Travel Log 5

Agnes’s Brothers wedding was huge. Agnes like most Chinese families out here has about 10 aunts and uncles on both sides of her family meaning she has millions of cousins. There are so many things that go on in a Chinese wedding and too many to explain. So I shall just say thanks Agnes for inviting me.

 

After the wedding I had planned to go straight to Thailand however school holidays changed my plan as there weren’t any trains or buses for a few days so on the spur of the moment having 10 minutes before the bus left I decided to go back to Penang and try and get a bus from there. On the bus I realised that I neither had money in my wallet for a taxi nor credit on my phone to call Kendra for a lift and that I would be arriving at the bus station out of town at 1 in the morning. Unfortunately Kendra didn’t answer the phone when I called using the taxi drivers mobile so in the end I had to get the taxi driver to drive me to an ATM machine so I could pay him a ridiculous amount for the taxi ride to the hotel I had been staying at previously.

The next day I found out that there weren’t any buses from Penang for a few days either. Luckily Kendra wiped her evening schedule clean and had a bank holiday on Friday. Ta Muchly.

Saturday came quickly enough and I now find myself in the film ‘The Beach’ staying at the dirty hotel where Dicaprio gets given the map. Like Leo I also want to escape the hotel. Not because it is dirty as it is probably one of the cleaner places I have stayed thus far but for the irritating fellow travellers there seems to be here (next door neighbours are having an argument about money as I write this (later just as I was about to fall asleep they decide to have loud make-up sex - bed banging and screaming involved!)). Having said this one of the travellers did provide a funny moment when he crashed his scooter into three others when trying to park causing several broken lights. I had to bite my lip real hard not to laugh out loud.

Tomorrow I head to the Island where The Beach was shot.

Travel Log 4

For the past week I have spent most of my time in George Town taking pictures of crumbling colonial buildings, relaxing and eating the local food. There was a cuttlefish dish called Yau Yue Ong Choy which although highly recommended by the internet was quite bland, and the cuttlefish quite tasteless. One evening I shared a delightful dim sum meal with Tina a German girl whom I met through couchsurfing.com she is trying to set up an internet business in SE Asia and has been staying in George Town for about a month now whilst the webpage is made. We also attended a dance show as Tina’s Thai Chi teacher invited us to go. The show turned out to be a school dance competition and Tina and I were the only non Chinese people there. Some of the performances were better than others, the best I thought was an all boy group who performed quite a feminine  piece.

 Cuttlefish on display in Penang’s Gurney Drive

Staying at the same guesthouse was Sius a devote Muslim with whom I joined to go to the National Park for the night. Sius had a tent which we pitched on a raised shelter and stayed the night on a deserted beach called Monkey Beach although there were more crabs than monkeys to be seen on the beach.

The next morning he hiked up to the lighthouse which had been built in 1883 by the British to guide sailors into the port in George Town. When we arrived we found the fence locked and no sign of life inside so being adventurous we jumped the fence to take a look around. After taking some pictures and trying every door Sius found a ladder and had the bright idea of getting up of the roof. The roof wasn’t too pleased with this idea and decided to give way with Sius falling a few metres onto a hard tiled floor. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at Sius as I did warn him to be careful as the corrugated asbestos didn’t look very safe to walk on. Luckily Sius and his camera were ok and we decided that is was best to leave as quickly as possible. So we climbed back over the fence without clearing up the mess or closing the doors we had opened and make our way back through the forest. Just 20 metres down the path we past a Malay fella who said he was about to unlock the fence to the lighthouse and would we like to take a look inside. I quickly thought that letting the guy know that that wouldn’t be necessary as we had already been in wouldn’t be very wise so I replied without much hesitation that yes we would love to take a look around and what great timing he had. So Sius and I distracted our host with idle chitchat, “when was the lighthouse built?”, “does it still get used?” …  luckily he didn’t notice the open door which lead to the hole in the roof and instead opened up the stairwell to the top of the lighthouse. What a wonderful view it has over the island. After this and signing  our good names in the visitor book we thanked the guy, who was still oblivious to all that had happened before he arrived, and made our way as quickly as possible (2 and a half hours) to the park exit. I although having not done anything more serious than climb a fence couldn’t help but think that there would be police waiting for us at the end of our trek and would either force us to bribe them or pay a large fine. This fear was only made worst when Sias said that the lighthouse keeper had noticed the cuts on his arm and had asked how he got them to which Sias replied that he had slipped.

To our good fortune this slip seemed to go unnoticed and we managed to get on our bus back to George Town which out any problem. phew!

   

Well I shall speed through the rest. Penang Hill – Great view, funicular railway. Paddy fields – Pretty. Walking in sun – Hot and sweaty.

I am now back at Agnes’ place in KL as she has invited me to join her family for her Brother’s wedding and as I won’t get these offers everyday I thought I could postpone going to Thailand for a week. So here I am back in KL for the fourth time having got a free lift off the lovely Kendra, whom joined me for food and drinks for a couple of evenings in Penang and who also happened to be going to KL the same time I was. Thankyou Kendra.

OK - till next time.

Abandoned Buildings: Part 1:1 George Town, Penang

Travel Log 3

 

After Cameron Highlands it was back to KL, where this time I couchsurfed at Milda’s couchsurfing house. I was the only one couchsurfing when I arrived but by the end of the three nights I stayed there Milda hosted me, a South African/Irish couple, an Estonian girl, a Portuguese Malay friend,  a polish guy, a English/French couple (who have spent the last four years cycling across the globe) and four Russian guys.  I also met about 20 other couchsurfers going out with the KL couchsurfing community.

The first night back in KL was quite relaxed sitting in and eating cheese naan, drinking and chatting. The next night was out to meet some CSers to go to a night market where we tried all sort of crazy dishes, one of which was stinky tofu which smelt like sewage and tasted like sewage – and yet there was a queue at the stall selling it.  Then the next night we met up with Nanie a CSer I met last time I was in KL and we went for some food and drinks and met more CSers. Unfortunately compared with food and other drink alcohol is quite expensive out here as a lot of the population are Muslim and don’t drink so the drink is usuakky tea or fruit juice.

After Milda’s house I moved onto Agnes’s house as she was going to give me a lift to Melaka. The first night I was there we stayed in KL and went out with Agnes’s CSing friends for a burger excursion where we ate several burgers at several roadside burger joints. One of which actually had really nice steamed burgers. This place steamed the burgers and then barbequed them. Here I had a double burger mutton and beef with cheese and egg and pepper sauce. It was huge but tasted real good. I reckon it’s probably the best burger joint in town.

On Saturday Agnes drove us down to Melaka where she often goes to visit her family. Here we saw the sights which range from old chinese temples and restaurants to old Portuguese churches and British colonial buildings, unfortunately as it was Saturday the town was packed with school kids out on day trips. In the evening we had Satay dipped in a special Melakan sauce.

         My host Agnes at a Portuguese church

 

After Melaka it was back up to KL for the night to catch a bus in the morning to Penang Island where I am now sitting in the forecourt of an old Colonial building using Penang’s free wifi service which although free is very slow. Here I am going to hire a bike and bike around town, then hopefully go to the beach and also get my Thai visa.

So for now

Toodle loo

Leon  

Travel Log 2

 

Currently I am sitting drinking tea and eating scones with cream and jam in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Here the British used to come to escape the heat during colonial times – it rains from 3:30 onwards here. There are lots of tea plantations and strawberry farms (very British) and beautiful rainforests. So far all we have done is go to the tea plantation and a Buddhist temple. To get about the villages we hitchhiked; once on the back of a pickup once on an old school bus and once with a middle aged Malaysian couple all of whom were wonderfully friendly.

 

Today I had my first hot shower on my trip – ace. Tomorrow we are going for a hike into the rainforest to hopefully the summit of the nearest mountain.

Prior to the Cameron highland I was in Tamen Negara a rainforest area. Here I went on a trek along a canopy walkway and then a long day trip into the forest with three others and two guides. One of which was a small funny chap who upon finding elephant tracks ran around  the back of a tree and picked up the elephant dung high above his head with a big smile on his face.  In the jungle there are loads of leeches and by the end of the trek I had 15 leech bites on my feet and blood soaked socks and shoes. On the boat ride back we stopped off at an aboriginal tribes home, which although very touristy was interesting and we got to have a go on the blow dart. Unfortunately as we were a large group we didn’t see many animals on the trek only a few monkeys and different insects.

So after a long day trek and losing pints of blood feeding the leeches I moved onto the Cameron Highlands where I am now eating tea and scones.

   

Some pictures of the trekking group

Laters taters

Leon

Strawberries

Travel Log 1

 

I arrived in KL (What the cool kids call Kuala Lumpur) on Monday after a nervous 12 hour flight. I was nervous because the AirAsia check in guy warned me that because I didn't have an onward flight I may have trouble getting into the country without making travel arrangements to the next country. As I was arriving not knowing what the next country I was to visit was going to be I spent some of my flight attempting to figure out where I would go in the next month.

Oh and also although the flight was 12 hours long no in flight entertainment was provided. So I mainly slept, one time when the plane wobbled I lashed out in my sleep and hit the man sitting next to me, I quickly apologised and thought it was time I watched a film on my laptop.

My initial plan was to walk to the hostel from the station the airport bus dropped me off at but having walked all around the station to find only highways with no footpaths besides them I decided to get a cab instead.

I arrived at the hostel at about 11:30 to find that the room I booked online had been given to someone else but they kindly offered to give me a 2 single bed room for the same price if I didn't mind sharing with anyone else that arrived.

 

 The hostel I stayed at in KL

 

My first day in KL was taken up by looking around Chinatown and the central market and also sleeping off the jetlag. Over the next few days I saw most of the sights of KL, which unfortunately aren't really all that. The Petronas tower are huge! The transport system needs updating. Chinatown although interesting; smells. Jalan Alor a food street was good and I had pretty nice grilled swordfish there. Oh and I met up with a CS (What the Couch Surfing bums call a couch surfer) at the KL tower to watch some base jumpers one of which was her friend which was pretty cool.

It seems that KL is used as a hub for South East Asia travellers and there were lots of people in the hostel hanging around topping up supplies and waiting before going off on their next excursion. This may well be what I do in a few weeks time.

Currently I am on the smaller of the Perhentian Islands off the east coast near a town called Kota Besut, overlooking a wonderful bay where I have spent the day swimming in the sea and sleeping under a sunshade. I am not sure whether my body has survived the amount of sun I forced it to take today; only time will tell.

 View from my chalet on the Perhentian Islands

I am probably going to stay here for a couple more days until we get thrown off the island because of the Monsoons and then ... well i'm not sure but I will update in the future probably quite soon as most places seem to have wifi.

 The beach

Ciao

Leon

A blog

This is my first blog – it doesn’t say much, if anything at all.