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Published: January 31st 2008
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We landed in Kuala Lumpur and my friend from college, Kim, met us at the train station. She has been working at various spots around the world since we graduated; initially she was in KL and is presently in Jakarta. I hadn’t seen her in two and a half years, so we both did a double take and had a spectacle of a reunion in the train station. She got us two free nights at the J.W. Marriott in downtown KL, and it was amazing having a western sized functioning bathroom again. When you are backpacking it is these small things that count.
She took us out the first night for some fantastic Malay food on Jalan Alor, which is street vendor central. We had some fantastic eats, including spiced crab and stingray (a first for Darren and I). We lived it up in KL for a few days, enjoying the luxury of the J.W. and getting a feel for what it would be like to live in KL. Roze and Vic, Kim’s friends from her time in KL, and Kim were fantastic hosts and showed us a great time in the city. Hanging out with three close girlfriends who
Petronas Towers
This was the view from our hotel in KL. Not exactly the normal backpacker digs... hadn’t seen each other in a while was enough estrogen for the entire trip. I heard more talk about boyfriends than I will the whole trip and had more Mochatinis (two) than had in my whole life. They loved this and nicknamed me “Tina Buttercup” for the week. Now, given Vic’s Scottish accent, imagine William Wallace saying that, and you will understand why I got a kick out of being called Booterrrcup all week.
My friend Laura once told me, and I have truly believed this ever since, that you really can really appreciate and know your best friends when you meet their friends, and you get along with them immediately. The axiom played true with Vic and Roze. On the last night Darren and I went to dinner with Roze (Vic was off rescuing a stray cat), when a cover band came out and started playing bad 80s music. Now, I know all 80s music is kind of bad, which is what makes it great (think “Power of Love”). But this was bad music; it was David Hasselhoff singing bad (not acting, cause we all know Night Rider rocked. Okay, sorry to any Germans that may read this,
Kuala Tahan
View from the NP to the village of Kuala Tahan. but Hasselhoff is not good music.) Anyway, Roze ran off and started rocking out on the dance floor with this one lanky goofball that was dancing by himself in what can only be described as spastic motions. All the video cameras in the restaurant zoomed in on them and they were the center of attention for about a song and a half. Roze came back and said she had to stop dancing because the guy smelt sooo bad she couldn’t handle it. So, I took note to shower before going to dance later on in the trip...
We decided to go to Taman Negara National Park on our fourth day in Malaysia. It is in the middle of the country without a direct route to it. You have to take a bus to Jerantut, then a mini-bus to a jetty 16 km north of town to Kuala Tembling, then you have a boat ride 69 km up river to a town (just a few restaurants, hotels, and tour companies) called Kuala Tahan. However, given its rise in popularity with backpackers over the last few years, it is remarkably easy to get to and several companies will herd you the
full way. While I generally disagree with this statement, at certain times when embarking on what could potentially be a difficult trip, it is sometimes nice to feel like cattle.
The boat ride was an experience. The boat is a long, probably 20 feet, boat that is about 4 feet wide. You sit two across and we loaded 15 people in with their accompanying luggage and tooled up the river. Five minutes in we saw a huge anaconda swim across our path. I knew the trip wouldn’t disappoint. The park claims, and may be, the oldest uncut rainforest in the world. If you don’t stay at the Park’s resort, you stay across the river in Kuala Tahan and locals take you to and from the Park via their boat whenever you want. The scene is absolutely gorgeous. We only had one full day there, which was not nearly enough time (something we are going to be saying a lot). In the morning we did a hike along walking bridges that were suspended within the jungle’s canopy. The bridges were made of aluminum ladders with wooden boards lying on top, and ropes with nets holding them to the iron cables
Trees
Did you know there are a lot of trees in the jungle? that hung from the trees. It was an amazing contraption and remarkably sturdy (kind of). They claimed it to be the longest suspended-canopy-bridge in the world, but I’m not going to take the time to Google that one.
We then went on a jungle hike to the top of a hill in the middle of the forest. If you have never been to a rain forest, it is an abundance of foliage with beautiful trees with extensive root systems, enormous vines, and amazing ground cover. It is just as easy to walk for a kilometer without noticing anything different from the previous location as it is to stand still in any random spot and notice dozens of things you have never seen before: trees with growth marks from vines, unique fungi species, streams of ants following one another, termite hills and unique plant species. There is a constant drone of chirps, kaws, buzzes, creaks, and other various calls from insects, birds and mammals. Sometimes it is simply deafening, but as it is nonstop, you begin to forget it. It is hard to get a good photograph of the jungle and just as hard to describe, but hopefully it helps.
Heck, watch Discovery’s Planet Earth and you’ll get a better idea!
Later that day we went for a ride up river through the rapids in the thin wooden boats. It was hilarious, everyone in the boat all had a great time getting soaked and splashing those behind them, but in the back was a guy bucketing out water because of the leaks in the boat! A little later we went swimming. I asked the locals if there were snakes and leeches in the water. Of course there are, but their response was, “Don’t worry, be happy!” And you know what, I was.
The food so far has been fantastic. It has been great to get out of the cities and to start running through the countryside. You can notice a difference in the air and definitely in the prices. Anyway, Darren and I were going to go up to Pualu Langkawi in northern Malaysia, but we have decided to take the train all the way to Southern Thailand due to time constraints. Langkawi is supposed to be gorgeous, and, due to it being a duty free zone, it is fairly inexpensive. However, both Darren and I are looking
to get to one spot, minimize the traveling, and set our packs down for a bit. So, we are jumping on a train in a few hours for the overnight to Hat Yai, then a bus to Krabi or Surat Thani. You’ll hear from us in a few!
PS - I have had a few questions about what I was about to kiss in the last blog… it was a butchered goat’s head. Pretty, huh?
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Beer
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Krabi Krabi Krabi. Go to Krabi. More specifically, go to Ao Nang and stay at the Laughing Gecko.