The Blog Cometh...........Finally

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Well we've been pretty crap getting the blog updated lately so this may be a long one. Enjoy!

Penang

We travelled for about 12 hours by boat and then 2 buses to get to Penang in North West Malaysia. It's funny because I was sure when booking our tickets it was supposed to be a boat and only one bus and take just 7 hours.
These crazy travel agents really do love to keep us on our toes.

Once we finally arrived it was about 10pm so we just picked a guesthouse out of the guide book and took a room.

We managed to catch an Indian restaurant just before they closed up for the night and had a delicious curry spread out on a banana leaf and the idea is that you eat it with your hands.

I tried without cutlery for a bit but gave up fairly quickly after the 'effort' to 'food entering my mouth' ratio dropped below acceptable levels.
The meal was only slightly let down by the fact that the entire staff were standing around watching us eat. I was half expecting score cards to be held up for technique and flair once we finished but instead we were just handed the bill.

Mildly disappointed by the lack of a points based dining experience but probably not as disappointed as we would have been by a lack of points based on our experience in dining we went home to bed.

The following day we took a trip to Fort Cornwallis which was where the British landed in 1786 (I didn't really just get that date out of the guide book)
Sadly the most enjoyable part of the place, which Vickie really loved, was the air conditioning units in the exhibit rooms.
In our defence it was a bloody hot day and I have to say it was pretty dull as there's not much left of the fort and the exhibits weren't the most interesting.

That evening we had dinner at a food court that the owner of our guesthouse recommended.
It was a fantastic place to eat as there's about twenty stalls all offering different types of food and you just pick a table and order a little bit of something from one stall and then something else from another and so on until you burst.

Other than a bit of a wander around town there wasn't much else of particular interest to us in Penang so the next morning we took a bus to the Cameron Highlands.

Cameron Highlands

Our bus took an extra long route which added nearly 4 hours to the journey so we didn't arrive until late afternoon. We ended up wandering around for ages trying to find a cheap room but everything was so expensive we eventually had to go for a pretty basic room for much more than we'd usually pay.

The little town itself is pretty uninspiring as it's just one street of shops and cafes but the thing we instantly loved was the climate. It was cold enough in the evening so that we were able to wear jeans and jumpers for the first time in months and drink hot tea without sweating it straight back out again.
We went for dinner and had the old authentic Malaysian dish of Fish and Chips (I think that's how you say it, I get confused with all these exotic foods)

The next day we went for another taste of traditional Malaysia, an English country pub complete with beer garden and its own red telephone box outside. We had a very expensive beer in the garden and it really did feel as though we'd been transported back home. Even the weather was like a cool English summers day. Very surreal.

In the evening we went to a little Indian restaurant and had the most amazing Indian thali meal on a banana leaf which consisted of lots of different veg dishes, chicken curry, some soup and a huge mound of rice all for the princely sum of 1 English pound.

We'd booked a day trip to go around the tea plantations, which the area is famous for, and a few other places so the next morning we set off.
The first stop was the tea plantations themselves which look amazing. As far as you can see the hills are covered in tea plants and it looks like a huge mass of green patchwork quilts laid out over the countryside.
We had a quick tour around the factory which was a real treat (I'm never quite sure if sarcasm comes across in writing).

At the end of the tour we stopped for a locally produced cuppa. The cafe was non smoking which leads me to the conclusion that these particular tea producers do not fully understand the product that they have in their hands as a cup of tea and a cigarette go hand in hand like a pint and a cigarette, the end of a meal and a cigarette, waiting for any amount of time and a cigarette and of course a second pint and a cigarette. (I think I smoke too much)
After a quick cigarette we headed off for the next stop on the trip.

The Bee Farm.
Well what can I say?
Not much really.
We walked along a path of boxes that had a few bees buzzing around them.
Being able to get up so close to these truly majestic creatures was a privilege of the likes I've never known (I'm hoping the sarcasm came across that time).
Someone's laughing all the way to the bank with that idea but fair play to them really.

The next stop was The Butterfly Garden.
As soon as you walk in a bloke shows you a few creepy crawlies and then chucks a couple of scorpions on you for a quick photo. Vickie kindly declined his offer of scorpions by hiding behind me.
Then it's off to see the butterflies which to be honest was slightly odd.
We were expecting them flying all around us but we only saw about half a dozen actually flying.
The rest were dead.
Hundreds of dead butterflies strewn about the place just left where they dropped.
At least you get a good close up look at them I guess.

Wondering what the next oddity was to be we were taken to The Strawberry Farm.
The star attraction was two very small rows of strawberry plants which you can walk around.
After this mammoth trek there were some very conveniently located outlets catering to all of our strawberry based product needs.
The strawberry ice cream was actually very nice.

For the last stop on the tour we were driven up to the highest peak in the area, thrown out the van and told to walk back. Actually that's not true but I wouldn't have been surprised with the way some of the other stops had turned out.
We climbed a watch tower to get a view out over the clouds which was pretty impressive.
When I say 'we' climbed the watchtower that's not strictly true either. Vickie's shit scared of heights and refused to go any higher than the first flight of steps. We now have another photo to add to our ever growing collection that make up the album provisionally named 'Vickie at the bottom of things she's too scared to go up'

The final part of the tour consisted of sitting in traffic for about an hour on the way back as obviously everyone was eager to see the bees.

Before leaving Vickie managed to get her fix of tea and scones which is quite a big thing around these parts.

Pulau Pangkor

From the Cameron Highlands we had to take a couple of buses and a boat to reach our next stop, Pulau Pangkor. Once on the island we made our way to Nipah Bay, found a room and went in search of food.
We ended up making a circuit of the whole place and soon came to the conclusion it was a ghost town.

I won't waste any more of my time writing or your time reading about Pangkor as we couldn't get away quick enough.

So moving on.

Kuala Lumpur

After a taxi, a boat and 2 buses we reached Kuala Lumpur.
One thing we've liked about travelling through Malaysia as opposed to some other countries is we can travel to our own timetable a bit more.
In most other places we've been tied into buying a ticket that covers the boat and bus/buses all in one which in principle sounds nice but in practice it's another story.
To start with we're usually lied to about how long it takes and how many buses it is. Then more often than not they drop you at a guesthouse where they earn commission and after dark so you're less inclined to search for other accommodation.
But in Malaysia we've just been able to arrange each leg of the journey as we go which means if we oversleep, which has been known from time to time, we just get the next bus with no worries.

Once in Kuala Lumpur we tried a couple of guesthouses that were either full or too expensive and so ended up living in a box (but not a cardboard box) for one night.
We were staying in Chinatown which is full of shophouses, street vendors and markets selling all sorts of fake designer gear and general tat.
It was nice to be back in a big city again with all of its hustle and bustle.

Whilst walking around we quickly found our new local where we were served by the lovely '2 Tiger Tom' as we called him. It's not the most imaginative of nicknames as his name is actually Tom and he always served us two Tiger beers but it worked for us.

The next day we had a bit of an explore and ended up finding a cinema so we ducked in for a couple of hours of air conditioned entertainment.
Afterwards we went to the Central Market which we were expecting to be a chaotic place but were a bit disappointed when it turned out to be just another air conditioned mall. We still picked up a couple of bracelets and combined with a trip to the night market Vickie pretty much completed her xmas shopping which is a little bit too organised for my liking.

We ventured up to Little India for dinner thinking it would be chock full if Indian restaurants. Sadly it wasn't.
If we'd wanted anything else Indian such as saris or carpets we would have come to the right place but you generally can't eat these so they weren't much good to us. We eventually managed to find a little place but had no idea what the dishes on the menu were so we let the owner decide what we were eating that evening. He chose well as it was pretty tasty.

On our last day in KL we took a trip to the famous Petronas Towers. People can go up to the skybridge linking the two towers for a view of the city. Unfortunately these people do not include us as we arrived too late in the day and there were no tickets left.

We did get one lovely memento of the day.
As we were leaving the towers we were accosted by two 'monks' who somehow managed to extort about 4 quid out of us for a couple of crappy golden cards supposedly representing peace. I'm not sure how they managed it but I suspect they may have been Jedi monks.

I still keep the card in my wallet as a constant reminder to tell people to piss off.

The next morning we took a blissfully short 2 hour bus journey to Melaka.

Melaka

Melaka is billed as the cultural centre of Malaysia so with this firmly in mind we spent our first full day in the cinema watching two films back to back.
That night we ate at a great little food court and just chilled out.

Feeling slightly guilty about our previous days laziness we visited a museum to swot up on Melaka's past and went to St Xavier's Church which was founded by Francis Xavier whose preserved body we saw way back when in a church in Goa, India
To round off our day of culture we went to the ruins of St Paul's Church and had a general potter around town finishing off with a well deserved cold beer by the river.

We only had a couple of days in Melaka so it was back on the road again the next morning.

Pulau Tioman

We took a 4 hour bus ride to the town of Mersing and then a 2 hour ferry over to Pulau Tioman. We decided to stay on Air Batang beach as my Dad had been there a few weeks before and recommended a couple of guesthouses.
After walking up and down the beach we realised that these guesthouses and most of the others were full but in the end we managed to get a little bungalow right by the jetty that we'd been dropped at half an hour earlier.

The place was run by a couple of stoner brothers, Doll and Patchi, and they also run a makeshift bar on the beach that we probably spent a little too much time at. I'm not too sure how seriously they took the business as they just seem to drink the profits and when not doing that sleep in hammocks. They even had us minding the bar a few times when they went for dinner which is quite frankly a stupid idea.

Tioman is a duty free island so we took a trip down to the beach a bit further south where they have big duty free outlets and stocked up on cigarettes and alcohol for a fraction of what it would normally cost. The problem with this was that because it was there we ended up smoking and drinking more than we usually would resulting in a couple of wasted days due to crippling hangovers.

After a few days we realised it was time to move on as we were getting a bit too comfortable just hanging out and not doing very much.
So we got Patchi to take us in his little boat up the coast to Salang. He was supposed to take us at 9am but he was asleep in his hammock on the beach so after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to wake him up we went for some brekkie. Eventually he woke up but then he realised his boat was stuck on the beach so after a few unsuccessful attempts to budge it he went off and rounded up what seemed like the whole island for help. Finally we got it floating and got on our way.

Once in Salang we found a nice little hut and hit the beach and pretty much stayed on it for the next 4 days.
While Vickie spent her time sunning herself I spent most of my time snorkelling just off the beach.
It was by far some of the best snorkelling I've done as each time I went out I saw something spectacular.
I nearly shat myself when I saw a massive thing heading my way a fair way out from shore. It turned out to be a bumphead parrot fish which must have been close to a metre long. Then suddenly there were another two swimming around me. So I spent about twenty minutes following them around which they must have loved.
Next time I went out I saw a turtle munching on some coral and when it was done I got to swim along side it for a few minutes until it disappeared into the depths.
The next day I saw another turtle but he was too fast for me and buggered off as soon as I got too close.
Then on our last day I found the bumphead parrot fish again and this time there were five of them which was amazing to see.

Once we'd topped up the tans we had to get back to Kuala Lumpur to meet Jezz and Jen who were coming out to see us for a two week holiday.

Back to Kuala

Lumpur

We arrived back in KL the day before the guys were due in and after a long days travelling we headed straight to see 2 Tiger Tom for our fix.

Bright and early the next morning, which is not normally a time we see, Jezz and Jen arrived looking surprisingly fresh after a 12 hour flight.
We had booked them into a room in our hotel so we got them settled in and headed out for breakfast.
Once we'd finished brekkie it was about pub opening time so we thought we'd introduce the guys to 2 Tiger Tom.
When we arrived he wasn't working so we ordered beer off 3 Tiger Someone Else. It would have been 4 Tiger Someone Else but Jezz dropped the bombshell that he'd given up the drink, which for anyone who knows Jezz will understand that this is big news.
After reassurances from Jezz that he was fine with us drinking around him we proceeded to get half cut with a minor interlude in the form of a short trip to the Central Market.
2 Tiger Tom did pop in to say hello but he seemed too stoned to say much else or at least much that made sense.
As Jezz and Jen had had a long journey we just grabbed a bite to eat in the evening and had an early night

The next day we went to the Petronas Towers again to see if we had more luck going up them. We didn't. Too late again.
At least there were no Jedi monks hanging around though.

We had a wander around the evening market in Chinatown and went for some dinner. We went to a little food court and all had noodles which was an interesting experience for Jezz as he has never used chopsticks before. He actually managed to figure out a very efficient if not slightly retarded looking method by wrapping half the plate of noodles around the chopsticks and shovelling it in.

We were off to the Perhentian Islands the next morning and as we had heard that alcohol is ridiculously expensive there we went and stocked up on a 'few' bottles before leaving KL.

Pulau Perhentian

The flight up to Kota Bharu on the North East coast was only an hour but it was pretty horrible for Vickie as she'd picked up a cold and her ears were killing her in the air.
From Kota Bharu we took a taxi to Kuala Besut which is where the boats to the islands leave from.
We had to wait around at a tour company for what seemed like an eternity until enough people to fill a boat turned up. Whilst there the owner offered us some durian which he described as The King of Fruits.
I beg to differ.
It smells a little like a sewer and tastes about the same.
Vickie took one bite and discreetly threw it in the bin. Jezz and I tried to persevere but not for long. Jen had very wisely declined the offer.
We spent the next hour or so burping up the taste onions and vomit.

Once enough people turned up we took a very fast boat over to Long Beach and started looking for a place to stay.
Easier said than done.

We were all walking up the beach with our big backpacks, sweating like crazy and asking in every place for rooms. Everywhere was full.

Vickie was feeling a bit worse for wear at this point what with having a cold so Jezz and I left the girls in a cafe and carried on the search. We were still having no luck and getting a bit worried when we eventually managed to find two rooms right at the very end of the beach.

Jezz and Jens room wasn't too bad as at least it had intact walls and an attached bathroom.
Our room wasn't quite up to the same standard.
There were big gaps in the walls and a rancid shared bathroom. When I tried to open the window shutters the whole frame nearly fell out but then who needs open windows in 35 degree heat. Obviously not us.

We just had a very chilled out evening with a bit of dinner a few drinks.

The next day Jezz and I went off again in search of better rooms but everything was still full so we went back with our tails between our legs to tell the girls.
We spent the rest of the day almost entirely on the beach but were watching carefully where we swam as we saw loads of jellyfish. It wasn't until later in the day we realised they must be harmless ones as little kids were picking them up and throwing them at each other.
We still kept away from them though. Just in case as none of us really wanted to piss on any of the others if they got stung. We all love each other but that might change things.

A full day in the sun resulted in Jezz and Jen both getting sunburnt and going a lovely shade of pink.
Sadly this gave Jezz a bit of sunstroke so he spent most of the next day in bed while we chilled on the beach again.

After a few days of staying in basic accommodation Jezz and Jen were in need of some creature comforts like air conditioning and a bathroom that didn't stink of shit.
They managed to get a nice room just up the beach. We tried to get a room at the same place but they didn't have anything free in our price range so we moved into Jezz and Jens old room. It was a step up from our previous shed as we now had our own bathroom even though it stank of shit.

One evening we took a walk across the island to Coral Bay and had a nice if slightly odd meal. We ordered our food and the waiter came back and asked if we'd like some free soup.
Well yes, thankyou very much.
After our free soup came some slightly premature free desert.
Lovely but we started to wonder if we were getting someone else's food but we kept quiet.
Then we had the food we had actually ordered.
Finally we were offered some more free desert which nobody really wanted but it was free so why not.

Feeling very full we had to walk back across the island along a jungle path with one torch between the four of us which not surprisingly took a while.

The next day we managed to move to the same place as Jezz and Jen and a much nicer room. We were very lazy again with beach being the order of the day and another beachside dinner. Life's hard don't you know.
After dinner we went to a beach bar where you can smoke flavoured tobacco in Hookah pipes. So we had a couple of beers and smoked a very nice strawberry flavoured Hookah.
While we were there an obviously pissed and overweight local was dancing around the beach swigging from a bottle of paraffin and breathing fire. It was a bit bizarre really.

The next morning we went on a half day snorkelling trip which was great.
The first stop was Turtle Point.
The boat driver told us when he spotted a turtle and we all jumped in, swam after it for a bit, climbed back on the boat, waited until another was spotted and repeated the exercise. So we got to see a couple of turtles but from a fair distance away as by the time it was spotted and we got in the water it had swum off a bit.

The next stop was Shark Point.
Vickie very nearly didn't get in the water as she was seriously scared about swimming with sharks. But after a bit of coaxing she jumped in and she was glad she did.
We got to see three Black Tip Reef sharks and much to Vickie's relief they didn't eat her. They were about a metre long and pretty fast so we only got quick glimpses of them but it was worth it.

The final stop was a coral garden teaming with all sorts of fish. The boatman was throwing bread into the water around Vickie and Jen which meant they were completely surrounded by hundreds of fish. So there were a few high pitched squeals coming from their direction.

After swimming around for a few hours we were all pretty knackered so we spent the rest of the day doing as little as possible.

On Jezz and Jens last full day we once again chilled out on the beach and went for a farewell dinner and drinks.

The next morning we went down to the beach and waved Jezz and Jen off and it was a real shame to see them go. Not least because Jen had picked up Vickie's cold and hadn't been feeling great for a few days so hadn't been able to really enjoy the last days properly.

Not wanting to break with tradition we spent the rest of the day on the beach and the next morning we left to begin the journey to Borneo which Vickie will tell you all about in the next entry. (Coming Soon)

Jack & Vickie

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Photos

Penang
Georgetown

Penang
Georgetown

Penang
Georgetown, The Fort

Penang
Georgetown, The Fort

Penang
Fort Cornwallis

Penang
Fort Cornwallis

Cameron Highlands
Tea plantation

Cameron Highlands
Rhinoceros Beetle

Cameron Highlands
Scorpions