Saturday 9th May 2009 - Georgetown Penang, Malaysia
A warm and humid welcome to everyone, Thomas here. Sorry we haven't blogged in a while but Malaysian internet is scratchy at best. So our first few days in Malaysia were spent in Kuala Lumpur after the trip up from Singapore. Although lots of people have criticized KL for being smelly and warned us to get out quick it wasn't that bad. The sun and humid are standard all over the lowlands down here so thats not a big deal but i grant the smell can get pretty bad every so often as your walking along.
Whilst in KL we went to the famous twin towers which have an adjoining bridge half way up (popular in photos of KL) which was very impressive. But the fountains behind were amazing, for around an hour they we saw the fountains show before we decided to have a look around the shops and grab lunch. This was the biggest shopping centre i've ever seen. 10 times the size of the Oracle in Reading at least but as you can imagine fairly expensive. However the food court was a different matter and extremely cheap. We both had a curry of some description for only 4 pounds total. It's ridiculously cheap food here.
The next day we walked down to Chinatown and went around the massive knock-off Nigel market. People selling "real Fred Perry t-shirts on 25 Ringett" to some strange green fruit for 1 Ringett. Needless to say Anna and I had a field day swanning around the various stalls bartering for the "authentic" goods and buying a fair few items. Then it was lunch/dinner time.
Now in Asia we've taken to having breakfast and then one other meal during the day as it's just to hot and neither one of us feels like eating. So usually we eat around 4 unless we specifically want dinner in which case we nibble on some bread a lunch. This time we ate in another amazing food court called the Pavilion near to our hostel and we even decided to watch a film (for 2 pounds, i wish it were that cheap in the UK). Would you believe it almost every film is screened in English. Well that was enough of KL for us and the following morning we headed up the country to stop of at Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands.
After a very windy journey we finally reached Tanah Rata. It is a very little village with really only one street of shops and small cafes. It is a much poorer area but not too run down. We were staying a very nice little hostel just off the main street. It was a really nice change to KL as the height made if far less humid and was much more quiet and relaxing. Unfortunately as you can imagine rain is not uncommon in the highlands and so out came the waterproofs. We spent the afternoon walking down the main street looking in the little shops and then had a nice curry at one of the cafes. Thomas had the specialty of lots of little piles of curry, rice and veg on a banana leaf while i stuck to the old fav, Chicken Jalfrazi. In the even we thought to venture to the hostel bar aka jungle bar. Now, this is like no place you have ever been lol. It is pretty much a shack made out of wood and corrugated iron with lots of random object hung on the wall. There is also even a little bonfire just ourside! We played a couple of games of pool, both of which i really should have won having been 3 ball ahead of Thomas but then never actually being able to pot my last ball. Very annoying. The next night however i finally beat him much to his displeasure. We decided to treat ourselves to some gin and tonics since they were so cheap in the supermarket. However since only eating once that day, the curry at 3pm, i was feeling a little worse for wear in the morning.
The following day we had a nice lazy day reading and just relaxing. Went for a very nice lunch at one of the cafes where we both ahd beef that was so unbelievably succulent - mum you would have loved it.
On our last day in Cameron Highlands we decided to do an adventure tour they offered. We started the morning with a 3 hour jungle trek. We now consider ourselves jungle pros having done the amazon, cape tribulation and now Malaysia. The jungle was much more like the amazon as it was fairly humid and we were actually walking though the forest not on boardwalks like in Cape Trib. We saw the wild ginger plant and flower, wild bananas, tried what is known as the wake up fruit (it is extremely sour) and drank filtered water out of bamboo shoots. At the end of the walk we got to see the worlds largest flower. It is huge, about 80cms in diameter and a very vibrant red colour.
After the jungle we stopped at an Aborigine village which has a tribe of only 40 people. The live in a very primitive manner, in houses made of bamboo and other kinds of wood and iron slates and only have one room. They also still believe in the "spirit of the jungle" and are very superstitious. Here they showed us how they hunt with a blow pipe and let us have a go at a target. Thomas managed to hit the leave on the target while i still managed to hit the target but miss the leaf. Good job i don't have to hunt like that, i'd probably starve!
We were then taken to the BOH tea plantation and factory. (BOH-best of highland). It is absolutely massive. The plantation covers 234 hectares. It used to be hand picked by women but now they use what looks like a giant hedge strimmer and only a handful of men are now employed. We had a very whistle stop tour of the factory where we got to see the machines that are used to sort, crush and dry the tea. I did want to try some of their tea but having discovered i seem to have the most pathetic stomach i decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Next we headed to a strawberry farm. We weren't very interested in this since both of us having been strawberry picking many a time when we were younger, but what we were interested in were the amazing milkshakes and desserts they did there. We had a really nice strawberry milkshake and some scones with homemade strawberry jam, cream and strawberries in a strawberry syrup - yummmmm.
The last place we went to was a butterfly in insect farm. There were loads of really huge insects which i was not a fan of especially when the guy took the scorpion out the cage and tried to get us to hold it!!! no thank you very much!!!
At the end of a very long day we were both pretty shattered and hit the sack early.
The next morning we caught a bus out to the island of Penag (just off the north west coast of Malaysia). We were staying George Town, the 2nd biggest place in Malaysia after KL. To be honest, theres not much to do here. We wondered round most of the town and even though there are a few impressive temples there is no beach or park to sit and relax anywhere. After a day we were both pretty fed up of being again in a built up area and instead decided to get the bus out the the north coast of the island to a place called Batu Ferringhi where there is a beach. We spent a couple of hours lounging in the sun but had to stop and go find a nice cold drink as it was soooo hot. The sea wasn't even refreshing as it was like stepping into a bath! Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the shade on the beach before catching the bus back to George Town.
This morning there have been thunderstorms and so have stayed at the hostel rather than go back to the beach which was our original plan. Not got much to do today, will probably go out for dinner this eve before packing up our stuff as we are starting our journey to Thailand tomorrow. Turns out its a nightmare to sort out your visa now for Thailand if you travel overland and so we are now flying from KL to Phuket as then you automatically get a 30 day visitors visa.
Thats all for now folks, your all up to date.
We'll let you know how we get on in Thailand, looking forward to those beautiful beaches!!!
Love Anna and Thomas.
Wednesday 29th April 2009 - Humid Singapore
Hello from Asia, as you can tell from the title Singapore is extremely humid and has quite varyed weather throughout the day. Today we had bright sushine, rain, thunder, wind and back to sun again. The problem is walking around, i was literally dripping as soon as we stepped outside the hostel. It's like being back in the Amazon except skyscrapers replace the vegetation.
The flight over was good (Qantas is fast becoming my favourite airline) lots of films and wine to take our mind off the 8 hours flight. We leave Singapore tomoroow morning to take a bus to Kuala Lumpur where we really begin our Asia travel (Singapore is too expensive to be counted as Asia travel). Steve and CarrieAnne had a slightly longer trip back to England (46 hours total travel time!) but they arrived safely home and i think went straight to bed!
So thats all from us for now we'll keep you up to date on the Asia leg. We're going to retire to our airconditioned room to escape the oppression. Take care
Love
Thomas & Anna
