fun time here. It was more for the reason that we took so many funny photos here. Amy and Matt found it useful since they were trying to figure out what flowers to have for their wedding. It was funny since Amy kept reffering it to "her," wedding and Matt kept on reminding Amy that it was "theirs!" Most of the time we were acting like children with toy cameras including Kathryn and Anna and it was awesome! Our next stop was the strawberry farm where most of us had a strawberry shake. Chloe had this mountain of fresh strawberry ice cream and which made evryone elses choices look dull! I did buy some strawberry and rasberry jam though for later. Next was a honey farm where Chloe freaked out and decided enough was enough and went back to the entrance. Matt and I were understanding of her emotions so we took a photo of the two of us running away from a bee as well. We showed her the photo to make her realise that she was not the only one scared. The bee just happened to be a fake, giant smiling bee!ha We walked to the butterfly farm was just down where we had some fantastic suprises waiting for us. They had a huge exotic butterfly farm you could walk around in with them flying around your heads and some of them were the size of my hand. But the real experience was holding all different types of insects and creatures before hand. Some of the insects were huge! Chloe and I were the only ones to hold a snake and after a few seconds of persuading I held some scorpians. I say held but the bloke just threw them on me! The bloke did tell me that he could guarantee me 100% that they would not hurt me. It was a little while afterwards that he told me that he got stung by one not that long ago and couldnt sleep for a night due to the pain...ok then!!ha Our final stop was a temple but by this point it was raining and cold (yes cold!!) so we made it a flying visit. We got back and I think I was having a hot shower within 2 minutes. Lee was still not well and probably missed out on one of the best meals i have had yet on my travels. It was another Indian. The mass portions of food was served on a banana leaf and our waiter was a 8 year old boy. He even took a good group photo of the 6 of us so the service was ace. When we got back Lee was alive and walking around. We all watched a film in called Blood Diamond which was a good ending to a brilliant day. Maybe not that great a day for Lee though!

1/10/07
Lee was still ill so decided to use this day as a rest day while the six of us has a 21km hike through the jungle to look forward to. We were at the cafe having breakfast by 8am where we met up with our 65 year old guide. This man though was living proof that your age does not dictate what you can and can not do. He made all of us feel really unfit!ha I did love every minute of trecking through the jungle and at times was acting like tarzan on speed. I thought it best to stay at the back and keep a safe distance from the others as falling down slopes was looking at one point a 100% guarantee! I didnt mind the idea of falling but taking down the others in a snow ball effect would not have gone down very well! We got to swing on vines, climb up trees, crawl through hollow trees, eat jungle food (which was very tastey!) and so many awesome things. Our guide taught us (i say us but i was always way behind playing around that i never really heard his voice!ha) about the way of the jungle. We got to see leeches, ant nests and even hornet nests. Our ears were always busy listening to the sounds of monkeys and insects in the jungle. At some points the so called path was so overgrown that the guide was chopping away with his huge knife. There was alot of falling over and I think Amy got the wooden spoon for falling over the most. She found out after many new bruises that everytime she talked to someone she fell over. As the day went on she Amy spoke less!ha At one point we came out of the jungle to visit a tribal village and was greeted by the children and even the dogs. Lee should be warned that Chloe wants to keep every child she sees and its only a question of time till there is Lee juniors running around!ha We walked through a tea farm and entered the jungle for a second time. We had lunch sat on a log in the middle of the jungle. After walking up a small stream we finally came to a waterfall. I got changed behind a tree and by the time i had finished Matt, Amy and Chloe were in the water up to their knees looking very cold! I got in and oh my god...my feet were numb within seconds. The other two girls decided to watch in amusment instead. The others threatened to take my name Barrie Cuda away from me if I didnt jump in so I had no choice and leaped in. I was shortly followed by Chloe and within a few minutes the water was so refreshing. I climbed up the waterfall and kept my name.ha We were back at the guest house by 5pm after an action packed day. Lee was feeling alot better so we went to the T cafe for some dinner. After that Amy and Chloe went to the internet cafe while the boys watched Hannable Rising back at the guest house. Being a lads night in I got some blanckets for us all including everyone else in the room who was watching it as well. At the end of the film Lee and I stayed up and watched Rush Hour 3 which was well funny. Another amazing day in the Cameron Highlands!!

2/10/07
We were getting the 10.30am minibus to the Pernisula Islands so we made getting food the first priority. We rushed to the bakery and got some fresh brown loafs of bread. The idea of freshly baked bread smothered in the jam i bought was making me drool!ha We left dead on 10.30am and I was making my sandwiches by 10.31am. For some reason all drivers seem to think they are driving go carts. Lee was feeling quite uncomfortable sitting beside me since I was spreading my jam with my swiss army knife and we were getting thrown about! Two Dutch girls were on the bus with us and I know you cant really catorgorise people from a certain country but the Dutch always seem to be really friendly and easy to talk to. We stopped off at a cafe where we changed bus and it was here where the driver admitted he is normally only a tour guide and that the driver was ill! We were all alive so we found that highly amusing. We got to the ferry port by 4.30pm and we were to get the "fast"ferry. Now normally when they say fast fery its because the ferry goes 2mph faster than the slower one but dear god...this thing was a beast! On the ferry I got talking to another two girls from Holland and all four girls I talked two (including the ones on our bus) all asked if I was from Australia?! This is slightly worrying since when I run out with my surf board for the first time in OZ looking all surferish im not going to last two seconds on the damn thing!ha Might have to but some Union flag shorts (and i hate them) to show why im so rubbish!ha Most of us got off at the smaller island and I ended up staying at a dorm room at a place called Hoshin Challets. There was only one other backpakcer staying there called James from England and six to seven staff sleeping there! I met the others on the beach for a short while and while the others went to have a shower I scouted out the diving schools and spent a while talking to some instrutors finding out times and prices. While i was waiting for the others sat at a beach restaurant I was entertained by young kids throwing fire crackers at each other...not at all dangerous! We had dinner, played some cards and were back in bed by 11pm.

3/10/07
I was to meet Lee and Chloe on the beach by 8.30am but Lee entered the dorm a few minutes earlier as he wanted to see what the dorm was like sharing it with the locals. He just looked around, started laughing and walked out! We were at our dive site, Temple of the Sea by 10.45am. My buddy for the dive was a girl called Leslie from England and we were all really excited. Since it was Lees and Chloes first dive as qualified divers they were also found it strange that there was nobody over their shoulder telling them what to do. It is a wierd feeling though. The dive was amazing and we saw just about everything we could possibly have seen. This even included a giant turtle which was Chloes one thing she wanted to see the most. We also got to see some bamboo sharks, sting rays, moray eels and luckily from a distance I a big old fish caught my eye...it was the King of all Trigger fish. It looked like a trigger fish on steroids! When we got back we met up with Matt and Amy on the beach and played frisbe and American Football. At one point I was throwing the ball to Lee and Chloe took him out a beauty leaving him rolling around in the sea in pain! I was rolling in the sea with laughter! A tackle a 20 stone pro would be proud of. High five Chloe!ha After a hard day we were all sunbathing on the beach when everyone dicided to bury someone in the sand...yep...that would be me then! While i was lying there getting covered I could tell they would get carried away. I could see the excitement in Matts eyes and everyones voices were getting louder with anticapation off getting me stuck in the sand...I that point I was thinking what the hell have I done to you guys!ha They placed two frisbes and a long tube in a certain area and left me there to entertain people walking past. We spent the night playing cards again on the beach enjoying each others company.

4/10/07
I was sat on the beach having porridge and banana by 8.15am as Chloe, Lee and I had our first ship wreck dive in the morning. We were at Sugar Wreck dive site by 10.30am. We had a team briefing before hand about the the dangers etc of wreck diving and as always what marine life we were to expect. We got warned about all the sea urchants but most importantly the blue ringed octopus. An instructor actually saw one the day before and these things are one of the most poisinous things in the world! You should have seen Chloes face when they were telling us about the dangers. Lee and Chloe were to be diving buddies but Chloe asked to be teamed with the other divemaster and Lee with myself. I dont blame her! The sea looked really calm but when we entered the strong current tookus by suprise. The dive was fantastic once again. The wreck was huge and the schools of fish were out of this world. There were thousands of yellow snappers swimming past you which looked like a flickering yellow wall floating past in the current. The divemaster pointed to something under the wreck on the sea bed. Once we got our heads low enough we realised there was a bamboo sharks head about a meter away from yours! They are not dangerous but their teeth are impressive nether the less!ha I would not like to have a fight with one anyway! I pointed out to Lee and Chloe the team work between the small Goby and shrimp on the sea bed as this is fasinating to watch. There were plenty of lion and scorpian fish around but no blue ringed octopus. I really wanted to see one as well. There were big schools of baracuda which was awesome as i now feel like part of their family been called Barrie Cuda all the time!ha We met up with Amy and Matt again on the beach and this huge eagle joined us. I think one of the bars feeds it so its treated like a local on the beach. When I got back to my room the dorm was empty so i took the opportunity to do some exercises while listening to my i pod. I use my backpack as weights and its looks really stupid so i like to be alone when i do it!ha After a while i felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned round, took my ear phones out and one of the workers living there handed my a dumbell and said in a proper English accent, " you might find this easier my friend!". Fairly embarassing!ha They even offered me a smoke but i had to turn that down. I had dinner with the rest at 8pm on the beach to find out that the others have been having a bit of a nightmare with their accomodation. Chloe and Lee thought they had a turantula (the hairy spider just in case i spelt it wrong) in their room. Lee fought it with a broombut was not to sure if he swept it out or not to Chloes delight! Matt and Amy had mice (or rats??) in their room which left poo dropping all over their bed sheets. Amy also had seen two snakes walking back to her room that day! Matt spent an hour stuffing all the holes with whatever he could find. Talking to Matt he obviously enjoyed doing so as he thought of it as a challenge against nature and he thrives on challenges. He was so proud when i spoke to him! He sounded like he had just wrestled a tiger or something!ha Somehow during the night we started to compare each other to ice cream. I think it was Chloes influence. Amy was soft scoop strawberry even though she wanted to be mint choc chicp. Matt was Napolian and i didnt even know there was such an ice cream. Lee was coffee and Chloe was Rasberry ripple. I ended up being banana flavour! The converstaion actually got slightly heated at times since your were examining each others personality. I know that sounds crazy but try it at work or whatever and you will see. Anyway at the end of the night people were tired as the girls could not sleep the night before due to the animal incidents in their rooms and Lee and Matt were tired becuase...well... Chloe and Amy kept waking them up!ha I had been sleeping like a baby so i was feeling great!ha I had to say goodbye to Matt and Amy since the next day Lee, Chloe and I were off to the National Park in Taman Negara and Matt and Amy were going to KL. We all said our goodbyes followed up by a few hugs and went back to our rooms. It was quite sad as I knew my travelling days with Matt and Amy were coming to an end soon but if i was happy about it then it would of been a bad sign! I was looking forwad to the jungle again though with Lee and Chloe. It was bound to bring some more fun times...and maybe some more monkey attacks!

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Photos

The conversation was a bit one sided!
In George Town at Fort Corn Wallis.

Having an Indian feast in the Cameron Highlands.
The two girls are Anna and Kathryn.

At the Malaysian border!
Let us in...we come in peace!!ha

Funny shaped flower things looking like claws.
I thought it was funny anyway!

Mmm..tastey!
Rhino bug or something like that!