6/12/10 - 6/15/10 (langkawi)

Langkawi

Langkawi was the final stop in Malaysia. It is an island similar in size to Penang but with a population that is much smaller at 80,000. Langkawi is a popular tourist destination with local Malaysian’s visiting from Kuala Lumpur. We prearranged our accommodations in Penang, quite unusual for us to be ahead of the game. We took a three hour ferry ride to this final island. Upon arrival we were instructed to bypass all the private taxi’s and head to the taxi stand next to the KFC. We were quickly escorted to a car and off to our home stay. The ride was 30 minutes through winding rural country side that ended on the island’s western beach. The home stay was similar to our Ubud experience in Bali as we ventured down a small local road lined with rice fields and stray chickens. The taxi dropped us off at Pondock Keladi. PK opened a few years back by D, a reporter from Kuala Lumpur who has many years abroad and his partner Mark. The home stay consisted of 6 rooms for guests, a kitchen, dining, and lounge area. It was very peaceful while D and Mark proved to be very accommodating. 

Annie and I quickly fell into our normal routine and rented a motor bike to get us around the island. The area we were staying was very Western oriented and the main street was lined with restaurants, tour companies, and souvenir stands. Our original plan was to stay two nights and then take the boat up to Thailand. Two days turned into four days as we were sucked into this island’s laid back, relaxed culture. We spent the next few days lounging around the Pondock Keladi interacting with our fellow guest mates. Steven and Berit, wrapping up their five week vacation from Belgium. Tasha and Carly, the 18-year old world travelers from England. Hector and his quirky personal trainer traveling back to Shanghai. Alex, the most easy going 18-year old British mate. Pippa, Australian born working in London who got assigned to work in China for four months. We enjoyed many laughs and a few meals with this unique group of characters. 

After a few days of lounging, Annie and I decided to get out and explore the island. Our first stop was the biggest attraction, the cable car. The cable car is located in the Oriental Village on the northwestern side of the island and offers spectacular panoramic views of the main and surrounding islands. Our next stop was Julan Tanjung Rhu, a beautiful beach that overlooks Thailand and some of the surrounding islands. It is said to have the best sunset in Langkawi and we were there to confirm it. I was able to shoot a nice time lapse video as the sun was setting. We were also able to briefly explore the local Four Seasons located on the beach for a quick restroom break and were enticed by the doorman offering a private villa, with pool and butler for $6000 a night. Maybe next time. 

Since we watched the sunset, our drive home would be in the dark and it was going to take roughly an hour. It is very different driving a motor bike in the evening and this was the longest night drive for us to date. Night driving is a bit stressful for me and this tends to be a time when the bugs come out. The drive proved to be uneventful but I did spent a good amount of time washing the bug remnants from my face upon arrival. 

On our final day we had booked an island hopping tour with a few people from our home stay. It turned out to live up to the rainy season reputation and poured buckets all morning. When it finally let up and the boats were dried out, we were off to explore three local islands. The first stop was a remote island with a fresh water lake in the middle. The rain had picked up upon arrival and Annie and I spent the majority of the time under the canopy watching the native monkeys steal all the tourist foods and retreat to the trees. We got some good laughs. The next stop was for the eagle feeding but the eagles didn’t like the rain and only a few were visible. The final destination was on a small remote island with white sand beaches for all the visitors to swim. The rain eased a bit and we all got a chance to cool down with a swim. We then headed back to the home stay to dry out and pack for our trip to Thailand.

6/06/10 – 6/08/10 (kuala lumpur)

Kuala Lumpur – Cameron Highlands

We arrived at the bus depot ready for the madness again. But the madness happened while we were waiting for the bus. To be fair I will give two accounts of the story…mine and Jon’s. Our bus was a bit late so I decided to go use the restroom since it was going to be a long bus ride and I have a tendency to need to go at inconvenient times. There was a really long line since there were only two stalls. After ten minutes I was still waiting in line but by this time I figured I would continue to wait. I figured if I left the line Jon would have wondered why I waited all that time for nothing. I kept checking my phone to see what time it was and figured since the bus was already late it probably wouldn’t leave immediately after arriving. Plus Jon would’ve told them I was in the restroom and would return momentarily. Once I was done I ran to the waiting area to a very angry Jon who spewed many bad words that I won’t repeat. We grabbed our luggage and ran to our bus.

Now Jon’s version…I told him I needed to use the restroom for about ten minutes before actually getting up and heading towards the restroom. Right after I left the bus driver came to get everyone to board the bus but he couldn’t leave since I hadn’t come back. There were rows of buses so he didn’t know where the bus was. He didn’t want to leave the waiting area since I wouldn’t have known where to board the bus. Of course, it always seems longer than it really was when you are the one waiting. He waited there for what seemed like ages and was afraid that the bus would leave without us. I don’t know what we would’ve done if we missed our bus. While he was waiting he was thinking how upset he would’ve been if he saw me strolling toward him rather than running. If I had gone when I initially thought about going none of this would have happened.

The best part of it all was that we waited for another forty-five minutes on the bus before we hit the road. It’s something we laugh about now and I like to give Jon a hard time by imitating him in the waiting area.

Cameron Highlands reminded me of a Bavarian ski town with chalets lining up the main street. The place we were staying, Father’s Guesthouse, came to pick us up and we realized that there was also another couple staying at the same place. They lived in the Cayman Islands and had been traveling for a few months through southeast Asia. When we arrived at the guesthouse we were shown to our room. There were only shared shower rooms available, which we were fine with, but the room was extremely small and had no outlet plugs. And they were in these tin roof buildings, which they called historical Nissen huts though it looked more like run down garden houses converted into three rooms. We were both a bit shocked when we were shown to our room and immediately asked them if they had a room in the main building where it was a lot nicer and also had a fan. The room attracted a lot of bug and the walls were so thin that we both took an Ambien to help us sleep. We also realized that there was only cold water left in the shower, probably because all the hot water had been used up. It was the most bare bones place we had stayed.  The only consolation was that it only cost forty rupiahs per night. To give the place some credit it offered a range of very affordable accommodations. It also had a small restaurant that served pretty good and inexpensive food. It was an ideal backpacker destination.

Luckily the next day we were moved into a room in the main building, which was more spacious and had a plug! We had to pay twice as much but certainly worth it. We decided to stay two more nights there. On our first full day in Cameron Highlands we walked into town to have breakfast at an Indian restaurant. We had Indian style crepes, which were really good. We were still a bit worn out from our long bus ride and interesting sleeping arrangement so we decided to just chill around the guesthouse for the day. We booked a full day jungle trekking for the next day.

We woke up the following day a little more refreshed and ready for an exciting day. We were supposed to take a Land Rover but we had more people than expected so we had to take a van. With the van we had to start trekking into the jungle at the bottom and had very muddy paths. We saw some Land Rovers driving through and one of them almost got stuck in the mud. There were no roads, it was all mud. Our guide told us to be extremely careful since the path was slippery and you also didn’t know if the mud was mushy or solid enough to step on. Needless to say there were times when my foot was covered in mud up to my ankle. It was a pretty hardcore workout. The whole point of the jungle trekking was to see the world’s largest flower called rafflesia. It is red and about the size of a car tire. There were only two of them in the entire jungle and took about two hours to reach one of them. The flower was pretty amazing though we were told that the center of the flower smelled like shit. We all had our photo taken with the flower and then it was another two-hour trek back to the van. It was a really good exercise and something Jon and I hadn’t done in a long time. Our shoes and pants were caked in mud and I have never been dirtier!

Next we visited a village where we got a chance to try our blow dart skills. Our darts weren’t poisonous like the ones they use to kill animals but I was afraid that if I inhaled I would choke on the dart. Luckily it didn’t happen since there is a piece of fine cotton between the mouthpiece and the dart to keep that from happening. One of the guys we were with almost hit a bulls-eye and I was just happy that my dart even landed on the board.

We were then on our way to visit a tea plantation called BOH. Cameron Highlands is well known for its tea (and strawberries) and there are huge rolling tea valleys all around. We learned about the tea making process but what I found more fascinating was the people working at the plant. There was a section of the tea process where only women were allowed to work but I can’t remember the reason. Also, a lot of the tea pickers are Burmese and Bengalines since they are willing to work for lower wages. Who would’ve thought that even the Malays outsource their labor.

After the tea plantation we visited a mossy forest, which was a refreshing change since it was much cooler there. The ground was made up of compost so it was soft and squishy. There were a lot of different types of plants and flowers and our guide showed us something that smelled like cinnamon. It was really cool to see the moss growing all around and wrapping itself around tree limbs.

We ended our tour at the strawberry plantation and enjoyed a delicious strawberry sundae as the sun was about to set. The plantation reminded me of when I was a little girl and went strawberry picking with my family in Taiwan. The difference was that the strawberries in Cameron Highlands were grown in bags on an elevated platform so bugs didn’t eat them.

After a super long day we were ready to relax our legs and enjoyed at nice meal at the guesthouse.

6/03/10 – 6/05/10 (sanur)

Sanur – Kuala Lumpur

We keep telling ourselves not to book 6am flights since they can be a bit brutal to wake up so early in the morning and usually our travel days takes up the whole day. But sometimes they are the cheapest flights so it is a hard choice. Our driver picked us up at 4:30am for our flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL). It was our first flight on Air Asia, which is the budget airline most people use to travel around southeast Asia. For such an early morning flight the plane was pretty packed. There were quite a few Muslim females in Bali and Lombok wearing headdresses but none in complete headdress covered from head to toe with only their eyes showing. There was a woman on our flight who had on the black headdress from head to toe with only her eyes showing. Because every part of her body was covered you really took notice to her eyes, which were hazel. I felt bad staring at her but it was more out of curiosity about her faith and culture. For example, I wondered if the airport security would ask her take off her headdress when she pass through the security gates and at what age do they start wearing one. It made me realize how little I knew about their society and wished I could ask her some questions.

After a short flight we were in KL and headed to our hotel. When we arrived at our hotel we were informed that our reservation had not been confirmed and they were fully booked since it was the school holiday season. After a frustrated battle we were able to get a room at the discounted internet rate. Later we found out that we had entered the wrong dates for our reservation and they sent us an email asking us to correct our dates. Oops. We felt bad that we caused such a scene in the lobby and smiled warmly at reception every time we passed by.

We stayed in Bukit Bintang, a pretty busy part of town with people offering massages all along the road and at night the food market was bustling. One night we had dinner at one of the night markets. The restaurant tables spilled out onto the road and the police had to ask some restaurants to put away some of their tables because it was blocking the traffic. Every place tried to entice you with their menu and since the cooking was done outside the aroma from the food permeated the streets. There were also fruit stalls and I was very excited to see my favorite fruit called the wax apple. I loved eating the wax apple as a kid in Taiwan and before leaving KL we bought some for our bus trip.

We visited the Petronas Towers, which is a major icon in KL and at one time was the tallest building in the world. We went at dusk and saw the lights come on around the building. There was also a mall with about five floors dedicated to any kind of electronics you could ever want. Jon was a kid in a candy store and I’m sure he would’ve been quite content staying there all day and night.

One of the craziest experiences we had was booking our bus to Cameron Highlands. The bus depot was under construction so it was temporarily moved to the outskirt of the city. We had to take several trains to get there and the depot wasn’t like anything we had ever seen. There were about fifty bus companies each with their own booth crammed into a small building. When you walked in all of them started yelling at you to come visit their booth. All the companies offered similar routes and prices so it was really hard to decide which one to pick. We finally picked one based on the departure time that suited our schedule.

Another interesting observation is the huge Chinese population in Malaysia and many of them speak a dialect called Fu Kinese (don’t know the correct spelling) which sounds a lot like Taiwanese. Most people I encountered spoke Malay Chinese, a slightly different dialect of Mandarin, but we were still able to converse quite comfortably.