Malaysia (West)

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Well, after leaving Cambodia myself and Mojca first tipped down in Malaysia for a few days before heading to Singapore for the Grand Prix. Both our initial thoughts on the place were about how clean and organised everything seemed to be. And trust me, when you land in from Cambodia this comes as a bit of a shock! But along with organisation and cleanliness comes expense. And it was clear from the very off that this was going to be the most expensive country of Asia to date. That said of course, you could still buy anything at a fraction of the cost you could at home. Outside that, people straight away came across as being very friendly. Our first night was spent in Kuala Lumpar and like Singapore which followed a few days later, we based ourselves in the Chinatown/ Little India area of the city as this was where the budget accommodation seemed to be. We were no sooner off the bus and looking at the map to try and get our bearings when a young guy stopped to offer assistance. Not only that but he took 15 minutes out to walk with us to make sure we found our way properly. And he brought us through the market stalls of Little India and told us what and what not to look out for. He said that he had travelled Europe 2 years previous and was amazed at how friendly people there were. He was just repaying the courtesy! I hate to say it but I don't think anybody in Europe would so freely and willingly offer and give up their time to help a complete stranger. I just don't think it’s done anymore in our part of the world.

KL itself is a pretty straight forward city and all that needs to be seen seems to be pretty central and all within walking distance of each other. Within the first evening we had seen many of the attractions including the landmark PETRONAS Towers which were, up until a few years ago, the tallest buildings on the planet. And trust me; the only way to see these properly is by night. Me being into all things architecture, I was mesmerized by them and as the light of day faded and night crept in, the buildings transformed themselves into this amazing column of light towering into the skies of Kuala Lumpar. We must have stayed there for well over an hour watching the towers light and come to dominate the night sky, paling all neighbouring buildings into insignificance. Of course I had my camera and tripod with me so for me at least time seemed to fly past. Mojca was patient with me. Little did I realise that she would soon have her own back on me as she transformed into shopping mode for her few days in Singapore. While waiting for the sun to set we met up with a few Germans and spent the rest of the evening in their company. Worst mistake of my trip to date! One of them turned out to be one of the most obnoxious people I have ever laid my eyes on and it took all my effort not to........ well, lets just say that we did not see eye to eye with each other! One of those people, that I am sure all travellers meet at some stage along the line, that you wish you had never laid eyes on in the first place. But as I said, all travellers meet someone like this at some stage, it seems my time was to be in Kuala Lumpar.

After KL we made our way to Melaka, half way towards Singapore. We over-nighted there for two nights and had a ball. Maybe we should have known better at this stage but we rented two bicycles for the day. And off we set on our own tour of the town. The heat was intense and any physical effort had me sweating like a pig so I was happy to break at any excuse. And when I wasn't sweating because of the heat, I was sweating at Mojca's cycling. Malaysians drive on the left, like Ireland and it took poor Mojca a little while to comprehend the importance of this piece of information. But then again all this went out the window when we were told that cyclists did not have to obey the one way rules around the city. Oh my God but if we were not killed! Lunch time approached and so we stopped off for some food before the "Monster Bad Mood" showed its ugly face! Strangely enough and through no planning of our own we ended up in no other than Melaka's own Chinatown for lunch. So we parked the bikes and went looking through the stalls for something nice to eat. An elderly man cornered us on our way passed and told us to move our bikes nearer to him as the place was not the safest in the world and he would keep an eye on them for us. We did as we were told and thanked him. Half an hour later as we were leaving he cornered us again and insisted on us having a drink with him before we left. We really didn't want to as we were not in Melaka for long but then again we did not want to be rude so we accepted his offer. And what a decision that turned out to be. Countless hours later with nobody left in the place but ourselves we were still drinking beer by the barrel. And not a penny (or ringgit as it is in Malaysia) had passed from our pockets. He absolutely refused to let us buy a beer saying that we were backpackers on a budget and couldn't afford to be drinking like this. Even when I went behind his back and brought a round he marched to the counter and paid demanding I take my money back. As it turns out he too was a retired school teacher and if you have been reading my blogs you know by now that I seem to be having quite an alcohol fuelled relationship with them since I started travelling. And all at their expense it seems.

As the day progressed he thought that we may be hungry so he ordered copious amounts of chicken and duck for the table and insisted that we ate ever last bit....even though both of us were still full from lunch. After a while we got a taste of why he had initially insisted that he mind our bikes. As we sat drinking beer we had our bags under the table and close by our legs for security. As we sat there drinking beer and enjoying the conversation without a trouble in the world someone had set their dog on a mission to snatch our bags. Neither of us saw him until he (the dog that is) had already snuck under our table and grabbed Mojca's bag and was making a very quite and calculated exit. Then the corner of Mojca's eye spotted him. A yelp was left out at the dog and before we could do anything else the dog had dropped the bag and made a quick dash for safety. We were both in shock but it seemed to pass as a normal event for the locals that were about. Later, as the evening drew in, some of his friends joined and soon we were the most unlikely bunch of drinking buddies you are ever likely to come across (see photo - Mojca there but taking the photo by the way). But what turned out to be a quick stop for lunch turned out to be one of those 'never forget' afternoon drinking sessions with some of the nicest people we met on our trip. Mind you for a day or two after I thought it would be one of those 'never remember' drinking sessions!!! And as evening became night and we said our goodbyes, all that was left for us to do was to........ cycle home! To the other end of town! And whatever about cycling in the remote dirt roads of Laos with a fist full of beer in the belly, cycling the streets of a busy Malaysian town with beer goggles is an entirely different matter. Especially when your drinking buddy is still having problems deciding which side of the road to cycle on! And yes, it goes without saying that we had differences of opinions as to when the bikes should be given back yet again. Fortunately this time the bike did not have a basket to strengthen Mojca's argument. It was however pink! And that my friends it seems, makes a bike worth keeping until the bitter end!

From Melaka we hit Singapore and the Grand Prix (see separate blog), after which we came back to Johor Bahru on the Malaysian side of the border with Singapore. After over-nighting in the very forgettable Johor we headed for the bus station the morning after and tried to get to the east coast and catch a ferry out to one of the off-shore islands, Pulau Tioman (see separate blog - to follow). After the guts of a week on a fantastic paradise island we were back on the mainland again and on route to our next stop! But with everybody now on their way back from their Hari Raya break the next bus with an available seat on it was in TWO DAYS time! We were left speechless! We were in a town called Mersing, and while the town itself was nice, it was also small and quite and with Mojca's time in Asia drawing to a close there was no way we were going to stay in Mersing for two more days when we could see what we wanted to in an afternoon. Our preferred destinations were either Taman Negara National Park or The Cameron Highlands but in reality anywhere would have done. After a lot of negotiating with the various bus companies we managed to get two seats on a bus to....Johor Bahru...probably the only place in Malaysia that we didn't want to go. But we were promised that we were booked on another overnight bus later that would take us out of Johor and bring us up along the west coast of Malaysia and by the morning we would be on the island of Penang and in Georgetown, Malaysia's second largest city. Turns out promises don't mean much to salesmen and when we eventually got to Johor at about 8pm there were no seats kept for us on any bus! Tiredness was creeping in at this stage and tempers were beginning to rise as everything we were trying was been met by a brick wall. Eventually, after another search around the various bus companies working out of Johor, we found the only two remaining seats on a bus, and as it happens it was going to Penang. But as our luck was against us all that day, the bus was delayed. Four hours later and there was still no sign of it! Sometime before 1am a bus finally turned up and we were off! And after the day we had had, it wasn't long until we were off.... to sleep! I never thought I could get such a comfortable sleep on the seat of a bus! Thankfully Malaysians do not tend to put one extra person on a bus than it can hold so we all had our own seats for the journey!

We landed in Penang early the morning after. This was going to be the final port of call for myself and Mojca as she had to return to Bangkok in a few days time for her return journey back home. First things first and it was time for our daily ripping off. This time it was from the taxi drivers who blatantly overcharged us for the 5 minute ride to our accommodation. Even though we knew they were charging us twice as much as we should be paying there was simply nothing that we could do because they were all in it together and no matter who we tried there was no bargaining...pay way over the odds or walk! In fact the one thing that I will say about my time in Malaysia is that there is NO Bargaining to be done with taxi drivers. It’s like they are all colluding together and once they get a hint that you are a "western" tourist the prices sky-rocket and there is NO coming down. Over my time there, there was many an occasion when a driver chose to lose a fair rather that let us pay the normal price.

Georgetown was our base on Penang and I discovered a lovely little bar called "The Hong Kong Bar". Not since I left in June had I found someplace that reminded me so much of a pub back home. Everything about it was just right. You could sit at the bar and have a chat with the owner (ok, she was Chinese so that took from the Irishness of it a bit) but all the same it had the warm, friendly atmosphere that you think of when you think of the "traditional" Irish bar. And they even had Guinness!! Bottled it has to be said... but bottled Guinness is better than NO Guinness!! After getting our fill of Georgetown we hired a motorbike and went off for two days around the island. After coming from the paradise island of Tioman, we were bitterly disappointed with Penang. One local said that if we were there 15 years ago we may have liked it but now even the locals don’t swim in the sea...too polluted! They all have swimming pools within their high rise apartments. And just like cycling in Melaka two weeks earlier driving in Malaysia’s second largest city along busy dual carriageways was a big shock for me compared to the care free driving along the dirt roads of southern Laos! But we managed and soon we were in the quieter (and far prettier) west side of the island. After the end of day one we had found ourselves after completing three quarters of the circuit around the island even though we had gone at a very leisurely pace. So we stopped up for the night at the main beach resort on the island, Batu Ferringi. The beach here was a lot cleaner than we had seen elsewhere o the island and there was the distinct feeling than we were amongst people who came there specifically for a beach holiday. And we couldn't but feel sorry for each and every one of them because with the smallest amount of research on the internet they could have found such nicer places in Malaysia to holiday. As I said, even the locals don't tend to go there. For the beach, they take a ferry north to the nearby island of Langkawi. But all that being said, the place was nice and had a great night market with plenty to be bought there. Mojca was in heaven again! And even better, bargaining was welcomed! The following morning we took the short spin back to the corner of the island where there was a small national park. Though we didn't get too far into the park it has to be said! Within an hour we had reached a secluded beach and stopped for a rest and some breakfast. And like so many of our stops along the journey from Cambodia, a short break became a long stop and by the time we had eaten lunch, had a swim and then a nap the afternoon had crept in and it was time for us to gather our things and make our way back to Georgetown for our final evening together. And yes ladies and gentlemen, we even managed a disagreement as to when to give the bike back. To be honest I just wanted rid of it because I didn't overly enjoy driving the busy city streets and an evening hadn't passed when I hadn't a beer or two and I knew I would not be driving if I were to have a one that night. But yes, even though it hadn't a nice basket and thankfully it wasn't pink, I still lost the argument and the bike was kept for the night! And no, it didn't move an inch for the evening....but we were safe in the knowledge that it was ours!

That night we (had a beer of course) and went for a final wander around the streets. It must have been well after 10pm when we turned a corner and were faced with the strangest of strange parades heading for us. We were in the heart of Chinatown and this was certainly a Chinese festival. There were dragons and mystical creatures abound. There were teenagers with huge swords being balanced on their tongues. Further up there was a group of people lighting cinders of wood and spreading them on the road while a group of people in a trance like state followed close behind and walked straight through them, bare footed! There were trailers carrying groups of people and decorated with an abundance of decorations and lights and for me the funniest was the forklift following each trailer carrying a huge generator to power the lights and sound system on each trailer. It kind of brought the mystical display back to reality a bit. It was amazing and what was even more fascinating was how all the individual communities seem to respect each others traditions. Ramadam and Hari Raya had only being a few weeks previously where Muslims practiced their beliefs undisturbed and this night the Chinese parade passed through the Indian quarter where people either stopped whatever they were doing and came out to look on or they simple ignored the goings on. Either way everything seemed to be done with total respect and tolerance for each others customs and beliefs. Maybe I am wrong in saying that but to the neutral onlooker at least that is how it seemed. Something Ireland has not been known for throughout the years!

The following morning and it was time for Mojca and I to say our goodbyes. But before we headed for the ferry back to the mainland we had to get our monies worth from the scooter and so we brought it for one last cruise around the streets of Georgetown. Then it was across on the ferry to Butterworth train station where reluctant goodbye was said. We had at this stage travelled three countries together and were sad to be saying farewell. So to ease the tensions... a beer was had! Soon the train conductor blew his whistle and the train was off. As it eased itself out of the station and the conductor noticed Mojca looking out at me he couldn't help but to give me a friendly giving out to and asking why I wasn't on the train to Bangkok as well! "Australia is the other way" is all I could say!

My next move was to hit for Singapore and catch my flight to Australia a few days later but I had already decided that I had not seen enough of Asia and wanted to prolong my stay for a while longer. And so I headed back to Georgetown and spent the rest of the day doing my home work before calling Qantas and putting my flight to Darwin off...... for two months! Then the bags were packed and early the morning after I set off for the mainland. Having seen my share of cities since landing in Cambodia I had a yearning for some countryside and a walk that didn't involve a shop so I went to the bus station and got on the first bus that brought me to The Cameron Highlands, my next and final stop on peninsular Malaysia (See Separate Blog - to follow).

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Photos

Georgetown
If you can see in the distance. That bridge over to the mainland is 13.5km long!

(George)Town on Stilts!
And believe it or not but this is a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Waterfall
Away from the hustle and bustle of Georgetown

Carnival Time
The (Chinese) 9 Emperor Kings Festival (Georgetown)

South Penang Island
A quite fishing village

Melaka
the most unlikely drinking buddies you are liable to meet

Shopping
Singapore, Kulala Lumpar, Penang...they were all the same! If we saw another Little India...I swear!!!!!

Johor Bahru Bus Station
Waiting is a game of patience

Johor Bahru Bus Station
This kid had the right idea!