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Published: November 17th 2007
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Hey! Here I am again...so soon!! Just catching up. Hope none of you were sick looking at the vege festival pics!
So...Malaysia. what a beaut! And the most amazing people we've met, so friendly. We loved it there.
So, where did we go and what did we see...?
Started in Kuala Lumpur. It was ace there. Stayed on the bustling night market road which was good fun. The main highlight was seeing the Petronas Towers and going up in the lift to the bottom of the double decker bridge which joins them. The structures were so cool!! I think that's a bout it really for there, the KLCC (big mall) was awesome, but once again, we didn't have too much spare cash!!
So, onto Taman Negara - at Kuala Tahan - the oldest rainforest in the world (I think that's the claim!). We went by bus and then boat for about 3 hours. We stayed in a nice little place there in a kind of jungle hut type effort - see the toilet picture!! We did a night walk that night and saw hunting spiders, moths, frogs, stick insects, fungi that glows in the dark and many
other things! It was fun. Next say, we went by ourselves to the canopy walkway. We enjoyed walking through the rainforest without a big group and also because it was a lot cheaper to do it ourselves!! The canopy walkway is 45m above ground and covers a distance of 300 or 400m (can't quite remember now) and it's basically wooden planks supported just by ropes all tied together! You have to stay 5 or 10m apart (depending on which bit you're on) and it's a little bouncy!! It was good fun. From her, Dave climbed to the top of the hill there but I was too hot so weent back for a crepe and a drink (that's CREPE). That afternoon, we caught the boat back to Jerantut where we stayed over the night. Bit of a dump really so nothing much to report. Next day we got the train to Gemas, a small little stopover place further south. Gemas was great. The people her, once again were awesome! Also, another treat flew in the sky. Tons and tons of swiftlets flying around in the dusky sky. It was pretty magical. from here, we headed down to Melaka (Melacca). We liked
it here; a nice place. Mainly, we loved the shower at Baba House...THE best shower in the world. Ever. (Even better than ma and pa's power shower, coz I could stay in it for ages without it costing them money!!!). It was sooooooooooooooo good!!
From here, we bussed it down to Johor Bahru (JB) where we'd get a flight over to Borneo the next day. Well, JB was pretty crappy!! Expensive to stay there and for pants rooms!! So, not too impressed and glad we had a very early flight so we could get out of there!!
We arrived in Kuching, in Malaysian Borneo the next day. It was a really nice place. We headed to an orangutan conservation centre (can't remember its name at the mo!) which was awesome!! It was a bit stormy when we arrived and walked into the jungle. Some local workers were looking up into a tree as we went past and when we asked, they pointed out an orangutan sat high up in the tree facing away from us. He kind of looked like he was hunched over thinking 'it's bloody raining again, I'm not coming down'!! So, that was our first
glimpse. Then we walked further in and went to the feeding area. It was so cool to see them come swinging in. Such graceful and elegant balls of orange fluff! Saw a couple of younger ones playing around higher up in the trees too.
Next day we went to Gunung Gading National Park where the world's largest flower (Rafflesia) lives!! But, we were just a little early to catch one in bloom, though we did see a bud for one. The park was really nice and we saw lots of cool wildlife and a waterfall or two there. From Kuching, we flew up to Miri. We bought a flight to Gunung Mulu National Park when we arrived at the airport and were surprised that we'd get to go that same day!! However, after waiting in departures, it was then cancelled so we booked it for a few days later instead. In the mean time, we checked out Miri (which took maybe an hour!) and then headed into Brunei. We only stayed over a night because it was pretty expensive!! We met 4 other English people on the bus there and swam with them at the pool at the YHA
there and then, randomly, had pizza hut and went on arcades in the mall there!! There's really not too much to do there. Nay mind. The mosque was pretty impressive but we didn't see much else as had to get going to make sure we could get back for our Mulu flight.
Killed a bit of time in Miri againa and then our flight was on!! You have to fly into Mulu, or take a 3-4 day hike, or a 2 day boat ride. The rainforest there is so dense. We flew because of time mainly (and it's easier and quicker!!). Mulu was ace! We stayed actually in the park grounds in a hostel there. Went for a walk ourselves on the afternoon that we arrived and saw (and heard) lots of great wildlife and plantage! At the end of the walk, we reached one of the caves we would visit the next day...we watched the bats flying out from it!! That night it rained, rainforest style!!! Next day, we took a walk through Moonmilk Cave and met our guide at Young Lady (I think...?!) cave before going to Clearwater cave. Met a Swiss man called Tobias who joined
us for the day. The walk was a slippery affair with lots of steps in places too! But we saw a few endangered butterflies which were gorgeous. The caves were cool. I think Clearwater is either the longest cave system or has the widest cave entrance or something (I'm sorry for the sketchy details but I can't remember!! I'm sure google will be more enlightening!) One of the caves we went to defo had the latter claim to fame! After this, all three of us caught the boat back, which was a really nice ride, and saved our legs from the long walk too. In the afternoon, we went to the other 2 main caves, Langs and Deer Cave. These were great too and our guide in the afternoon was much better than in the morning, he knew so much and was really interesting.
Back to Miri for one more night and then we flew back to JB (joy!) Had no intention of staying there but instead, we were going to head to Singapore. We weren't entirely sure how to do this, we were just going to try the bus, but a man from Miri asked us if we
wanted to share a taxi to the border. He works in Singapore so does the route a lot and it would help him out too to share the costs. Its hard to believe people are so genuine in Malaysia but they really are. Really can't praise them enough. The taxi driver was great too - a big Rolling Stones fan so he played his tape (yes tape!!) and we were singing along to Paint It Black etc!! Ha!! The border was SOOOOOOOOOOO busy and once we were out of Malaysia, we decided to walk the 1km across the causeway into Singapore. Not sure that many people do this but we thought it was fun!! Will write about Singapore in the next blog, haven't got photo uploading facilities here (and did Malaysia ones already!).
Cool, right, that's its for now. Hope it all makes sense, it's weird writing so far past when we did these things so, again, sorry if some of the details are a little sketchy - I'll have to update you when I'm home and have my ittle pink journal to hand!!
Enjoy!
:o) x
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