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Published: September 2nd 2006
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My trusty travel companion & I arrived exhausted & absolutely clueless about what to do, back in the Penang Malaysia airport. We never really came across enough time to bother to think one day ahead & so incidentally planning had gone right out the window. The only thought dancing pevishly through my head was: sleep. So there we stood: our packs strapped on & the door before us with one day to pass before we would get on our night bus. I don't think that I really need to go into any details, but it will suffice to say that the next 1/2 hour was the roughest of the entire trip in regards to our relationship. I don't have to hide anything from her here, because she already knows that I was really mad at her & I know that she was really mad at me...we can leave it at that. However once we were hiking down the road again, compass in hand, we were able to continue on as though nothing had happened. pheew, we made it. Next time I'll work on getting a little more sleep. We knew Penang well enough to know that Komtar is the main
bus terminal & so any bus would take us there eventually. It was interesting to be finding our way around Georgetown...by our selves for the first time. We found a little place that was crowded with locals all gathered for chicken rice, we joined the crowd & even had live music to seranade us. We stopped in the first town square that we'd seen in a long time. I'm under the impression that asians don't believe in town squares, or benches for that matter cuz they're awefully rare. We lay down on a tile wall, with our arms spread protectively over our packs we fell fast asleep. About 35 min later we were rudely awakened by a fellow with a trishaw, he was convinced that we needed to go to a hotel imediately so that we could get to bed...so we disapointed his enthusiasm & pretended that we like to sleep on tile walls. That evening we were shuttled over to our night bus & once on it we settled down for the night. Strangely enough, though the seats were really really cumfy & soft I couldn't get to sleep. My body was like "ok whatever, I'll sleep anywhere, even
Georgetown
sleepy time on a tile wall, but don't make me sleep sitting up PLEASE!" So it was almost a hopeless case. Sometime in the night I did fall asleep, only to have cold water poured on my shivering body. Lucky for me Heffalump had all the supplies handy to remidy the glitch & soon I had my face cloth stuffed in the broken AC vent to block the cold air & rain water & I huddled under my towel. We arrived on the east coast of Penincular Malaysia in a city called Kuantan that morning. When I put on my pack I discovered that some discusted sticky stuff had gotten on my pack from the bus & I ended up with it smeared over my back. It was probably a good thing that I didn't know what it was. We hiked clear across town, but once again I was having a lot of difficulty because I was shaky & dizzy so I sat down on a curb with our two packs & Megan went in search of a room. We took a room in a little local spot with an older man who spoke no English at all. Through a narrow door
Georgetown
We decided at the beginning of the trip that road crossing is a very person desicion & should by no means be influenced by the timing of the other person. I took this picture because I was possitive that Megan's pack was going to get hit & she would be sent flying so I might have gotten an action shot. & up some narrow stairs, we found a lime green room with two beds. However the more that we inspected the place the more we disliked it. It was so old, so dirty & dreary! The walls were showing at least 5 layers of paint in some places. I really couldn't handle sleeping on the bed so I covered it with my own sheet & my pillow with my handy dandy face cloth (by this time well discolored). The most amusing thing I must say was the toilet. Megan was the first to give it a go & when she pulled the cord to flush it, instead of squirting water down the hole it squirted straight across the room...& incidentally her as well. Nothing like a power wash after using the toilet. When my turn came I opted for standing as close to the wall behind the toilet as possible, but once in that ackward possition I got a close up look at some spider webs & other items that made it an experience I had no desire to repeat. I decided that I would forget about flushing & leave that duty for Megan, I mean really, what else are
Kuantan
our room friends for? Now Megan is not the kind of person to be intimidated by such incidental little problems so she decided that she would take full control of the situation. Grabbing the cord she got a head start for the door...well...the end of the story: the cord came clear out of the socket thingy. So incidentally, although this was not the original method of taking care of the issue, it was quite successful because we never had to worry about flushing again thanks to Megan. We did a bit of hiking around town, down by the river & around the mosque, but all in all we didn't care for the place at all. Maybe if we stayed longer we would have gotten a better picture of the place & the muslim culture. As it is, we still think of Kuantan as an ugly & ackward place. There were almost no girls with their heads uncovered at all. As if my long hair didn't attract enough attention in other locations, it was quite the sight to behold in this city. We returned to our room at about 9pm & to our alarm there was a girl sitting on a ledge just
Kuantan
our room outside the bathroom. (in order to get to the bathroom a person must walk outside along a ledge protected by a railing) She was sitting on the other side of the railing clutching her knees. I asked Megan "do you think she is ok?" so Megan pretended like she was checking our laundry that was hanging out there, in an effort to get a better look. I was concerned about the young lady because I didn't think that a person could get over the railing unless someone else were to help. I went out to see but by then she was gone & there was a guy standing near by. I saw the ledge that she had been sitting on; it was about 1 by 1 1/2 feet & it was two stories above ground level. So, that made us feel very creapy & uncomfortable about everything. We concidered moving to a new place but didn't really want to be out looking in the dark, so we prayed for our safety & we decided right then & there that we would leave the city the very next day. Why stay in a place that we weren't enjoying at all? I've
Kuantan
would you like a fly infested weiner? (or whatever those things are) included pretty much everything else so I might as well add that I was almost in tears because of exhaustion & so as I perched timidly on the edge of my bed I told Megan "I don't think I can do this, everything is just too hard for me to make this a pleasent trip for me. I want to be somewhere that everything is clean, comfortable & nice for a while." A song was going through my head as I had been hiking that day "I need a little less hard time, I need a little more bliss". hahaha, yah I know, I'm a softy...& definately not a real backpacker. (I always knew I was a fake but this proves it) After 12 hours of sleep we were strapping on our packs & on our way once more. But that is part of the next story so you'll just have to wait.
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Anne
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I love it!
Dear Anna, What a gruesome time you had to have all that gunk come down on you in the bus. I was wondering if that sticky stuff might have been anti-freeze coolant from the air conditioning. Sleeping on a tile wall sounds too hard for me, and I know about trying to sleep sitting up when all you want to do is lie down. Thanks for all the news. Ina and I just love living it with you.