Cherating

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On Monday 24th I headed to Cherating, to get there I took the bus from Titiswanga in KL, it took 4 hours, the bus had good sized seats and airconditioning. To stay entertained I did combinations of the following

1. Sleep

2. Look out the window

3. Listen to music

4. Try to read

The bus from Titeswanga took me to Kuantan, then from Kuantan I needed to take a local bus to Cherating.

I felt confident in this plan until I arrived at Kuantan and there were around 20 taxi drivers all insisting to me that I had missed the last bus to Cherating, however I felt relatively confident that I hadn't as part of their argument for saying that the last bus had gone was that the bus to Cherating only runs till 5:30, now I had a watch on which told me the time was 4pm! So then they insisted that the last bus wouldn't run today, but I said I would like to check first. Now there was a line of 14 buses, so each time I walked past I was checking to see if it went to Cherating, unfortunately bus after bus failed to give this information, until I got to the 12th bus. I quickly hoped on the bus and was delighted to see two other backpackers, who expressed they were equally pleased to see me for confirmation purposes that this bus went to Cherating.

The bus to Cherating was a local bus, so it was very popular and soon all the seats and the isle filled up. Buses in Malaysia (from my experience of a week) appear to have a standard 3 person staffing team, this consists of a driver, someone to sell you a ticket and then someone to rip your ticket in half! I am not sure if this is very cost effective, but it is certainly a good way of increasing employment opportunities! Also a good thing about this system is that the person who rips up the ticket also takes it upon themselves to tell you when to get off!

In Cherating I book into a guesthouse called the Matahari Huts. It was recommended by the lonely planet and also the cheepest accomodation available! For 25 Ringots I got my own room but had to use the outside bathroom. I could have got a room with a bathroom for 30 Ringots which would probably not have been to worst use of 5 Ringots.

After dumping my stuff I go and explore to find food. On my search I find a french couple called Simon and Camille who are also on a similar quest. We find a place and sit down together, they are also traveling south east asia, however they have chosen to do this on a tandom. Simon is a teacher and Camille works in HR however is hoping to have a career epiphany during her travels. Things they particularly enjoy about travelling include motivating other cyclists, meeting other backpackers and also knocking on the houses of locals and having dinner with them.

During dinner the sky collapses again and the sky fills with several different shades of purples, blues and reds. Camille describes the situation here as like an apocolypse every night.

On tuesday (25/09) inspired by meeting two people who are cycling the trip I am taking by bus and train I feel inspired to use the running shoes that I packed, so get up early and go for a run. The run was pleasant but maybe I should have started earlier in the morning as by the end it is quite hot. However I do now feel that I have justified the trainers place in the ruck sack, they had been entering the risk zone of things to ditch.

To cool down I go to the beech for a swim, although it doesnt take long before a feel a sting on my foot and look down to see that the sea is swarming with jelly fish. Staying still i negotiate the best way of getting back to land with out being stung any more, the technique I choose is to try and float them out of the way by myaking waves. It is succesfull and I make a mental note to check the sea in the future before going in.

Now my foot is stinging and everybody knows the fact that if you wee on a Jelly Fish sting it will go away (in my case I believe this knowledge is due friends). Usually I would say that this was no problem as the ability to need to go for a wee at almost anytime is something that I could possibly call a strength of mine (although strength makes it sound like a positive) but in this situation were you are constantly sweating I was unable to perform.

This story has a successful ending, that demonstrates how well sometimes things just fit together, although it is a bit disgusting so please dont judge me. You may remember I said earlier that I opted for the cheapest room electing a walk to the bathroom over paying an extra 5 ringotts. If you match this decision with the fact that you are only able to drink bottled water (leaving you with a lot of empty bottles) and that in the middle of the night you cant be arsed to walk 100m in the rain to go to the toilet there is only really one solution. You end up peeing in the bottle. So luckily I remember that in my room I have a bottle of Jelly Fish post-sting solution, so the rest you can piece together, though for information purposes it does work and I had a shower after the occasion and then put hand sanitiser on my foot!

Later in the day I decide to hire a bike to take a wider look around the area. Cycling north for 8km and 1 settle down at another beech where I just sit and take in the surroundings. The view is very picturesque, there is a wrecked boat on the beach and a tyre swing on a near by tree. After a few minutes a Pakistani man arrives on a scooter, I know he is Pakistani as it is the first thing he says, actually it is pretty much the only thing he can say, well that and hello. Actually that is a lie, because he comes and sits next to me and we try to comunicate some more, this time he showboats some more of his english skills by counting. He counts 1,2,3,4,6 this is good, much better than I could do in Malay however I do feel the issue needs to be addressed that he missed out 5, so I inform him and he succesfully counts back again. Adter this success he decides he wants to teach me some phrases so he says some words and ushers me to repeat them adter him, so I did. However I have no idea to this day what I said but I think it must have been good because as soon as I finished he got up, hugged me, got on his scooter and drove away. Maybe it was counting to 5?

After this I cycle back to Cherating and meet up again with Simon and Camille for dinner. In the evening I read, make notes on my day then go to bed. The next day I head to the Pehentian Islands and learn a valuable lesson about night busses in Asia WRAP UP WARM, although everywhere else in asia is hot the night bus is freezing and you will be tricked into going onto it in shorts and t-shirt because the temperature outside is so nice! Top tips

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