A short boat ride to Perhentian Island

We stayed in Kuala Lumpur for three nights. I made it clear to Matt that three days was enough time to learn about the people, the place and not get to attached to any one location, and had no intention of staying any longer. So we caught an over night bus that would take us to Northern Malaysia, very close to the border of Thailand. Our intention was to catch a boat that would ferry us across the water to a group of islands that were home to several beach shacks and tourist destinations. The town we arrived in at 6am was a small water side settlement. We walked around, looking for a cheap boat ticket, however soon we began to get harassed by a local, telling us to stay in his hostel and how he could give us a ticket for half price. He was insistent and followed us for a while on his motorbike, and when we firmly refused we watched him ride back down the road, talk to another group of six men who then proceeded to mount their motorbikes and began riding towards us.



Matt and I both had the same idea going on in our head: In about thirty seconds it would be for young and old and I would be leaving behind one extremely beautiful corpse. So we began to run, but how the hell would we escape a group of seven guys on motorbikes? We frantically searched for a back alley or some road that would lead us back to the bus port we had arrived before, but it just didn't seem to exist. So I stopped in front of a house, pulled a picket fence railing from the front of some old guys garden and held it my hand while we ran. If these guys were going to try to mug me, I was at least going to hurt one or two of them. Luckily it didn't come to that, because just as they closed in we did manage to find a back alley that led to a store with plenty of friendly foreign faces from the bus we had caught that night. They eyed me carefully as I still held the huge piece of fence in my right hand and kept peering around waiting for the guys on bikes to appear like an irritated meerkat. Catching their surprised looks I simply said to them in between heathing breaths, "Big guys... On bikes... Want to kill me!"



The boat to the island was really enjoyable. We flew across the water in a long dingy pushed a long by two fair sized outboards. When I say we flew, I mean we literally left the water surface at points and became air bound before slamming back down onto the next series of waves. The timing was perfect and we got to see the sun rise up over the horizon, just behind the islands we were quickly heading for. Combined with a perfect warm morning breeze and a light spray from the waves as we traveled, it was one of those moments I was really grateful to be traveling in a new country and doing something no one I knew had done before.

As we came closer to the island and entered a bay area the boat began to slow and the driver threw his anchor over board about a kilometer from the shore. For a moment I thought we would need to swim, until I realized that a huge setup was occurring. Yellow boats with the words ' Taxi' spray painted in black on the sides kicked off from the beach and over towards us. They soon stopped next to the boats and began to pack our bags into their little 'taxi' boats, and told us it would cost 2MYR to ride to the shore. What choice did we have? I begrudgingly handed over my money and sat down in the boat, Matt following shortly after. Little more then five minutes later and we were on the beach, I grabbed my pack and hung my shoes around my neck and easily jumped in the water. Matt, fumbled with his 20kg bag, threw it to me, and proceded to fall in the water. One he managed to pull himself up and take his own bag, it was a matter of finding a chateau somewhere and then enjoying the rest of our time. I was content to find accommodation first, eat later... but that was not to happen. So while he found a restaurant and ate, I took it upon myself to find a place to stay for the next three days.



Most places were booked out, the one place that had any vacancy was about 500 meters up from the beach among the forest trees and I suspect (later confirmed) hordes of mosquitoes. Not knowing if I would find another place I took all that was left, a honey moon bungalow for two people, with one bed. I didn't care! Inside was dingy, it consisted of exactly these things: A bed equipped with a mosquito net and a desk fan mounted on the roof. Who in their right mind would spend their honey moon in this thing?! The bloody fan didn't even work until after sun down when they turned on the generator anyway... I had to remind myself, it was a place to sleep, that was it.



Once I got past the state of the bungalow and took the time to explore I realized just how nice the island was really was. It was exactly what u would expect from one of those tropical get aways you might see stamped on a postcard at a milk bar. Palm trees, exotic food, clear blue water, crystal sand, girl's wearing bikinis and sun... Of course it wouldn't be a tropical paradise with out locals trying to ring you dry of every dollar in your pockets. In all honestly, the place was beautiful, but damn they knew how to charge. Like in Bali if I sat under an umbrella I would get charged, so I found myself a nice palm tree and planted my butt there for a large portion of my time on the island. Here I could watch people swim or walk past, enjoy the sun sparkling on the water, or just fall asleep in the shade.



On the island there were about five restaurants; two of them expensive and three of them expensive, but cheaper then the others. We had to succumb to the prices because we couldn't just say "Oh, well go some where else..." because obviously there was no where else. There were five restaurants, and about seven different villas on that island, and I'm sure the people that owned them were all related. Admittedly the food wasn't too bad, although I got a nasty bout of gastro for about 24 hours after eating a tuna pasta meal. My favorite item was the Mars Bar Milkshake. They were huge and awesome, I'm not sure if I ever got around to taking a photo because I always ate the so fast. But imagine milk, ice cream and mashed up mars bar pieces mixed through. A mere straw couldn't tackle this thing, it demanded the precision of a long spoon... and a master to hold that spoon!



Besides eating I enjoyed my time swimming, or sitting in the sand and reading. I had the pleasure of watching a huge storm roll in over the Island, which I found out later was the remnant of a cyclone of shore and was cause for me to get trapped in a restaurant for three hours, which wasn't so bad. I just sat and watched the clouds roll by, the lightning crack over the ocean and listened to the roar of the thunder. It was incredible.



Another amazing thing was each day at the exact same time five huge lizards would come out of the forest and travel down the road that led from our bungalow towards the beach and the restaurants. I wondered where they went, but never bothered to follow. Just speculating what their journey was like was much more enjoyable. One of my most enjoyable experiences was laying a towel down out the front of our bungalow, and falling asleep on a warm, lazy afternoon, and just watching those lizards wander along the road, ignorant and oblivious to the ways of the world.

"How amazing," I thought, "Would it be to live such a care free life like theirs..."

Kuala Lumpur - Hold on to your Passport!

After Brendan and I walked to the Denpasar Airport together and said our farewells, I returned to my hotel feeling bored, alone and wondering when exactly I would meet my best friend again. I still had that night and the entirety of the next day to kill before my flight left the following morning at 6 am. I wasn't game enough to walk around that area alone after Brendan and I had done it earlier that day only to find it descended into slums about 200 meters from my hotel, so I had nothing to do. I walked to the closest convenience store and bought A LOT of junk food and resigned myself to the fact that I was going to spend the next 48 hours eating shit and watching fox-tel or lounging in the swimming pool. That night, and the next day are kind of one big blur. I slept in small broken fragments, and royally screwed up my sleeping pattern for the next few days, I just didn't trust the area. I would be awoken by dogs running and barking around the hotel, people yelling and screaming out the front and at one point the whirring of police sirens and flashing lights as they broke up a big brawl not 100 meters from my room. I was glad to get out of that hotel.



So I left at 4.30am, and walked down the dark road to the airport. I have to say if I felt uneasy at any point in Bali it was that night. There were beggars, groups of kids hanging out on corners and hordes of dogs running, fighting and following me. I didn't care what it looked like, I picked up an old piece of fence railing and if one of those mongrels came near me, human or dog, I'd beat them with in an inch of their life. Luckily I arrived at the airport with out being bitten or mugged, even if I did have to kick at dogs along the way or tell some homeless guy to kindly "F*** Off!"

After the brief issue I had with the immigration officers at the airport which I explained earlier I was on the plain and finally flying the Malaysia, where undoubtedly more adventures would meet me when I touched down and met Matt.



The flight was short, and hassle free, and when the food was served to the passengers I was happy that I had held back and not ordered the 'Cheese Dog' for breakfast, because it looked like vomit. Immigration was simple enough, but I mad the mistake of lending my pen to a lady in the line, and she never gave it back to me... So I couldn't line up and write, I had the to use the greasy, germ infested airport pens. Who knows who has touched them...

I met up with Matt who I hadn't seen since before I left for Bali, maybe two weeks or so before hand, and we bought tickets to a shuttle bus that ran into the center of Kuala Lumpur, where we would stay for the first few nights. The bus dropped us off unexpectedly at a road side bus stop, leaving us lost and totally confused in a place that we had no map for, or any knowledge of the area. We knew we were looking for China Town, but in this city that could have been any where. The two of us must have looked totally dazed, because another backpacker from the US came up and asked me straight out, "Are you lost? Follow me! My friend is staying China Town at a really nice place and it's not too expensive!"



So we followed this kind stranger through the streets, over bridges and down back alleys. We talked as we trudged on through the near forty degree heat, myself and the young girl up ahead of Matt by about fifty metres because his pack weighed 20 kilograms. I could tell at that time, that pack would kill him by the end of the our time in Malaysia. The girl led us to the hostel her friend had been staying at. It looked good to me, cool, somewhat tidy, plenty of people to talk too and cheap... Only $10 AUD per night. I was tired and ready to fork over my cash, put my pack in my room and explore, however... $10 was to expensive for Matt. So we left that hostel. After an hour of hot sun and terrible humidity we found a hostel suitable for his wallet. $6 per night. No toilet, running water... It was a crap shack through and through, but I was in no mood to argue, I just wanted to explore.

The first thing I noticed about the city was it looked a a lot like Melbourne, except busier and smellier. We first explored China Town, a long wide street, during the day the stalls tend to stay along the edges of it to allow traffic to pass through, however after 6pm shops are erected all over the road and it becomes an absolute maze of stalls and people. There was heaps of cool stuff, and cheap. I would love to have bought some had I not being aiming to keep my travel pack under 10kg for the entirety of my trip. It was funny how every one you passed tried to hassle you into buying their particular items. One guy tried to sell me DVD's and when I refused, pulled out a new pouch from his jacket and said, "What about porn?!" Tempting... But no...



The next day we went to the Petronas Towers shopping center to try and gain access up to the walkway that linked the two buildings, however the free tickets had run out. Apparently the only way to get them was to arrived before 7.30am, and I couldn't be bothered doing that, so I decided to walk to KL Tower, which I could see in the distance.. Much to Matt's displeasure. It wasn't far from where we were at the time... probably 10km. I had no idea how to get there, so I just walked, with Matt's persistent moaning about walking in the sun trailing behind me. In my experience the best way to explore a place is to just walk and experience what it has to offer, and I believe by the end of that day I had done just that. We arrived and traveled up to the highest level of KL tower, it gave us some awesome views of the city, and put into perspective how far we had walked. Maybe Matt did have a reason to complain after all.

The day after we decided to give the railyway system a try. They were small, and exceptionally crowded. The hot weather and humidity didn't really add to the situation, nor did the locals who kept looking at me, talking to each and laughing. Matt said I was paranoid, but I know they were talking about me...

The train ran a full circuit around the city, it was just a matter of getting on the right colored line. We looked in a lot of shopping centers, and I was lucky enough to find a Borders. All the books were in English so I bought some books to keep me busy on my travel. I forget I would have to pack them into my bag somehow, but I managed to later. I also noticed that clothes like Lee's Jeans and Timberland boots were really cheap compared to Australia or Japan. Next time I go to Malaysia I will defiantly take a bigger bag and buy a lot of things there.



We ate a lot of local cuisine in Kuala Lumpur, like noodles, rice, Indian type foods and meat dishes. I was cautious about eating from shops at the side of the roads, as I didn't want to get put in hospital for wolfing down Ecol i or Salmonella, so when in doubt I stuck to the safe things: McDonald's, KFC and shopping center food, or I bought ingredients and cooked for my self in the Hostel ' kitchen.'

A note to any one who is unaware: No matter where you go, when you eat it, or how you cook it... Toast is awesome!

Three Months Later...

Hey there,

Well last time I left you I had just arrived in Singapore and had developed that awesome rash all over my body. Thankfully it did go away, and it wasn't something ridiculous like Dengue Fever. You're probably all well aware that that happened a good three months ago, and since then a lot has happened. I've seen a lot of things, experienced another country, and returned back to my own home in Australia. Sounds pretty straight forward right? But of course you all know how I role. Nothing is ever that simple, and my life takes some pretty interesting turns, even when every thing seems so easy... But I wouldn't have my life any other way!

So now I beg you all to bare with me as I write up some long stories and rants about my time in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. I hope you enjoy my stories as much as I enjoyed the experience.