Monsoons, malls & bugger all else!

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10th December - 21st December 2007

Malaysia (Mersing - Melaka - Kuala Lumpur - Penang - Langkawi)

The reason for visiting Mersing is to visit Tioman Island, once voted in the top ten islands of the world by Times Magazine - the bit of information we had read before boarding the bus from Singapore!. However, the bit of information we hadn't read was that it is monsoon season on the east coast this time of year! Oh well, we just figured if the rain was too bad we would stay just one night and then go to the west coast. A few minutes before we arrived I foolishly said to Claire that we might be lucky with the weather as it was quite sunny. We were the only ones getting off the bus (not a great sign) and before we had time to find some accommodation the heavens opened. It's the kind of rain where you get drenched just crossing the road so we found cover and waited. And waited. With no sign of the rain ceasing and being so close to KFC what else could we do? Interestingly they serve mashed potato or rice instead of fries - not sure that was part of the colonel's recipe!?

Mersing was like a seaside resort out of season - in fact that's exactly what it was! The ferry services were no longer running and we felt quite conspicuous, being the only white people in town. I don't mean we felt threatened, we just felt a little silly as people were probably wondering what the hell we were doing there! Not wanting to waste the whole day we went to the post office to send a few items home and booked our bus for 7am the following morning.

The rain had continued most of the night and when we arrived at the bus station we were advised the route was flooded and the bus was going nowhere. We were also told that it was likely to continue for another four days and we may be stranded, but we could try the government bus stand (we were at the private bus stand). Logically the bus stations were located at complete opposite ends of the town and when we arrived at the government bus stand and asked if the route was closed they had no idea what we were on about. I think we had been told a load of bull but not sure why. Anyway, we got a bus to Melaka on the west coast.

Melaka is a strange place. On arrival you are greeted by a huge Tescos and Courts. There are lots of shopping malls and currently a 'MegaMall' is under construction - like Singapore they just can't get enough of them! The little there is to see is concentrated in one area. It consists of an old Dutch fort and church on a hill, with just a few remains still standing, and lots of relatively new museums and sites of interest circling it. The museums are of varying interest but mainly of little and everything seems forced and unnatural. The one museum worthy of a mention was the 'Enduring Beauty' collection which had pictures of people lengthening their necks, binding their feet, putting plates in their mouth, scarring themselves and their babies - quite gruesome!

Next stop was Kuala Lumpur, or KL as the locals call it. A bustling and often congested city that has experienced a lot of recent growth highlighted by a skyline full of massive offices and buildings not least the KL Tower and Petronas Towers. We visited the KL Tower first where you can take a lift to the observation deck. The view doesn't change much, just lots of skyscrapers but the view of the Petronas Towers is quite exceptional from here. There was also quite an informative free audio tour.

We got up early the next day to get in the queue to obtain some free tickets for the Petronas Towers Tour (only 1200 available each day). We arrived at 8am, the ticket centre opened at 8:30am but there were already a couple of hundred in front of us. We were allocated a tour for 9:30am so we waited there. You are shown a short 30min film telling us how great Petronas are (they are predominantly an oil company) before being escorted into the lift for the 41 second climb to the 41st floor which the tour guide has expertly perfected her 41 second speech to. There is a bridge linking the two towers at this level, it is the highest you are allowed to go and are only given 10 minutes here. The tour was worth doing but the towers are much more impressive from outside and especially so at night when it is lit up accompanied by a cool fountain display at the base of the towers. We didn't do a great deal else in KL other than get lost quite frequently - not sure who is to blame for that - Rough Guides inadequate maps, Malaysia's habit of changing street names or just our lack of direction.

We were up at 6am the next day to try and catch one of the frequent buses to Penang. Most were already full but we found one service at 9am that had seats left. The journey was quicker than expected but then Malaysia does have a very good motorway along the west coast and with little traffic on it although still lots of roadworks! Over here they use a mannequin dressed in aluminous saftey gear with its arm going up and down and with a flag in its hand to warn motorists of the oncoming hazard - quite weird!

Apparently Penang is one of the few places in Malaysia you may struggle to get accommodation and should book ahead - we read in the RoughGuide while on the bus. It was about then we decided we need to get more organised ad stop winging it - at least until the new year when hopefully places will get less busy. The first thing we did in Penang, after, as it happened, finding a room relatively easy (although not a great room) was get on the internet and book accommodation for Christmas.

Thailand is very popular during Christmas and in particular New Year and the festive period was playing havoc with our plans. Everywhere we wanted to be appeared full unless we wanted to pay for five star luxury - we didn't! After some time we booked three nights in a 'bungalow' by the beach near a place called Krabi (Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and Boxing Day). That sorted we also booked three nights in Langkawi, an island north of Penang, as that was getting busy too! After only one day in Penang and most of that spent on the internet, we realised there is nothing of interest whatsoever here. We carried our camera for three days and the only photo we took was of a Tesco free shuttle bus. We even got a bus to the beach, as we were staying in the town, but after one brief look at it we got a bus straight back we were that impressed! If we could have left earlier we would but ferry and accommodation was already booked. Not only is Penang the most characterless place we have visited it is also treacherous to walk on the pavement (even if a pavements exists as often there are none). The pavements are full of holes with open drains (and with Claire's history) and motorbikes! Most motorbikes simply use it as a place to park but many also use the pavement as a quick route up a one way street the wrong way and they will honk and get annoyed if you don't move. Our happiest day for some time was leaving Penang by ferry and we took more photos of Penang leaving than while we were there!

Langkawi has been what we had hoped other parts of Malaysia were - an island with lovely beaches. cheap beer (duty free island) and not so many shopping malls. The first two days we lazed on the beach as it had been over two weeks since we last felt sand between our toes. Our final day we hired a car (for about 8 pounds) and explored more of the island. We first went to Seven Falls Waterfall and climbed the 600 plus steps (why do all tourist attractions involve steps or climbing?), had a little paddle and against expectation, Claire didn't fall in! Afterwards we visited a Crocodile Farm, not sure of its purpose as there was very little information provided, but it had a lot of crocs and they were cool! Most of the time they don't do much however, except bask in the sun or cool off in the water with their jaws open. Feeding time was a different matter, where you got a sense of their power and strength as they splashed around waiting for the keeper to throw some fish. The keeper, who was in the enclosure full of at least 30 crocs (probably a lot more but many were submerged out of sight), was heavily armed with a long flimsy stick! When the crocs got too close, which one HUGE croc did he just gave it a whack on the head and that seemed to do the trick. The only problem was each time he hit a croc his stick seemed to break and get smaller!

Next we drove to the Cable Car which was a spectacular ride up the side of an extremely steep mountain. The observation platform at the top was 710m above sea level and offered excellent views of the coastline and small islands. It also had a curved suspension bridge linking one peak with another which was a little scary when the wind got up! Finally we drove to a beach on the far side of the island which was supposed to be the most idyllic. When we got there a man in a hut said we couldn't go any further as it was a private beach (owned by Four Seasons Hotel). We asked him where the private beach started but he didn't seem to know so we walked back a little and then I went for a swim. There was practically no one else on the beach so not sure what harm we would have done - also I think that is his sole responsibility so you would think he should know where the perimeters are!? Anyway, during my swim I got stung by a small jellyfish and to be honest the beach wasn't all that so we left!

In the evening to make full use of our car we drove to the cinema and watched 'I Am Legend' which I really enjoyed but Claire not so much. The film was in English with Malaysian subtitles. As most of the audience were Malaysian and therefore using the subtitles they didn't seem to mind that the volume was too quiet to hear anything. Claire had to go ask the cinema to turn the volume up, as we really could not understand a word, which they did - surely a first in cinema history!?

To conclude on Malaysia I think our statement of it being shopping malls and little else is quite true of the places we visited on the West coast (exception being Langkawi) but I'm sure the East coast (not during the monsoon season obviously) and the Malaysian part of Borneo where the Orangutan sanctuary is would be amazing and quite different to our experience. Just wanted that cleared up before leaving - off to Thailand now!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas - see you in 2008!

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Comments

[Queenie]

Finally............
Well I have finally managed to get onto your blog again, at long last. Mind you never realised how much I'm needed as Andreas and Pia can't seem to leave me in peace - maybe it's because I normally drop everything whenever they 'ask' me to jump - Well this time I wasn't moving - Your blog is so interesting am so impressed and realise now how much I have been missing. Keep it up you guys, still much better than the National Geographic and History channels. Sorry gotta go, the family are wearing my name out - I'm off to hide a cupboard somewhere. Miss you heaps. Luv Qx