Advertisement
Published: September 18th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Penang - Georgetown. A pretty little town with a very heavy chinese feel to it. Whilst here we ended up staying at Love Lane Inn the owner of which was called jimmy, and looked remarkably like a malay jimmy saville! We only spent a few days in Georgetown but whilst there we went to Visit the Kek Lok Si Temple, apparently the largest temple complex in south east malaysia. Alas some of it was under reconstruction at the time we visited but not so much that it caused any disruption. The temple itself was full of really vivid colours and the view from the top of the main Pagoda was really nice to see. Apart from this it was just our usual tour of the city that we always do on foot, although this one involved a book hunt on the side lines at it appears i have become addicted to reading at the moment and am going through books at a vast speed. Unfortunatly on our 3rd and last day where we had planned to go and explore the south of the island it rained.. now normally we have managed to build up a small resistance to the rain
in as much as we just tend to forgo the consequences but this rain was some of the heaviest we have encountered yet so thought it a wiser idea to sit in a local bar and have a drink!
Perhentian Kecil 8 Hours a taxi and boat ride (about 10 hours total travel) and we arrived on Perhentian Kecil. This was as much as anything else, a place to get some R&R! Pure white sandy beaches, great views and a beach to sit on and do absolutly nothing. Yes really, we needed a rest, this travelling lark is exhausting! There truly is not alot to say about this area, but it was nice just to sit still and be in the same place for 5 days. The water was crystal clear and warm so there was no qualms about going into the sea for a good long float/swim to let your thoughts drift away. I, though, managed to burn my shoulders but nothing more than wasn't bearable thankfully.
We ended up staying in a little lodge not 5 minutes walk from the beach that was owned by a really friendly Irish woman who had decided to move out
there after having worked in london for 5 years. I have to admit.. not a bad decision. The fact she was a chef meant that when she finally opens up her restaurant section of her 'resort' she will do a booming trade. If i ever go back to Kecil i will most certainly visit her again.
On the evenings we found ourselves at the Buffalo Bar, this was basically a few low lying tables scattered across the beach where a 500ml bottle of rum cost 20 ringgit (about 3 pounds) and you would just spend the evening drinking the night away under the stars and the freaky moon. ( I call it freaky because one night it had a weird circle around it.. never seen it before)
Taman Negara My part of the trip it has to be said, although we only spend a few days here i would have loved to stay longer. This rainforest is said to be the oldest one in the world at something aruond 150 million years old. Whilst there we did a canopy walkway which saw us suspended approximatly 40 metres above the ground walking jut under half a kilometre.
This, it turned out was not a good thing for katie to do, and i admit nor for me at the beginning. About half way around i managed to get my head around the height and got to look around abit. The views from such a height across the rainfores where without a doubt some of the most amazing i have seen in Malaysia. After the canopy walks we just did another short walk up to the top of the nearest hill to rest up before we proceded back down to Kuala Tahan (the local village).
The following day was the day of Leeches! We hired a boat with an austrian couple (Mathius and Stephanie) to take us deeper into the jungle. This was a 45minute boat ride down the small side rivers to the 'cascades', these were effectivley just an area of low lying water which made it impassible for boats. Here after a walk of about 20 minutes through fairly dense jungle we came across a rocky outcropping where we sat and talked for a few hours, i also played around trying to take photo's of the local butterflies.. largely to no success. From here we decided it
would be a good idea to go slightly further into the jungle..after about what must have been 20 minutes of walking i felt something drop off my leg and upon lifing my trouser leg found that it was covered in blood! Nice stuff! Upon seeing this we all made a joint decision to head back to the rocky outcropping mentioned before. Except this time keeping a vigilant eye out for leeches. Once we got there we decided to give ourselves a thorough checking over. Out of the 4 of us, Mathius was the only one not to have got bitten. I am annoyed that i never saw my leech just felt it drop off, but we managed to detach kate's with a lighter just as it got a purchase, and the one on Steph's leg was of a fairly substantial size but came off easy enough.. although she may have got a little burnt from our futile attempts with the lighter until we found a piece of paper to burn it more directly.
On our way back however, there were no more leech incidents thankfully and we even managed to persuade the boat driver to turn the engine off for
10 minutes just to let the river take us in its current and drift along to the sounds of the jungle. Peace, quiet, bliss!
It was a shame to move on from Taman negara. I would like to go back there (Maybe with leech proof socks!) for a longer period of time but we shall have to see.
Kuala Lumpur Well, it has to be said it was so strange coming back into a big city again after what has really been almost 2 months away from it. Once you get your head around the small amount of culture shock we both seemed to endure KL was quite a nice place. The first day was spent walking around in a daze in the local area of Chinatown + little India. We did try and set aside a day to sort out a few parts of Australia.. but that fell flat on its face. Instead we ventured up to the Petronas towers, (finding a Secret Recipe on the way.. this place serves the best cake on the planet..), before the petronas towers we took around the Suria KLCC shopping mall. Katie got a little bit of
an urge to do some shopping, i have already decided that with my first pay check in Oz i am going to throw away all the clothes i have been wearing the past 3 months and buy all anew, most of these are beyond a good scrub. I had abit of a stubborn face on that day, i was determined to get a picture of the Petronas all lit up, little did i know this only happened at 7:30 so we ended up sitting around outside for about 1.5 hours telling ourselves that as each half hour approached the towers would light up. It didn't help we were both starving, but nevermind i got he pictures i wanted in the end! Along with the KL Tower it made for a nice afternoon/evening.
The day after was just a day spent walking around the local tourist parks, a really peaceful seclusion in the middle of the city. Great for just sitting a reading a good book 😊
Malaysia's End We are now in Melaka and are due to go to Singapore tomorrow for 4 nights before we fly out to Oz so i probably won't get another
entry in before then. I have to say i have really enjoyed Malaysia and am so glad we decided to spend longer her ethan we did in India.. this is more my kind of country if i am being honest and i haev plans to come back here in the future to do some of the things i missed out. By this time next week we will be in australia and looking for a job to start working asap as we are pretty much all but out of funds.
Hope you are all well, and i'll speak to ou soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0939s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
yours is probly the only site that says what time the PEtronas twin towers lights up!! cheers! BTW do u know what time the Petronas twin towers lights down/switches off their lights??