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Published: March 5th 2009
Hey folks,
So we have made it to Malaysia. Wow what a place. We have never met people who are so helpful and kind in our lives.
Honestly it really puts Londoners to shame, shame on us Lets start at the beginning. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at night on a bus from Singapore, and what a great sight to enter a city with the Petronas Twin Towers standing tall and all lit up from miles before we even got close to the city. KL is a nice place, lots to do and see and the first thing we really noticed was how cheap everything is. Food, travel, SHOPPING!
I thought i had died and gone to heaven. After 9-10 months of banning myself from shopping i could not believe i was allowed to spend. However we then both realised we would have to carry the extra weight and decided that as a lot of the items were made in China that we would go shopping crazy there...cannot wait!!! KL was HOT! I managed to burn my shoulders
(so funny!) which stung a bit but we really didn't expect that sort of heat.....37 odd! Ouch! But like clock
work, it rained (more like torrential downpour) everyday at 3 until about 4ish then would clear up in a matter of minutes.
Let me state here this was the beginning of the rain! We stayed at a place called the Red Palm which is right in the thick of things. The lady who runs it (Sophie) is amazing. She helped us plan our time in Malaysia, how to do things, how much we should expect to pay etc etc etc! She was great and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in KL.
In return we made her laugh her socks off every time we mentioned taking the Jungle Line across Malaysia as she thought how much jungle (10hours) can any person see. We took this on board as well as a lot of other people's advice and decided to get the bus to the east coast in the end! We did quite a bit in our 4 days in KL. We managed to get up on the Sky Bridge on the Petronas Towers which was amazing. You see these things on TV but words cannot describe their presence and beauty!
If they were a twin human blokes i would push Jit aside and marry them!...marriage...what you on about woman!!! Impressive buildings. We also went up the KL tower which is much higher than the sky bridge but not really worth the effort. We had fun going down Petaling Street, which is in China town, and this is were all the fakes are located.
Absolute paradise!!! It was great fun sharpening our bartering skills. Its goes a little something like this;
Stall Guy "My Fwiend, you come see, rowex for you, special pwice"
Me "...."(walk over and have a look)
SG "You choose and I give you special pwice"
Me "How much for that watch"
SG "For you my fwiend, RM250" (Which is like 50 quid)
Me "No how about RM25"
SG "NOOOOO i cannot do, no pwofit for you RM 200"
my behind no profit! Me "How much for three"
SG "600"
Me " I give you 150 for all of them"
SG "noooooo"
Jit and Kay start walking, man calls us back and guess what, Jit and Kay get all three for Special Pwice!!!
(We will leave you to guess what we ended up getting them for...Bling Bling!)
We also managed to squeeze in
the Batu Caves which were surprisingly impressive. They are Hindu caves with 272 steps to get up and a massive golden statue. And when I say massive I mean massive.
Getting to the top was absolutely amazing the caves were beautiful...but then it started raining...again, but we didn't mind on this occasion From KL we moved on to Meleka. This is a Portuguese settlement and is a really nice and quaint town. Its by the coast. I will leave Kay to explain this part, but by far was the best day we have had and we have never been treated so well. Amazing place.
Well the story starts on the first day where we luckily arrived on the day that the night market takes place - love it, no hassle and lots of shopping. However Jit and I were very good and only picked up the following items: A comb, a sarong and a pair of flip flops each...we really pushed the boat out. The next day involved the search for Melba's family and home in Melaka. For those of you that don't know Melba is one of Dad's carers and a very good family friend who was born in Melaka. Anyway we rocked up to the Portuguese settlement just like Melba said and had breakfast in a restaurant in Lisbon Square (cute little place). We asked the owner if he knew a couple of people that Melba had told us about but judging by his reaction we were not going to locate Melba's house or family at all. However 5 minutes later a gentleman sits down and the owner asks the man if he knew the people we were looking for...check this is out for a small world...he was Melba's second cousin Philip! Then it began, the most over-whelming generosity you could ever witness. Philip was having a drink with his friend Gobi and the local politician, Zacharia. Jit had like 10 glasses of Carlsberg and a few shots of whiskey (Chivas Regal - the good stuff) free of charge. They just would not let us pay for anything. We then got chauffeured by the politician to the houses we wanted to visit (Melba's house, and auntie's house). He even offered to pick us up though the houses were only a 2 minute walk away. We got back to the square and we then had food given to
us, more drinks bought for us and got given a live show by Papa Joe, the Local Portuguese celebrity, who performs to royalty etc and to top it off we got chauffeured to the bus station by one of his workers. It was so hard to constantly keep taking but they just would not let us buy them anything. Amazing people and a completely over-whelming experience. I was missing home a lot this day and i could not have wished for a more homely experience. Thank you so much Melba...oh and Jit and I might be dragging you to Melaka at Christmas, Philip has invited us back to stay with him!
We then moved on to Island Paradise...The Perhentian Islands on the east coast of Malaysia. After a 12 hour bus journey from Melaka
(which involved our bus breaking down at 4am in the middle of a mosquito ridden road, but we saw the most amazing starry night), and a fantastic boat ride over (more like a super speed boat which was being launched 10-15 feet in the air and Kay almost soiled herself!!! (too funny)
thanks Jit!...your welcome... we arrived in Paradise.
After a short walk through
the jungle, we arrived on this beach which words cannot describe.
Stunning Silk like sand, almost shower hot water, crystal blue and green. WOW. We got ourselves a nice beach hut thing, but decided it was too hot in there and upgraded to the AC rooms
the original rooms were hilarious, we sweated buckets inside the room and cooled off outside in the fresh air...too funny!. Low and behold we wake up the next day to RAIN! Yes RAIN! and not just a little rain, its was raining cat and dogs and horses and cows and hippos and elephants and I swear I saw a few whales come down too.
my analogy of the rain...your knickers (or pants) would be soaked in 2 seconds, no joke! I mean dammmmmmmmmm! So we were stuck in our rooms for 2 days
thank god for Jit's gadgets (See I knew being a geek would pay off) hoping it would clear up but then decided we had enough and decided to move on. A Boat, lots of flipping water from the sky and the sea, soaked through, bags and all, and a 6 hour bus later we arrive in...
The Cameron Highlands....but more
on that in Malaysia Part 2....Until then .....Good Day and God Bless (sorry just thought is sounded better)!
P.S.Sorry about the lack of pics but its hard to find a place which allows you to plug in your camera. As soon as we find a place which does and which has a decent upload speed, we will load em up!
P.P.S Thank you to all those that have sent us emails...We will reply as soon as we get a bit more time!
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MItz
non-member comment
I want a Rolex too :)
Glad yo hear you guy's are having a wonderful I mean wonderful experience with the Jungle ting! Miss you two rascals getme! See you guy's next Tuesday :) Love ya loads Neha says Hi :)