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Published: August 29th 2013
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Tuesday 27th
Got up early as we had a bus to catch and at breakfast saw our first cockroach. A really BIG one and left the landlady to chase it round the dining room with an industrial sized spray can.
Our bus ride to KL was pretty smooth and around 2 hours. We've been there before and it's grid lock city. Too much traffic, too much pollution and far too many people. I hate it.
We find our next accommodation. It's an HOTEL! in China Town. A late booking and a steal at £16 for room, en -suite and breakfast. And there's hot water !
We pop round the corner and book our onward travel for later in the week (the only reason we're here) and take a short walk to the Botanic Gardens, well it would have been short if Christine hadn't kept turning the map as we went. We ended up doing a huge circle. ( I'm taking charge of the map next time).
The gardens are well laid out and well kept but not as pretty as the ones in Singapore.
We're right in the centre of China Town and right outside
are hundreds of stalls and thousands of people bartering away for fake watches and handbags. We resist the shopping temptation. We couldn't carry anything more anyway.
An early night ready for tomorrow.
Wednesday 28th
Today we have booked to go up the Petronas Towers. We go on the metro and again find that people are giving up their seats to us. It finally dawns on us, we don't look as young as we feel!
We gather at the lift and at 7m per second we are quickly shot up to level 41, the sky bridge. You wouldn't know you were moving. At the 'bridge we are met be our guide Wan, Gok's twin brother in every way! He fills us with facts and figures quickly forgotten as we take in the amazing view. We are already higher than most of the other buildings and not half way up yet.
It's then back in the lift and up to level 86! there are only 2 levels above us. The view is incredible and you could see for miles, if it weren't for the mist! It's still a wonderful view.
We see window cleaners above us
on the other Tower, leaning out emptying their buckets !
We then have a lunchtime picnic in the park alongside the building and Christine starts to video, I feel a Spielberg moment coming.
Lazing around for the afternoon and trying to catch up on some sleep.
We eat in another Chinese food court which has a very strict eating policy (see photo). not our greatest meal.
Then it's back to the hotel to finish packing as we're off early in the morning. We're going to Taman Negra, it's part of the Malaysian rain forest. I have done a lot of research on the area and have been looking forward to going. However we have looked for accommodation on Trip Advisor and most people have reported bed bugs nearly everywhere. Looking forward to going slightly less now.
Thursday 29th
Up early and nip round to the hotel along the road for our coach. It's a three hour coach ride and then a two and a half hour boat transfer.
Our bus mates are a motley lot. One girl looks very sullen, she's french, another chap looks like he's lost his comb and has hair
sticking out all over. Then there's a 6' 6" German across the aisle.
All goes smoothly and Christine kindles along while I MP3 it whilst watching the big German keep rearranging his legs. He just won't fit in the seat !
The scenery is magnificent. There are trees for as far as you can see. Huge palm tree and rubber tree plantations. Hardly a building in sight.
We have a 3 hour wait for the boat and then it speeds off up the river. It's not the cruise they promised. We sit on the bottom of the boat separated from the hull by a 2" bit of foam. After 20 mins I'm going numb where I shouldn't. The books describe the trip as enchanting. I describe it as agony ! I hate to think what the German's doing. It's going to be a long trip!
We arrive at the pontoon and all disembark only to find that we must lug our bags up a steep muddy cliff. Fortunately two Algerians feel sorry for us and carry them.
Fearing the worst I look around for accommodation. I pass up the offer of timber chalets overlooking the
river. They may have a nice location but they're none too clean. We settle on the Rainbow Guest House, a bit expensive at 90 (£18) ringgits a night and I haggle and get a reduction to 80R (16) but we have to find our own breakfast!
So we are now deep deep in the Malaysian rain forest. It's supposed to be older than the Amazon.
We've just had dinner on a floating restaurant and the noise of the forest is terrific as I sit here. We've just had a huge bug settle next to us.
Tomorrow we start our jungle trek.
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Pat Howell
non-member comment
Interesting
Your blogs make very interesting reading - keep it up!! Hope you don't get bitten by the bed bugs - could be very nasty!! Happy days!