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Published: December 1st 2006
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The Two Towers
I'm not sure which one is Orthanc, but I would assume the designers intended for the bridge between the two to represent the coveted palantiri of the South Kingdom. Just a thought, and I hope Randy appreciates this knowledge as I posted it here mainly for him. With one extra day in Ao Nong we jumped into a longboat and headed a pleasurable 4km or so around the cliffy bend to the lovely beach of Railay. This beach wasn't as stunning as I had hoped, but still well worth the visit. It far exceeds the beach on Ao Nong and seems to attract a lot of people who are very much into beaches in general. While the longboats lineup on the shore the rest of the beach is for everyone to enjoy, and much enjoyment was had. We found a stretch of shade to lay in and catch up on some reading before hunger struck and we had to buyout an entire crepe stand. From there we tried to hike across the island to an even more remote beach but monsoon rains quickly halted our progress (along with a concrete wall of sorts) and a 180 was pulled in the downpour. We ended up setting up shop in an abandoned vendor stall with Randy's speakers blaring Michael Jackson as dozens of unsuspecting beach goers ran by soaking wet.
We headed back to to Ao Nong just before sunset after the clouds had partially cleared, this time with
Mosque on the Moon
We couldn't go in, but from outside it looks a lot like an intergalactic representation of Islam. about 5 times as many people in our boat before getting more pizza and buying bus tickets to Malaysia.
The very next day we endured a ride southward that frankly, was great at times and horrible at others. We started off wonderfully in a van of our own with excellent temperature control before somewhere on the highway our driver started getting angry phone calls from the man we would later call "Speed Racer". About 10km further we pulled over and switched drivers where the aforementioned psychopath would take over the driving. While hopped up on countless antiphetamines he drove our precious little van to the brink of disaster and back again somehow avoiding the death of us all, and anyone else on the road.
Once we actually arrived in downtown Kuala Lumpur (bright and early sometime between 3 and 4 am) we managed to stumble to a hostel (which was cool, I haven't been in a Hostel since Mumbai) where they conveniently had a room with 5 beds. Once we collapsed into our beds, the hostel guy decided two more on the floor shouldn't be a problem and thus we ended up with 7 people in a room
Super Tourists
Just because we can outourist any professional tourist in a tourist-off doesn't mean we have to be humble about it. This photo was shot from the viewdeck of the Petronas twin towers in downtown KL. smaller than my parents ensuite bathroom at home.
Up at 11 we decided to hit the town, first stop was the National Mosque, which was closed when we got there. No problem, after cutting through the old Victorian train station we ended up on the skytrain and headed straight to the Petrona towers. Once there we were told that a very restricted number of visitors were allowed in during the day, and anyone who arrives after 8:30am is out of luck. This posed a problem for us since during the previous 30+ days we were lucky to get home before 8:30am let alone up for the day. Guess that initiative will have to wait for tomorrow. From there we hoofed over into little India, which frankly just brought back both good and bad memories of India. The food was stellar and the head wobble was dearly missed but like all Indian food, you can set a watch to the time it takes before you get violently ill.
Further south across town we ended up back at our hostel and splurged for air conditioning to exist in our room and we napped and read before heading into Chinatown for
Monorail!
The hot shot monorail captain speeded along at a well calculated 55km/h and brought us from station to station with his steady hand and demeanor. I felt someplace in between the monorail at disneyland and an ancient memory I still hold of Expo in 1986. some tasty eats. We fought through a couple really misplayed ripoffs and hit the jackfruit and leche vendors for dessert. Into bed early within our shoebox of a room.
Next day we were up at 7:30am (somehow though yells of pain and anger filled the air) to attempt tickets for the viewdeck. Success! We managed to score a timeslot for hours later. Few of the guys headed to the swank hotel in a valiant (and successful) attempt to appear as if they belong, while Ryan and I headed a few blocks away to go up KL Tower which is the fourth highest in the world behind the CN Tower and other nameless buildings that also don't measure up to the CN Tower. After rejoicing and dancing around the viewdeck in celebration of how great Toronto is, we snapped some photos and headed back to the viewdeck at Petrona. The viewdeck sucked. The only mentionable thing that happened there was the contest which Trevor won trying to estimate the length of the track circuit across the other side of the pond (Ryan and I found measurements earlier). Good job Trevor. You're the best. You're so good at estimating distances from
Kuala Lumpur Skyline
Shot from the KL Tower at 276m I browsed the city landscape in an airconditioned view deck much like the bridge on old 1701D. 41 stories.
From there we jumped on a bus and headed out to the Batu caves, to revisit the likes of Shiva and all her cow, bird, peacock and quarter woman, quarter cow, quarter peacock, quarter unknown friends. Another taste of India in peninsular Malaysia. While the cave was more of a breeding ground for mischevous monkeys, we did get dripped on by an unknown water source and almost broke our necks climbing back down the 276 steps to freedom. More bus rides before I jumped on the monorail (a definate highlight) to buy our tickets up to the national parkm but not before getting horribly lost on the outskirts of town where I wandered for quite sometime in a monsoon that even rivaled the rain back home. Next stop, the jungle!
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