Malaysia

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Greetings to you all!

It wasn't that long ago that we last updated you but we're currently in rainy Bali (which we were expecting - it's the end of their rainy season), so thought it would be a good chance to escape the showers and blog...

25.01.09 - 29.01.09

I think we mentioned the nightmare journey to the Malaysian island of Langkawi last time? Well, our arrival was rather stressful too. It had kind of slipped our minds that it was Chinese New Year - the place was heaving! The streets of Pentai Cenang, where we'd decided to stay as it was meant to be quite busy, was very hot, humid and bustling with locals and tourists alike. Feels very different to Thailand, what we noticed first off was the large Indian population and Muslim presence. Alcohol is only served in certain places here due to the muslim influence but it's also a duty free island so we'll probably do a bit of shopping while we're here!
Anyway, it was dark by the time we arrived and try as we might, there was no room at the inns! Trapsing around with a heavy backpack on, trying to find somewhere to stay is not, as you might expect, much fun!
After trying a good 10 places, we found a nice owner of a guesthouse who sympathetically offered to put up an extra bed for us in his dorm as he only had one bed left. We carried on looking for a while but found nowhere and decided to accept his offer - our first dorm! Can't believe we've managed to avoid them so far! It was fine though - a nice place. Headed out for dinner all sweaty and exhausted, and had a nice curry.

The next day, sombody had checked out of their room so we were pleased to be offered it. Had a lazy day exploring the town and the beach which was pretty nice. The water's not very clear but OK for swimming and a welcome respite from the scorching 35 degree heat. We found one of the few places in town that served alcohol that evening (an Irish bar, who'd have guessed?!) with really friendly, enthusiastic staff. In fact, all of the local people we've met so far have been lovely.

Hired a moped for a couple of days and explored the island. First, we headed up to the Langkawi cable car which takes you up to the highest peak and offers amazing views of the lush mountains and sandy bays below. At the top, there is a viewing bridge which is extremely high up! Jase felt rather wobbly and did well to make it across and back without freaking out! Visited the beach at Pentai Kok which is according to the guide book, one of the island's best - we weren't impressed. It was deserted and for good reason - dirty looking - so we moved on to Tanjung Rhu on the north coast instead which was much better so we chilled out there until sunset. Had a lovely seafood dinner that night - BBQ seabass and king prawns, yummy! Finished off the evening with some duty free rum and tunes on our veranda.
The next day, we went out on the bike and discovered a lovely scenic route, taking in some forest lined roads and quiet, windy roads - a bikers paradise! Also, we found a very pretty beach (the nicest we've seen here) on the way back and had a cooling dip before heading back. That evening, we had some home-cooking cravings so I indulged in Spag bol and Jase had Irish stew back at the Irish bar. Very tasty...

30.01.09 - 02.02.09

Took the ferry over to Penang island and stayed in Georgetown. Not overly impressed with the place - quite dingy and run down but found a nice enough place on what seems to be one of the busiest streets. Found some cheap and tasty stall food for our dinner - chicken satay and pork noodle soup.
The heat is blistering here! The next morning we took a bus to Penang Hill Railway which is a funicular. Although we had to wait 3 hours to get on the thing, and depsite it being slow as hell, the views at the top made it worthwhile.
We found a huge foodcourt that evening, with mainly Chinese stalls serving food around a seating area. They had some very cheesy entertainment - 2 women singing pop tunes and a bloke miming playing a keyboard in the background!
Whilst we were here, we also went to Penang's tiny national park but stupidly came rather unprepared - we had flip flops on and very little water. We chose quite a short walk but had to turn back when the paths became steep and hard going. We had a few encounters with the local wildlife though; Jase nearly got attacked by a monkey! We about to cross a bridge when a coconut husk landed in front of us. A nasty looking monkey appeared snarling at Jase. We backed off, it jumped out of the tree and returned with the coconut. We felt like the billy goats gruff! We also saw a huge lizard type thing on the beach - must have been a meter long. We stopped off on the way back at the beach resort of Battu Ferringhi which seemed quite deserted and wasn't particularly nice so we were pleased we hadn't stayed there.

03.02.09 - 05.02.09

We took a minivan south to the town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. It's so much colder up here in the mountains! The jeans and jackets were out again. There's a definite English colonial feel here (in some of the architecture, and the weather). There are places serving scones with local strawberry jam and tea - not at all what we expected from Malaysia. We went for a walk for a couple of hours and got our bearings.
We took an half day tour while we were here which started by visiting the highest point in the highlands, but it was so misty and grey, we couldn't see the anticipated good views. Lower down however, the mist had cleared and we got to see great views of the tea plantations lining the contours of the mountains for miles into the distance. Very pretty. We did a short walk through some mossy forests, visited a tea factory, a strawberry farm and a butterfly / insect farm where our guide was taunting us with creepy crawlies, insisting on getting beetles, stick insects, scorpions and all sorts of things out of their cages! Thankfully, he didn't like tarantulas...
We got to know a nice group of travellers in a local bar and spent a couple of evenings with them. Much of the rest of our time was spent relaxing as the weather was pretty grim - grey and raining quite heavily on and off which was a shame as we were hoping on doing some more trekking. This place made us realise how much we missed the warm and dry lowlands so we headed off to Kuala Lumpur.

06.02.09 -

Still raining, we caught the bus to KL. The bus driver was a pain in the backside though. He kept stopping for unnecessarily long breaks, namely so he could stuff his face! And then at the end of the journey, he dropped us off at the side of the road, demanding everyone got off. Idiot! Luckily we weren't far from the nearest LRT (subway) station and manged to find our hotel easily. We'd decided, after staying in budget accommodation for the last three and a half months, to treat ourselves to a 'proper' hotel (with a pool!). It was so nice to have a bit of luxury. It only worked out at about 30 quid per night but that's a lot to us these days. But it was worth it...
We got up early to get tickets to go up the Petronas Twin Towers. They give out free passes on a first come, first serve basis. We managed to get some for 1.15 that afternoon so killed some time by exploring the huge shopping mall and surrounding park. We then took a wander over to the KL tower, the highest building in KL (because it's on a hill) and took an ear-popping lift to the top. The 360 views of the city were great. Headed back to Petronas and went up to the skybridge - the views weren't quite as good but still, worth it. Enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool that afternoon and headed into China town for the evening. It was really busy and extremely humid but we found a Beatles bar down a side street that we'd heard about from a friend so had a couple of drinks in there. Apart from the continuous Beatles tunes, there was no other reference to them - just a boudoir style bar with low lights - nice enough though.
The next day we visited the Lake Gardens and planetarium - both of which were OK but not very impressive. It was so hot today, not condusive to sightseeing really. The best thing about the planetarium was it's air-con! We used the LTR a quite a bit to get around and feel like we've seen a lot of the city.

We booked a cheap flight from KL to Bali - felt very strange thinking of having to travel anywhere by plane after overlanding it from Hanoi to here for such a long time. After a long, but not so painful wait at the airport, we embarked upon the 3-hour flight and arrived in Indonesia - country number 7...

Well, that's about all for now. Hope you're all OK and the snow's not too bad where you are!
We'll write again soon

Louise and Jase xx

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