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Published: June 19th 2010
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So at this point I realise that I am ever so slightly falling behind with my blog so I apologies for the rushed writing with this one. Real time, I am already in Australia so .. yeh. Enjoy!
As I mentioned in my previous blog I was down in Kuantan, a lovely town on the south east coast of Malaysia. The morning of June 12th we had to wake at 7am to have enough time to get to the place we were staying. It was no alarm that woke me that morning though, but a recorded Muslim prayer being played over a megaphone in a nearby Mosque. The trip we were going on with a large number of Kish's family and friends was a two day trip to a large platform which was on stilts on the sea called a Kelong. You could chill out in the sun, sample some locally caught food, have a beer and most importantly for that location, you could go fishing.
The drive down to the Kelong took around 3 hours and I got a real taste of third world Malaysia passing many small wooden houses and villages surrounded by these short fat trees which
are grown to produce rubber which is a very important material to sell. The drive also took us along miles and miles of untouched beach which was pretty much stunning.
So when we eventually arrived we took a boat out to the Kelong which was situated among small tree covered islands, surrounded by clear blue sea. Upon stepping onto the Kelong we put our stuff in our dorm and just as we headed back out onto the deck we witnessed a huge sea turtle caught in the huge net in the centre of the platform used to bring up bate fish for fishing. And before anyone wonders, it was released shortly after.
Within the large group of people with us there were some very interesting characters. There was a German woman who was a friend of Kish's aunt that had been living in Malaysia for the past 20 years. She is all for diverting from the conventions in life and has always lived to do the things that she loves. She lives in a typical rural Malay village in a house of stilts and uses meditating as a way of relaxing and even to commune with others around the world.
Fishing that day was fun and we had caught plenty of small fish between us but some of the more hardened fishers were after something much bigger, a barracuda to be exact. With no luck during the first day it was early to bed for them and early to rise to try again. This is when I realised I was never made for fishing as instead of waking at 5.30am, I got up at 10am. Meh.
Day 2 was only a half day so I made the most of taking photos, had some lunch and headed back to Kuantan for some more world up action before getting a coach back home.
The Kelong trip was pretty tiring so once we were back at the house in Kota Kemuning we slept pretty late which was fine as we wanted to wait til the sun when down a bit before going with Yogez to Central Market which was a huge indoor market selling plenty of traditional and modern artwork and other bits and pieces. Around the corner was an outdoor version called Pasar Seni which I found was much like Camden in the way that you have shops lining each
side of the roads and market stalls set up in front. Much of the stuff there was imitation goods but with the ridiculously low price tags, you can't really complain. In fact I decided to by some pretty convincing imitation Ray Ban's for the equivalent of 3 pounds!
The last few days in Malaysia slowed down. Giving us a chance to catch up on sleep and get ourselves sorted for our journey to Australia. It had been an amazing and experience filled 3 weeks but I recon I will go back there again as there is just so much more to be found. But I am definitely happy to have seen Malaysia in all its colours. I have seen a glimpse of Malaysia's future as well as its rural past, I have seen how its culture differs from the UK and also how it differs within the country itself. Finally, I have eaten foods which I have never ever seen before, some of which I hope to never see again, but many which I will be asking for again.
Next stop, Australia.
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