We took the bus in the morning to Brunei. They seem to have discontinued local buses to Brunei or they were lying to us. I can never tell if they lie or are incompetent in Malaysia. They are doing everything to make it shit or difficult for independent travellers here. We arrived and checked into the only hotel that was near budget range. We had wanted to spend 2 nights here, but given the prices we were always going to be limited to only one. It was budget, but it was the most expensive hotel we had had on our trip, discounting the first one. People are super nice here. Really, really nice. It was a refreshing change from Malaysia (Cameron Highlands excepting). We visited the mosque with the boat, which is really pretty and then went for a wander along the waterfront and through the floating village. It is impressive to see the contrast between the floating city and the modernistic other side of the river. We got on a bus to the Brunei Museum, but they took us to the wrong one and gave us our money back. How refreshingly nice. No Malaysian fuck you, why don't you pay double for your mistake attitude. Malaysians are beginning to join Laotians on my shit list. We went to both the Royal Regalia Museum and the Borneo Museum. Neither of them are world beaters, but they are free and pleasantly informative. We got some nice food and walked to the palace. You can get around very easily by public bus and they all cost $1 Brunei. The palace was not worth the walk, but everyone was very helpful with directions. We decided we would leave early the next day to get to Kota Kinibalu in one day, as we had seen most of the things we wanted to see. We found an internet cafe in the shopping centre and then went to bed early as it was an early start.
We managed to grab a bus at 6.20am to Muara. It cost us only $1, but then you have to walk at the other end. They wanted us to jump on a special bus, but we decided to walk and got picked up by the women working at the port. They gave us a lift to the ferry terminal and sold us a ticket to Labuan for $17 including departure tax. It was a brief stay in Brunei. Cannelle does not believe its a real place. Its pleasant enough, but quite dead with limited atmosphere. Everyone is very nice though. On the boat we got a random Chinese movie with the worst subtitles you will ever see. It made no sense. Nevermind. We were back in Malaysia. Oh the joy. Sabah for two weeks and then the Philippines.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Malaysia Part 4 (Kuching, Semmengoh, Bako National Park and Miri)
We would be couchsurfing at last on this trip. It had been a while. Luckily there was an American woman from the South on the flight and she chatted to us, which helped distract from the fact that we were up in the air. I hate flying, but we stomached this one. We eventually arrived and set off to get the bus to the town centre. Lonely Planet's descriptions are super shit. We walked out to the main road and went left, but saw nothing. No buses. Cannelle was upset with me, because we could have shared the taxi with the couple from the US. Anyway we ended up grabbing our own taxi to the CSers place. I can now give you the actual instructions to get a bus. Head out of the airport and walk straight to the main road. Then turn left and walk for around 1km and you will arrive at the new main bus station. From here its easy to get a bus into town. Fucking LP. I really don't think they have been anywhere in Borneo to do proper research. We arrived in town and Alex and Lucy kindly took us for a walk around town. Kuching is a really pretty little town and with not many more places to visit I would say that its probably the nicest city in Malaysia. At least our favourite anyway. Its much cuter and more modern than I was expecting from a city in Borneo. Seems like the whole world is developing fast. Then the camera broke. Fuck it. We knew it was on its last legs, but now it has officially died. Shit. Luckily Alex and Lucy were kind enough to take us out to some camera shops to buy a replacement. The only colours they had were puke green and bright pink. Excellent. We went for the pink one, but our new camera did have a 32 zoom and that would prove really useful in Borneo. Everything happens for a reason seemingly. Both of them have super interesting jobs. Alex is working for the British Council ironically, on a project to help develop teachers all over Malaysian Borneo, while Lucy is working on a project related to Hoses Civet Cat to trap and study them.
The next day Alex was working over in Lundu so he offered us a lift to Gunung Gading National Park. They didn't have any rafflesias at that time, after having five just two weeks earlier. We decided to visit the park anyway. Its a nice place. Not amazing hiking, but the drive there was cool as we took one of the local river ferries en route. We hiked up to the viewing point, which the guards had told us not to bother with. It was really pretty as you could see the sea out by the river. We were enjoying the landscape of Borneo. The park itself was nice to hike in and we saw a couple of ok waterfalls as again we hiked every trail in about half the time that the guidebook recommended. We saw a flying stick insect, some lizards and a green butterfly. One leech even mysteriously appeared on my shin, but I managed to pull him off before he took any blood. Don't go expecting anything world class from the park, but if you want a nice place to go for the day then I would recommend it. Doubly so if the rafflesia is in flower. After the park we walked into Lundu, which is a fairly forgettable place and Cannelle was offered sex by a ten year old. Oh well. Alex gave us a lift back and Cannelle cooked pancakes, while Lucy had cooked a vegetarian curry. It was nice to cook and have some real food. Alex was called back to Kuala Lumpur the following day for a meeting with head office so it would just be the three of us for dinner.
The next day we decided to head to Semmengoh early to try and see the orangutans. Hopefully we would have more luck than with the rafflesia. We took the public bus to the centre and were confronted with a sign that said during the fruiting season you had an almost 0% chance of seeing the orangutans. Shitty. Cannelle said that it was a waste of 10 ringgits to go in if we weren't going to see anything. I told her that there was always a chance. We walked in and had a look around the centre, which had some interesting facts about orangutans as well as some crocodiles being live fed chickens. There were only two other tourists on the bus, so we figured that we would have the place to ourselves. Then about 15 minutes before the feeding platforms opened up a load of tourists suddenly arrived. It seemed like a large number of organised tours and day trippers had all decided to come. Shit. Borneo is very much driven at the high end of the tourist market and they have no time for backpackers. None at all. It seems like you can fuck off if you aren't willing to spend a lot of money. Anyway. As we waited to be allowed in they gave a brief security speech and then told us to get back as the alpha male Ritchie was there. We saw some branches crashing and he arrived. He was enormous. Everyone gasped and moved back to give him space. Some people ran. I decided that I would just make sure there was one person between me and him as I am quick :-) We watched him cross and head to one of the other feeding platforms. Impressive. We had been very lucky. Afterwards we went to the main feeding platforms and saw four more orangutans. It was amazing to see them in the semi wild. We discovered that our camera went to 32 zoom, as we had assumed that it only had an 8 zoom. Afterwards we went to talk to the guides and they showed us some photos of bites they had overseen, as well as two bites on his own legs. Both from an orangutan called Hot Mama as she doesn't like people much. They even told us of a French woman who had got close to the orangutans for photos and got bitten and hurt fighting over her backpack and had to be taken to hospital. They are not gentle creatures and can be very dangerous. Best to heed the warnings of the rangers. Still its amazing. We went back to Kuching and I finally watched The Impossible. Its a better film and a lot less sentimental than I thought it would be. We went round the city and visited the famous cat statues (the big cat is smaller than I was expecting). Still the waterfront is very pretty. We picked up some stuff for dinner and cooked cheese on toast as well as a broccoli, cheese and mushroom pasta. It went better than feared. We had a nice time chatting with Lucy in the evening and both her and Alex really went out of their way to make our experience as good as they could. Spurs beat Lyon 2-1 at home with a last minute goal and we were off and running in the Europa League.
Lucy gave us a lift in the morning to get the bus to Bako, but there was no bus until 9am. Shitty, but it was low season. They seem to do everything they can to fuck people who might want to go to Bako for just a day trip. Be careful and I would really recommend staying for at least one night. We met a Canadian and Turkish guy on the bus and wanted to share a boat with them. They said that you had to book your return trip in advance and you couldn't just arrange it when you got there. Shitty as the other guys were going for a day trip. We tried to argue with them as to why they sold one way tickets then, but they made up some bullshit. Everything in Borneo is run by cartels, so you always lose out. In the end they agreed that we could share the cost of the boat out there, but that we would have to pay for two separate boats back. Shit. Nevermind. We saved some money. The boat ride is quite quick to the park and only around 15 minutes. It was raining a lot and we hoped that it would pick up the next day. You could not check in before 2pm and after 5pm which was shit, so we asked them for the key anyway and that we wouldn't go in early as we wanted to do some hiking. See what I mean. Everything is designed for your inconvenience. The park itself is stunning though. Even in the rain you could see how pretty it was when you arrived. Cannelle was again pessimistic, not believing that we would see anything. I had some faith so we set out for the Delima Trail, which is the one where you are most likely to see Proboscis Monkeys. We saw nothing until the last minute when I saw something orange colour in the trees. I used our new 32 zoom and there they were. Yes. Finally. The proboscis monkeys. We could not see them very well, but through the zoom we could get closer shots. They seemed to be sleeping. The walks are all very beautiful in the park. The guides seemed quite shit and they even have a sign saying why hiring one is really useful. I don't really think so. Maybe for plants if you are a huge plant lover, but then again if you are, you probably know where to look to see the things you want to see. On the way back we saw some Americans staring at something and went over to see an Emerald coloured viper in the bushes. It was very pretty and they tend to hang out on the left hand side of the visitors centre if you look at it from the beach. Just walk round the side and keep an eye out in the bush. We saw plenty of macaques as well and the cheeky little shits still keep trying to steal your food at every opportunity. We got lunch and set off for the Paku Trail now that the rain had eased off. On the way we almost walked into an alpha male proboscis monkey and saw a troupe of monkeys including two babies. They were on the jetty near where the boats drop you off and they seem to like that area. We got much closer views here than at Delima. Maybe it was the rain, but they were all there. The Paku Trail itself is ok and it ends in a nice beach, but its nothing amazing. Yet its the trail that all the day trippers do. I wouldn't bother, but it depends how much time you have. We kept meeting a Spanish couple who had done the Lintang trail and said it was beautiful and they had seen pitcher plants etc. We decided we would do it the following day. On the way back we saw the proboscis monkeys on the beach and watched them cross all the way over the visitors centre and were about 5m from them. Impressive and beautiful. This park was amazing and all of this was happening after most day trippers leave as they have to take a bus by 4pm at the latest or pay a premium. We joined the Spanish couple for dinner and witnessed an amazing sunset. You should stay for that alone. There were also a lot of bearded pigs around the centre, which are quite amusing to watch. We had a mental old French woman in our dorm. We had been told that the rooms were so shit and she had complained about how awful they were. I found them perfectly ok. Better than a lot of places we had stayed in Malaysia. Not amazing, but certainly nice enough.
In the morning we got breakfast from the canteen (which is reasonably priced btw so you don't need to bring in your own food. Water is expensive though, so I would prioritise bringing your own in. Meals are around 8 ringgit as its done by servings). We set off on the Lintang Trail, which passes through some beautiful forest and then some sandy areas on the higher ground. We sidetracked to the Kecil trail, from where you can see the sea stack from a great viewpoint. If your camera has a good zoom you can capture it as well. There is a little red arrow on your right that points to the stairs to the beach. Its on a rock on the floor so look for it on your right hand side. On the way back we saw our first pitcher plant. They really are beautiful. We went to the other beach view trail next to Kecil and then headed back to the Lintang. There is a viewpoint midway round that is a bit overgrown, but still nice and a quick side climb. Over the back of the trail we saw loads of pitcher plants and the beautiful blood red rivers than ran over grey rocks. The scenery is stunning round here and Bako is one of Cannelle's highlights of the trip. At the viewpoint towards the end, just before the big descent Cannelle saw a silver leaf monkey. They seem to hang out around there. I saw it leave, but I never saw it clearly. Then I fell down a ladder, but it was not too bad a fall. Be careful on them though, as they are slippery. We went to get a shower at the end of the walk (It took us around 4 hours including all 3 of the side trips) and saw a macaque with her baby. We had to get our return boat at 2pm from the beach as it was still low tide. We picked it up, after walking over the beautiful fern patterns in the sand and grabbed an early us to Kuching. I presumed there would be buses to the bus station until quite late so we went online and ate and arrived at the bus station around 6.45pm. The last bus is 6.30pm so don't leave it too late. Shit. Fuck. We had to take a taxi and they wanted 30 ringgit. We knew it was 26 to the airport and we knew the bus station was only 1km away so we asked him to take us to the airport as they pretended it was closer (when it isn't and his meter read higher). We must be the first people to get off early because its cheaper (to save a bit as its expensive here) and we walked to the bus station and got a night bus to Miri, which took 17 hours.
We arrived in Miri, checked in and debated whether to go to Gunung Mulu. It was going to cost a lot of money and Cannelle was not even bothered with hiking the Pinnacles. I said if we weren't going to hike them then there was no point as we would be paying a fortune to look at caves. I had read that they have a fruit bat flight in Philippines and we had seen a beautiful cave in Vietnam, so we decided not to go. We opted for Niah caves instead, until we realised that we didn't really want to go and were doing it because we thought we should. So we decided to skip that as well, chill out in Miri and go to Brunei the day after next. The mark of whether you regret something or not is how you feel after you make the decision. We had no regrets for either of these places and so it was cool with us. I think Borneo is super overpriced for what it is, so we were going to have to prioritise. Bako was awesome. We decided to narrow down the Sabah side to Kinabalu, Sipadan and Kinabatangan for our money and we booked our flight to the Philippines.
The next day we got up late and watched Batman in the hostel. The French woman turned up again and we chatted with her. She said Niah was ok. We met some Aussies who had just climbed Kinabalu. I asked how it was and he said it was a cool challenge. Shit. I want it to be beautiful. Its no challenge to climb Kinabalu at 4000m when I climbed Cotopaxi at 5897m. Especially as 90% of every unfit tourist who climbs it succeeds and at Cotopaxi only 2 groups out of 9 made it (all of them fit and the two of us who made it almost had to give in). That's a sense of achievement. We sorted out Brunei and the next day I was off to my 75th country. Bako is awesome though. Well worth it and Semmengoh, Kuching and Gunung Gading as well. Miri is just nondescript in a pleasant way.
The next day Alex was working over in Lundu so he offered us a lift to Gunung Gading National Park. They didn't have any rafflesias at that time, after having five just two weeks earlier. We decided to visit the park anyway. Its a nice place. Not amazing hiking, but the drive there was cool as we took one of the local river ferries en route. We hiked up to the viewing point, which the guards had told us not to bother with. It was really pretty as you could see the sea out by the river. We were enjoying the landscape of Borneo. The park itself was nice to hike in and we saw a couple of ok waterfalls as again we hiked every trail in about half the time that the guidebook recommended. We saw a flying stick insect, some lizards and a green butterfly. One leech even mysteriously appeared on my shin, but I managed to pull him off before he took any blood. Don't go expecting anything world class from the park, but if you want a nice place to go for the day then I would recommend it. Doubly so if the rafflesia is in flower. After the park we walked into Lundu, which is a fairly forgettable place and Cannelle was offered sex by a ten year old. Oh well. Alex gave us a lift back and Cannelle cooked pancakes, while Lucy had cooked a vegetarian curry. It was nice to cook and have some real food. Alex was called back to Kuala Lumpur the following day for a meeting with head office so it would just be the three of us for dinner.
The next day we decided to head to Semmengoh early to try and see the orangutans. Hopefully we would have more luck than with the rafflesia. We took the public bus to the centre and were confronted with a sign that said during the fruiting season you had an almost 0% chance of seeing the orangutans. Shitty. Cannelle said that it was a waste of 10 ringgits to go in if we weren't going to see anything. I told her that there was always a chance. We walked in and had a look around the centre, which had some interesting facts about orangutans as well as some crocodiles being live fed chickens. There were only two other tourists on the bus, so we figured that we would have the place to ourselves. Then about 15 minutes before the feeding platforms opened up a load of tourists suddenly arrived. It seemed like a large number of organised tours and day trippers had all decided to come. Shit. Borneo is very much driven at the high end of the tourist market and they have no time for backpackers. None at all. It seems like you can fuck off if you aren't willing to spend a lot of money. Anyway. As we waited to be allowed in they gave a brief security speech and then told us to get back as the alpha male Ritchie was there. We saw some branches crashing and he arrived. He was enormous. Everyone gasped and moved back to give him space. Some people ran. I decided that I would just make sure there was one person between me and him as I am quick :-) We watched him cross and head to one of the other feeding platforms. Impressive. We had been very lucky. Afterwards we went to the main feeding platforms and saw four more orangutans. It was amazing to see them in the semi wild. We discovered that our camera went to 32 zoom, as we had assumed that it only had an 8 zoom. Afterwards we went to talk to the guides and they showed us some photos of bites they had overseen, as well as two bites on his own legs. Both from an orangutan called Hot Mama as she doesn't like people much. They even told us of a French woman who had got close to the orangutans for photos and got bitten and hurt fighting over her backpack and had to be taken to hospital. They are not gentle creatures and can be very dangerous. Best to heed the warnings of the rangers. Still its amazing. We went back to Kuching and I finally watched The Impossible. Its a better film and a lot less sentimental than I thought it would be. We went round the city and visited the famous cat statues (the big cat is smaller than I was expecting). Still the waterfront is very pretty. We picked up some stuff for dinner and cooked cheese on toast as well as a broccoli, cheese and mushroom pasta. It went better than feared. We had a nice time chatting with Lucy in the evening and both her and Alex really went out of their way to make our experience as good as they could. Spurs beat Lyon 2-1 at home with a last minute goal and we were off and running in the Europa League.
Lucy gave us a lift in the morning to get the bus to Bako, but there was no bus until 9am. Shitty, but it was low season. They seem to do everything they can to fuck people who might want to go to Bako for just a day trip. Be careful and I would really recommend staying for at least one night. We met a Canadian and Turkish guy on the bus and wanted to share a boat with them. They said that you had to book your return trip in advance and you couldn't just arrange it when you got there. Shitty as the other guys were going for a day trip. We tried to argue with them as to why they sold one way tickets then, but they made up some bullshit. Everything in Borneo is run by cartels, so you always lose out. In the end they agreed that we could share the cost of the boat out there, but that we would have to pay for two separate boats back. Shit. Nevermind. We saved some money. The boat ride is quite quick to the park and only around 15 minutes. It was raining a lot and we hoped that it would pick up the next day. You could not check in before 2pm and after 5pm which was shit, so we asked them for the key anyway and that we wouldn't go in early as we wanted to do some hiking. See what I mean. Everything is designed for your inconvenience. The park itself is stunning though. Even in the rain you could see how pretty it was when you arrived. Cannelle was again pessimistic, not believing that we would see anything. I had some faith so we set out for the Delima Trail, which is the one where you are most likely to see Proboscis Monkeys. We saw nothing until the last minute when I saw something orange colour in the trees. I used our new 32 zoom and there they were. Yes. Finally. The proboscis monkeys. We could not see them very well, but through the zoom we could get closer shots. They seemed to be sleeping. The walks are all very beautiful in the park. The guides seemed quite shit and they even have a sign saying why hiring one is really useful. I don't really think so. Maybe for plants if you are a huge plant lover, but then again if you are, you probably know where to look to see the things you want to see. On the way back we saw some Americans staring at something and went over to see an Emerald coloured viper in the bushes. It was very pretty and they tend to hang out on the left hand side of the visitors centre if you look at it from the beach. Just walk round the side and keep an eye out in the bush. We saw plenty of macaques as well and the cheeky little shits still keep trying to steal your food at every opportunity. We got lunch and set off for the Paku Trail now that the rain had eased off. On the way we almost walked into an alpha male proboscis monkey and saw a troupe of monkeys including two babies. They were on the jetty near where the boats drop you off and they seem to like that area. We got much closer views here than at Delima. Maybe it was the rain, but they were all there. The Paku Trail itself is ok and it ends in a nice beach, but its nothing amazing. Yet its the trail that all the day trippers do. I wouldn't bother, but it depends how much time you have. We kept meeting a Spanish couple who had done the Lintang trail and said it was beautiful and they had seen pitcher plants etc. We decided we would do it the following day. On the way back we saw the proboscis monkeys on the beach and watched them cross all the way over the visitors centre and were about 5m from them. Impressive and beautiful. This park was amazing and all of this was happening after most day trippers leave as they have to take a bus by 4pm at the latest or pay a premium. We joined the Spanish couple for dinner and witnessed an amazing sunset. You should stay for that alone. There were also a lot of bearded pigs around the centre, which are quite amusing to watch. We had a mental old French woman in our dorm. We had been told that the rooms were so shit and she had complained about how awful they were. I found them perfectly ok. Better than a lot of places we had stayed in Malaysia. Not amazing, but certainly nice enough.
In the morning we got breakfast from the canteen (which is reasonably priced btw so you don't need to bring in your own food. Water is expensive though, so I would prioritise bringing your own in. Meals are around 8 ringgit as its done by servings). We set off on the Lintang Trail, which passes through some beautiful forest and then some sandy areas on the higher ground. We sidetracked to the Kecil trail, from where you can see the sea stack from a great viewpoint. If your camera has a good zoom you can capture it as well. There is a little red arrow on your right that points to the stairs to the beach. Its on a rock on the floor so look for it on your right hand side. On the way back we saw our first pitcher plant. They really are beautiful. We went to the other beach view trail next to Kecil and then headed back to the Lintang. There is a viewpoint midway round that is a bit overgrown, but still nice and a quick side climb. Over the back of the trail we saw loads of pitcher plants and the beautiful blood red rivers than ran over grey rocks. The scenery is stunning round here and Bako is one of Cannelle's highlights of the trip. At the viewpoint towards the end, just before the big descent Cannelle saw a silver leaf monkey. They seem to hang out around there. I saw it leave, but I never saw it clearly. Then I fell down a ladder, but it was not too bad a fall. Be careful on them though, as they are slippery. We went to get a shower at the end of the walk (It took us around 4 hours including all 3 of the side trips) and saw a macaque with her baby. We had to get our return boat at 2pm from the beach as it was still low tide. We picked it up, after walking over the beautiful fern patterns in the sand and grabbed an early us to Kuching. I presumed there would be buses to the bus station until quite late so we went online and ate and arrived at the bus station around 6.45pm. The last bus is 6.30pm so don't leave it too late. Shit. Fuck. We had to take a taxi and they wanted 30 ringgit. We knew it was 26 to the airport and we knew the bus station was only 1km away so we asked him to take us to the airport as they pretended it was closer (when it isn't and his meter read higher). We must be the first people to get off early because its cheaper (to save a bit as its expensive here) and we walked to the bus station and got a night bus to Miri, which took 17 hours.
We arrived in Miri, checked in and debated whether to go to Gunung Mulu. It was going to cost a lot of money and Cannelle was not even bothered with hiking the Pinnacles. I said if we weren't going to hike them then there was no point as we would be paying a fortune to look at caves. I had read that they have a fruit bat flight in Philippines and we had seen a beautiful cave in Vietnam, so we decided not to go. We opted for Niah caves instead, until we realised that we didn't really want to go and were doing it because we thought we should. So we decided to skip that as well, chill out in Miri and go to Brunei the day after next. The mark of whether you regret something or not is how you feel after you make the decision. We had no regrets for either of these places and so it was cool with us. I think Borneo is super overpriced for what it is, so we were going to have to prioritise. Bako was awesome. We decided to narrow down the Sabah side to Kinabalu, Sipadan and Kinabatangan for our money and we booked our flight to the Philippines.
The next day we got up late and watched Batman in the hostel. The French woman turned up again and we chatted with her. She said Niah was ok. We met some Aussies who had just climbed Kinabalu. I asked how it was and he said it was a cool challenge. Shit. I want it to be beautiful. Its no challenge to climb Kinabalu at 4000m when I climbed Cotopaxi at 5897m. Especially as 90% of every unfit tourist who climbs it succeeds and at Cotopaxi only 2 groups out of 9 made it (all of them fit and the two of us who made it almost had to give in). That's a sense of achievement. We sorted out Brunei and the next day I was off to my 75th country. Bako is awesome though. Well worth it and Semmengoh, Kuching and Gunung Gading as well. Miri is just nondescript in a pleasant way.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Malaysia Part 3 (Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur)
The girls didn't want to get up early, so I decided to head off to Taiping on my own the next day. Its a very average city, but the lake gardens are very beautiful. At last something a bit different. Its not amazing, but the town is worth stopping in. I grabbed an excellent biryani for lunch and then went to Kuala Kangsar. Its a peaceful, riverside city and the mosque and palace are both very beautiful. If you are stuck in Ipoh and wandering what to do then I would do a day trip here. You may even want to consider staying the night in Taiping as its pleasant enough. I got offered a lift back on the way back, which was the first of many nice things in Perak state. The girls saw a super camp local guy and heard some monkeys while they were in the park. I finished Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, which is a good book, but not one of my favourite Mark Twains.
In the morning we grabbed the bus to the Cameron Highlands. Jessica had been reluctant to go back as she had thought it was a bit shit the first time. We arrived in the afternoon and got one of the attic rooms for 25 ringgits. We decided to do Trail 9A by the waterfall. Its a very nice trail and we were happy to finally be somewhere interesting and exciting after so much mediocrity. At the end of the trek (which is not that long) it battered down with rain and we were luckily offered a ride back by a local. The people up here are comfortably the nicest we have met in Malaysia. It carried on raining all afternoon, so we grabbed some Indian food in the evening.
In the morning we had breakfast with a guy who worked in the local bank. He bought us breakfast after a nice long chat. Again the locals were proving to be super nice. Jessica spent the say on her own and she got two free lifts around the highlands. We walked all the way to Brinchang as there were no buses running and then from there we walked all the way to the tea plantations and back. A round trip of around 25km. It was good exercise. The farms looked a bit boring to visit, but we stopped by one strawberry farm and got some excellent strawberries and cream that we ate on the rooftop. The final 4km to the tea plantation is really beautiful, as you stroll through all the scenes that you see on postcards for the region. Finally. Something pretty. It had a Ha Giang feel, though it was not as amazing as there. Jessica missed it sadly as it was clearly the highlight of mainland Malaysia (not that there is a lot of competition). We got some tea there (which was not as nice as the place was) and watched the marketing video (its boring but the couches are really comfortable). We had problems booking stuff for Kuala Lumpur when we got back as it was Chinese New Year, but eventually found a room for 55 ringgit. Still our most expensive here so far. We went back for an Indian for dinner. Its really good in the place LP recommends. The Cameron Highlands were really nice and we were happy to spend 2 days there. Both the climate and the scenery are really nice and it was the highlight of the mainland.
Our hostel was closed for check out in the morning so we just left the keys on the side and grabbed the bus to KL. Finally the capital and the last 3 days before we flew to Borneo. There were lots of aggressive Indian Malaysians when we arrived and walked round to our hotel. Its a really nice hostel, but once again the Chinatown is a backpacker shithole with ludicrously overpriced local food. We set off for Merdeka Square which is really beautiful. The architecture there is truly special. A mix of Malay, British and Mogul architecture. The main town hall has a very big ben feel about it. Like a Big Ben/St Pancras fusion. The old railway station and adjacent buildings are really cool as well. Its got some great architecture here. Probably the best of the colonial stuff so far. I also liked the fact that the city was edgy. No cookie cutter city like the rest of South East Asia, but some real city grit. Cannelle disliked it for this reason, but I thought that there was a distinct energy to the place. We headed up to the surprisingly nice lake gardens and saw the mushroom trees. Cannelle said that she got the most hassle in all of South East Asia when on her own in Malaysia. Especially on the West coast. In the evening we went to the Petronas Towers. They truly are a very beautiful building. Stunningly lit up in the evening. Sadly we found out that there would be no concerts or visiting of the bridge during Chinese New Year. Maybe later, though I imagine when we come back from the Philippines we will visit Singapore and Georgetown. Not to be stereotypical, but I asked a sports shop about the orchestra (and they had never heard of it) and then I asked a book shop (and they knew straight away). Surprising? Not really lol. The girls stayed in the centre and chatted with the owner, while I went hunting round the golden circle for a place to watch the football. Eventually I found a place and watched us beat Newcastle 2-1. Good result.
The bed bugs attacked us in the night. Shit. As we would have to spend three nights here. Oh well. We hadn't slept much and so limped over to the Petronas Towers in the day to see them and the park. They aren't as pretty in the day as they are at night. We headed out to the suburbs to Carrefour to get a tent etc. In the end we opted against the tent as we figured we would not use it enough and we weren't even sure if it could survive the weather in Borneo. When we came back the cinema was full and the bars were too expensive. It was a bit uneventful for a day, so we turned in. They did get some weird and annoying people turning up in this hostel to check in, including a super rude Italian guy who called the place a shit hole when they said they were full and a Russian who didn't want to remove her shoes as everyone else would be walking on the carpet. One day left on the mainland and one more day with Jessica.
The last day we decided to head to Putrajaya, but first we did our own laundry for the first time in ages. That was a nice feeling and for once it was cheap. We took the expensive train to Putrajaya, which was a weird ghost town. The architecture is really nice, with the beautiful pink mosque and grandiose buildings lining the main street. Its just that there was noone. Really noone. It looked like a post apocalyptic zombie town. I guess its because it was Chinese New Year and being the admin capital, maybe all the officials were on holiday. The camera also died here. Shit. The lens decided not to work. Similar to when it died in Morocco. They have an imitation Iranian bridge here and some quite futuristic architecture. Its certainly worth a day trip as something a bit different. On the way back we went to buy a camera, when it miraculously came back from the dead again. We decided to gamble on its health, but were worried that if we went to Borneo we would not be able to capture anything. Anyway we shall see. We went to the Times Square shopping mall, that has a roller coaster and theme park inside it and watched Die Hard 5 (bit shitty) on the giant screen. Then in the evening it took me ages to upload the photos, while Cannelle and Jessica spent their last bit of time together. Jessica was still hoping to see Amir in the last 3 days she had before she flew to Paris. Ah I hate the dickhead internet cafe in Kuala Lumpur. We have met quite a lot of dickheads in Malaysia. Overall mainland Malaysia was about as boring as I was expecting it to be. Everything was nice but very meh. We only stayed longer so that we could spend some more time with Jessica. Otherwise we would have gone before. Hopefully Borneo proves as good as mainland Malaysia was average. We shall see.
In the morning we had breakfast with Jessica and left early to get to the airport. There was some dickhead who was late for his flight and kept going to the wrong counter. He was sniffing a lot, like a proper cocaine user and maybe he was too fucked to fly. Anyway we checked in and we were finally flying to Borneo. Fuck I hate flying.
In the morning we grabbed the bus to the Cameron Highlands. Jessica had been reluctant to go back as she had thought it was a bit shit the first time. We arrived in the afternoon and got one of the attic rooms for 25 ringgits. We decided to do Trail 9A by the waterfall. Its a very nice trail and we were happy to finally be somewhere interesting and exciting after so much mediocrity. At the end of the trek (which is not that long) it battered down with rain and we were luckily offered a ride back by a local. The people up here are comfortably the nicest we have met in Malaysia. It carried on raining all afternoon, so we grabbed some Indian food in the evening.
In the morning we had breakfast with a guy who worked in the local bank. He bought us breakfast after a nice long chat. Again the locals were proving to be super nice. Jessica spent the say on her own and she got two free lifts around the highlands. We walked all the way to Brinchang as there were no buses running and then from there we walked all the way to the tea plantations and back. A round trip of around 25km. It was good exercise. The farms looked a bit boring to visit, but we stopped by one strawberry farm and got some excellent strawberries and cream that we ate on the rooftop. The final 4km to the tea plantation is really beautiful, as you stroll through all the scenes that you see on postcards for the region. Finally. Something pretty. It had a Ha Giang feel, though it was not as amazing as there. Jessica missed it sadly as it was clearly the highlight of mainland Malaysia (not that there is a lot of competition). We got some tea there (which was not as nice as the place was) and watched the marketing video (its boring but the couches are really comfortable). We had problems booking stuff for Kuala Lumpur when we got back as it was Chinese New Year, but eventually found a room for 55 ringgit. Still our most expensive here so far. We went back for an Indian for dinner. Its really good in the place LP recommends. The Cameron Highlands were really nice and we were happy to spend 2 days there. Both the climate and the scenery are really nice and it was the highlight of the mainland.
Our hostel was closed for check out in the morning so we just left the keys on the side and grabbed the bus to KL. Finally the capital and the last 3 days before we flew to Borneo. There were lots of aggressive Indian Malaysians when we arrived and walked round to our hotel. Its a really nice hostel, but once again the Chinatown is a backpacker shithole with ludicrously overpriced local food. We set off for Merdeka Square which is really beautiful. The architecture there is truly special. A mix of Malay, British and Mogul architecture. The main town hall has a very big ben feel about it. Like a Big Ben/St Pancras fusion. The old railway station and adjacent buildings are really cool as well. Its got some great architecture here. Probably the best of the colonial stuff so far. I also liked the fact that the city was edgy. No cookie cutter city like the rest of South East Asia, but some real city grit. Cannelle disliked it for this reason, but I thought that there was a distinct energy to the place. We headed up to the surprisingly nice lake gardens and saw the mushroom trees. Cannelle said that she got the most hassle in all of South East Asia when on her own in Malaysia. Especially on the West coast. In the evening we went to the Petronas Towers. They truly are a very beautiful building. Stunningly lit up in the evening. Sadly we found out that there would be no concerts or visiting of the bridge during Chinese New Year. Maybe later, though I imagine when we come back from the Philippines we will visit Singapore and Georgetown. Not to be stereotypical, but I asked a sports shop about the orchestra (and they had never heard of it) and then I asked a book shop (and they knew straight away). Surprising? Not really lol. The girls stayed in the centre and chatted with the owner, while I went hunting round the golden circle for a place to watch the football. Eventually I found a place and watched us beat Newcastle 2-1. Good result.
The bed bugs attacked us in the night. Shit. As we would have to spend three nights here. Oh well. We hadn't slept much and so limped over to the Petronas Towers in the day to see them and the park. They aren't as pretty in the day as they are at night. We headed out to the suburbs to Carrefour to get a tent etc. In the end we opted against the tent as we figured we would not use it enough and we weren't even sure if it could survive the weather in Borneo. When we came back the cinema was full and the bars were too expensive. It was a bit uneventful for a day, so we turned in. They did get some weird and annoying people turning up in this hostel to check in, including a super rude Italian guy who called the place a shit hole when they said they were full and a Russian who didn't want to remove her shoes as everyone else would be walking on the carpet. One day left on the mainland and one more day with Jessica.
The last day we decided to head to Putrajaya, but first we did our own laundry for the first time in ages. That was a nice feeling and for once it was cheap. We took the expensive train to Putrajaya, which was a weird ghost town. The architecture is really nice, with the beautiful pink mosque and grandiose buildings lining the main street. Its just that there was noone. Really noone. It looked like a post apocalyptic zombie town. I guess its because it was Chinese New Year and being the admin capital, maybe all the officials were on holiday. The camera also died here. Shit. The lens decided not to work. Similar to when it died in Morocco. They have an imitation Iranian bridge here and some quite futuristic architecture. Its certainly worth a day trip as something a bit different. On the way back we went to buy a camera, when it miraculously came back from the dead again. We decided to gamble on its health, but were worried that if we went to Borneo we would not be able to capture anything. Anyway we shall see. We went to the Times Square shopping mall, that has a roller coaster and theme park inside it and watched Die Hard 5 (bit shitty) on the giant screen. Then in the evening it took me ages to upload the photos, while Cannelle and Jessica spent their last bit of time together. Jessica was still hoping to see Amir in the last 3 days she had before she flew to Paris. Ah I hate the dickhead internet cafe in Kuala Lumpur. We have met quite a lot of dickheads in Malaysia. Overall mainland Malaysia was about as boring as I was expecting it to be. Everything was nice but very meh. We only stayed longer so that we could spend some more time with Jessica. Otherwise we would have gone before. Hopefully Borneo proves as good as mainland Malaysia was average. We shall see.
In the morning we had breakfast with Jessica and left early to get to the airport. There was some dickhead who was late for his flight and kept going to the wrong counter. He was sniffing a lot, like a proper cocaine user and maybe he was too fucked to fly. Anyway we checked in and we were finally flying to Borneo. Fuck I hate flying.
Malaysia Part 2 (Melaka, Georgetown, Penang and Ipoh)
We arrived in Melaka after a comfortable bus ride from Johor Bharu, having negotiated the border again. We were immediately greeted by an arsehole in the bus station who kept pushing us to buy a ticket with his shitty little bus company. Pain in the arse. We were getting pushed a bit in Malaysia. I was determined not to give him any money. We got the local bus in to town, checked in to the hostel and had a little wander around. It looked like a nice town.
In the morning we looked up the flights to Oz and started to deliberate what we would do with our remaining time and money. Spurs bought noone on transfer deadline day. We would have to hope that it wouldn't come back to bite us. We started off with some breakfast in Chinatown, which is a little tacky and seems to have an atmosphere mostly for tourists. If you get off the main streets you can find something to enjoy for a while. We then headed over to the colonial part of the city. The Dutch colonial, salmon pink architecture is really nice and it has a very pleasant feel to it. Thankfully the city was nice, as it stopped Cannelle feeling homesick for Singapore, though I am sure we will head back there when we fly from Singapore. We then wandered around the colonial buildings. We went past the church and climbed up the hill to the old Portuguese ruined church. Its a nice place even if it was weird to have an impromptu concert on the grounds. Following that we saw the remains of the gate and wall and the old Dutch cemetery. We went past the waterwheel and found a good money changer to get rid of the remaining Singapore dollars. The old maritime museum is on a pleasant boat. We grabbed lunch in little India, where an American expat priest helped us with our orders. Afterwards we headed to the Chinese cemetery which is really peaceful and full of little monitor lizards. After I went for a walk down the river, which is quite picturesque for half the way until it stumbles into a really shitty, rundown area near our hostel, so I abandoned the hike then. Its a very quaint little town that is both picturesque and somewhat atmospheric. The problem with the town is that tourism is destroying what made the town so nice. At least most of them stick to Chinatown. It seems all the Chinatowns in South East Asia have all been adopted as backpacker shitholes for the zombie tourists. I bought some new clothes to replace the ones that had worn through and while Jessica and Cannelle watched a French film I set off to pick up a copy of the Philippines LP. We grabbed some food from the Chinese market in the evening and then Cannelle and Jessica went to watch The Impossible at the cinema, which they persuaded me to go and see in the end. We had been told that the internet was free, so I had done a lot of writing there, but it turns out it was only the wi-fi that was free. Oh well. We didn't end up paying anything.
In the morning we grabbed a bus to Kuala Lumpur and decided to make our connection directly to Georgetown and work our way back south. There were no trains at a good time. I think most trains are at useless times in Malaysia. So we hiked across the city and eventually negotiated the bus down to 27 ringgits. We got a bus to Butterworth and then the ferry for 1.2 ringgit return (its effectively a return ticket as there is no way for them to check or buy a ticket on the way back). We checked into the Banana Hotel and went and grabbed some Indian food for dinner.
Jessica got eaten alive by bed bugs in the night and looked like a bug pin cushion. Cannelle and I went out in the morning to visit the city. It is very nice and white. We went past all the colonial buildings and the old fort and round the old area. Very nice, but nothing amazing. This seems to be our opinion of Malaysia in general. We had an argument and agreed that we should stop compromising with each other on the trip as it was just frustrating us. We were starting to suffer from Nicaragua syndrome, where everything is nice, but nothing is nice enough to stop you being bored. We took a bus out to the famous temple. Its a bit tacky, but also interesting. We walked through it and were told that you had to pay for the stupid lift up to the top. That's not true of course, because I found a route to the top, by walking up the road where the cars go. It will save you some money and its not much of a walk. Damn lying bastards. The statues at the top are ok and the view of the city is nice. It convinced us that we didn't want to spend money going up Penang Hill as it is really expensive like everything else in Malaysia. They don't give a shit about tourists at the lower end of the scale here. The funicular up the hill is now super expensive, so we decided to skip it and head back. In the evening we went to an English pub and watched Spurs beat West Brom 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bale.
In the morning the hotel lost Jessica's trousers, dyed her clothes red in the wash and then accused her of bringing bedbugs to the hotel. Fuck I miss Vietnam. The people here treat you like shit and have no interest in you unless you are spending money. She told them that unless they found her trousers she was not going to pay for the last night. We decided to go to the National Park. They charged me more than they should have done and then refused to give me any change afterwards. Fuckers. They even called on a conductor to show my why I was wrong. When I proved I was right, he left and they told me I had to go to the main office to get my change. Scam artists. They have basically added money to either end of the ticket. If you go from the shopping mall in the centre to the town next to the park then its 2.7 ringgit, but if you go from the tourist area to the park its 4 ringgit even though the total journey is really long. Arseholes. On the way back we walked to the town and asked for a ticket to the shopping centre. He told us it was 4 ringgit. I showed him that it was 2.7 ringgit, then he tried to tell me I was going somewhere else. Then failing that he decided to say that I was on his bus originally, had got off the bus and got back on it again. Fucker. Eventually he had to give up that his logic was shit and let me pay 2.7 ringgit. Fucking Malaysian bastard. I hate the bus drivers here. Anyway. The National Park. The girls did not feel like trekking loads so they took the route to the lighthouse and I went for a run/fast paced walk in the jungle. I was listening to Eminem all the way to give me the adrenaline to push it. I had started with Lana Del Rey, but that doesn't have the same motivational ability. I took the trail to Turtle Beach, which is mildly strenuous and less than the one that LP says is easier. Neither of them is amazing, but they are both nice walks. The lake was not full of both salt and fresh water as that is only at some times of year. Shame, but I am not sure its that amazing anyway. The beach at the other end is nice. Both of them are, but there are less people on Turtel Beach. LP says each hike is 3 hours return, but I did Turtle Beach and back then down to Monkey Beach in around 2.5 hours. I begin to think that the LP researcher for Malaysia did most of their work online, due to the huge number of errors on the ground. On monkey beach I met the girls and despite the moniker we actually saw only one monkey. I had seen about 20 on one of the other beaches near the canopy walkway. We headed back from the park and it was a good day out. Good to get some decent exercise in and work on the fitness. The park is nice, but nothing amazing. It seems like the standard phrase for Malaysia sadly. We got some rotis for dinner as there was a monsoon rainstorm in the evening. We had got lucky in the rainy season with not too much rain.
In the morning we got the free boat to Butterworth. Jessica held firm on her threat and didn't pay for the room. I haggled a bus to Ipoh for 14 ringgit, though the guy didn't seem happy with my negotiating. Fuck him. They fuck us all the time. When we arrived the taxi drivers tired to discourage us from getting a bus and hung around for ages, but we just waited it out. We found a cheapish hotel for the three of us, but sharing a room meant that we picked up some bed bugs as well. Borneo was looking like being expensive as we tried to do some homework in advance. We looked around the town. Again it was nice with the colonial architecture but not worth a special detour. I watched Last Stand (which is ok), while Cannelle and Jessica watched Parker (which they said was ok). Although we stayed two days here I separated it into the two parts as we day tripped the next day. So far, so meh.
In the morning we looked up the flights to Oz and started to deliberate what we would do with our remaining time and money. Spurs bought noone on transfer deadline day. We would have to hope that it wouldn't come back to bite us. We started off with some breakfast in Chinatown, which is a little tacky and seems to have an atmosphere mostly for tourists. If you get off the main streets you can find something to enjoy for a while. We then headed over to the colonial part of the city. The Dutch colonial, salmon pink architecture is really nice and it has a very pleasant feel to it. Thankfully the city was nice, as it stopped Cannelle feeling homesick for Singapore, though I am sure we will head back there when we fly from Singapore. We then wandered around the colonial buildings. We went past the church and climbed up the hill to the old Portuguese ruined church. Its a nice place even if it was weird to have an impromptu concert on the grounds. Following that we saw the remains of the gate and wall and the old Dutch cemetery. We went past the waterwheel and found a good money changer to get rid of the remaining Singapore dollars. The old maritime museum is on a pleasant boat. We grabbed lunch in little India, where an American expat priest helped us with our orders. Afterwards we headed to the Chinese cemetery which is really peaceful and full of little monitor lizards. After I went for a walk down the river, which is quite picturesque for half the way until it stumbles into a really shitty, rundown area near our hostel, so I abandoned the hike then. Its a very quaint little town that is both picturesque and somewhat atmospheric. The problem with the town is that tourism is destroying what made the town so nice. At least most of them stick to Chinatown. It seems all the Chinatowns in South East Asia have all been adopted as backpacker shitholes for the zombie tourists. I bought some new clothes to replace the ones that had worn through and while Jessica and Cannelle watched a French film I set off to pick up a copy of the Philippines LP. We grabbed some food from the Chinese market in the evening and then Cannelle and Jessica went to watch The Impossible at the cinema, which they persuaded me to go and see in the end. We had been told that the internet was free, so I had done a lot of writing there, but it turns out it was only the wi-fi that was free. Oh well. We didn't end up paying anything.
In the morning we grabbed a bus to Kuala Lumpur and decided to make our connection directly to Georgetown and work our way back south. There were no trains at a good time. I think most trains are at useless times in Malaysia. So we hiked across the city and eventually negotiated the bus down to 27 ringgits. We got a bus to Butterworth and then the ferry for 1.2 ringgit return (its effectively a return ticket as there is no way for them to check or buy a ticket on the way back). We checked into the Banana Hotel and went and grabbed some Indian food for dinner.
Jessica got eaten alive by bed bugs in the night and looked like a bug pin cushion. Cannelle and I went out in the morning to visit the city. It is very nice and white. We went past all the colonial buildings and the old fort and round the old area. Very nice, but nothing amazing. This seems to be our opinion of Malaysia in general. We had an argument and agreed that we should stop compromising with each other on the trip as it was just frustrating us. We were starting to suffer from Nicaragua syndrome, where everything is nice, but nothing is nice enough to stop you being bored. We took a bus out to the famous temple. Its a bit tacky, but also interesting. We walked through it and were told that you had to pay for the stupid lift up to the top. That's not true of course, because I found a route to the top, by walking up the road where the cars go. It will save you some money and its not much of a walk. Damn lying bastards. The statues at the top are ok and the view of the city is nice. It convinced us that we didn't want to spend money going up Penang Hill as it is really expensive like everything else in Malaysia. They don't give a shit about tourists at the lower end of the scale here. The funicular up the hill is now super expensive, so we decided to skip it and head back. In the evening we went to an English pub and watched Spurs beat West Brom 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bale.
In the morning the hotel lost Jessica's trousers, dyed her clothes red in the wash and then accused her of bringing bedbugs to the hotel. Fuck I miss Vietnam. The people here treat you like shit and have no interest in you unless you are spending money. She told them that unless they found her trousers she was not going to pay for the last night. We decided to go to the National Park. They charged me more than they should have done and then refused to give me any change afterwards. Fuckers. They even called on a conductor to show my why I was wrong. When I proved I was right, he left and they told me I had to go to the main office to get my change. Scam artists. They have basically added money to either end of the ticket. If you go from the shopping mall in the centre to the town next to the park then its 2.7 ringgit, but if you go from the tourist area to the park its 4 ringgit even though the total journey is really long. Arseholes. On the way back we walked to the town and asked for a ticket to the shopping centre. He told us it was 4 ringgit. I showed him that it was 2.7 ringgit, then he tried to tell me I was going somewhere else. Then failing that he decided to say that I was on his bus originally, had got off the bus and got back on it again. Fucker. Eventually he had to give up that his logic was shit and let me pay 2.7 ringgit. Fucking Malaysian bastard. I hate the bus drivers here. Anyway. The National Park. The girls did not feel like trekking loads so they took the route to the lighthouse and I went for a run/fast paced walk in the jungle. I was listening to Eminem all the way to give me the adrenaline to push it. I had started with Lana Del Rey, but that doesn't have the same motivational ability. I took the trail to Turtle Beach, which is mildly strenuous and less than the one that LP says is easier. Neither of them is amazing, but they are both nice walks. The lake was not full of both salt and fresh water as that is only at some times of year. Shame, but I am not sure its that amazing anyway. The beach at the other end is nice. Both of them are, but there are less people on Turtel Beach. LP says each hike is 3 hours return, but I did Turtle Beach and back then down to Monkey Beach in around 2.5 hours. I begin to think that the LP researcher for Malaysia did most of their work online, due to the huge number of errors on the ground. On monkey beach I met the girls and despite the moniker we actually saw only one monkey. I had seen about 20 on one of the other beaches near the canopy walkway. We headed back from the park and it was a good day out. Good to get some decent exercise in and work on the fitness. The park is nice, but nothing amazing. It seems like the standard phrase for Malaysia sadly. We got some rotis for dinner as there was a monsoon rainstorm in the evening. We had got lucky in the rainy season with not too much rain.
In the morning we got the free boat to Butterworth. Jessica held firm on her threat and didn't pay for the room. I haggled a bus to Ipoh for 14 ringgit, though the guy didn't seem happy with my negotiating. Fuck him. They fuck us all the time. When we arrived the taxi drivers tired to discourage us from getting a bus and hung around for ages, but we just waited it out. We found a cheapish hotel for the three of us, but sharing a room meant that we picked up some bed bugs as well. Borneo was looking like being expensive as we tried to do some homework in advance. We looked around the town. Again it was nice with the colonial architecture but not worth a special detour. I watched Last Stand (which is ok), while Cannelle and Jessica watched Parker (which they said was ok). Although we stayed two days here I separated it into the two parts as we day tripped the next day. So far, so meh.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Singapore
We eventually made it into Singapore and jumped back on the 170 bus to the central bus station. My first impression of Singapore was that it seemed to be overrated and the suburban areas were not that impressive. First impressions, as they often are, proved to be very wrong on this occasion. When we arrived we got to our shitty hostel and they didn't want us to check in. They wanted us to have lunch, but as we'd already eaten in Wendys (you can get every type of food here) we just went online and eventually they let us check in. They didn't seem too nice, but we were here and we wanted to have a look around. We decided to go for a big walk and set off for the Esplanade first. We passed a few cool buildings, including the Raffles hotel, which is very nice, but I kept getting images of super posh colonial English types, 'yah-yahing' their way over dinner. Urgh. The esplanade is a cool designed building that looks like fly eyes, though Cannelle thinks that's bollocks. Jaywalking is a real pain in the arse in Singapore. In a city not designed for pedestrians, it is super frustrating to have to wait 2 minutes just to cross the road. Especially when there are no cars around. This city is cool, but very expensive. We headed past the average cathedral, past the really beautiful colonial fire station and into the overrated Fort Canning Park. We walked past the tacky wedding photos and headed down to the Quays. We walked through all three of them, from Robertson Quay (seemingly residential and full of French people, but really funky and well decorated, past Clarke Quay (which is the most touristy and seemingly the epicentre of Singapore nightlife, at least for the expats and ended up in Boat Quay, which seems to be colonised by English pubs. The walk along the Quays is really beautiful and Cannelle fell in love with the city, deciding that she wanted to live there. I think the sight of people having a barbecue around their swimming pool in their residence tipped it over the edge. It was really cool, having an ice cream while we looked across the water and onto the multi coloured buildings. There are a lot of really cool architectural feats in the city. Just wandering around you come across impressive buildings that would be the highlights of other cities. Its quite cutting edge. We then headed through the CBD and saw some other nice buildings (it was Cannelle's first real high rise CBD area). There is a super funky building in Chinatown and some nice temples. They had a giant yellow snake winding down the streets for Chinese New Year and we went through the winding alleyways of the hill area, which has a great city centre alleyway park and is full of French restaurants. Very Parisian, like a mini Montmartre. After this we walked past the famous Merlion statue and headed over the bridge back to the centre. Overall it took about 5 hours and we visited almost all of the city. We were pretty tired, but its an amazing city to just wander around and soak up the atmosphere. We met Jessica in the evening, after about 3 weeks apart. We grabbed a local dinner in a Chinese place and then they went to an Indian, where I refused to eat, because I found the owner to be really rude. In our dorm there was an English couple whose train had crashed on the way into Singapore. They had taken the same train that we had taken the day before and it had come off the rails on one of the bends. Luckily noone died. We chatted for ages and the girl kept trying to persuade us that we should live all 12 months of our time in Australia in Melbourne, but I still fancy splitting time between the two cities.
In the morning we took the train to Harbourfront. We had a look at the cable car and could see Sentosa Island on the other side of the water. Its quite nice down there. We decided to walk the 9km trail over the Southern Ridges. It is nowhere near as bad as LP says and is a gentle stroll. Plenty of people seem to go jogging there to get their exercise. The walk involves a quick climb and then a walk of varying pleasantness. You walk up the hill to a viewpoint, that is crawling with busloads of tourists, before heading over a cool wave bridge, past a sentier sportif, that I stopped to work on my back with, before heading over a walkway through the forest, through a horticultural park and in the end at Kent Ridge Gardens. There are some amusing Singapore signs about how to deal with local monkeys and having to keep the noise down when you walk around residential areas. It took us a fair few hours to cover the whole route and it is nice for a day out, but not a must see. We finished up at Haw Paw Villa, that is a super kitsch. Cannelle hated it, but I found it quite cool to pass a bit of time. Its so kitsch, its almost cool. We then went over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel complex, where what looks like a giant boat sitting on three hotels, but is actually a mental expensive casino and rooftop swimming pool. Needless to say its very nice around there, with a sort of mini Venice in the shopping centre. Its also far too expensive unless you came loaded with a big budget. The garden pods out the back are also quite cool. We headed to Orchard Road (the Oxford Street of Singapore) afterwards and its equally as shitty, with far too many people and far too many shops. If you like that sort of thing then you should be fine. We met up with Gaby and Laura (Austrian and English) and went to a bookstore, where we got an Indonesian dictionary, Gaby got some books for French and Jessica got an English textbook. Iggys was shut so we couldn't make a reservation even if LP does not have it in the right place. We went to Starbucks, got some dinner and then in the evening I helped to edit Gaby's letter of motivation for her law masters. We had done a lot of walking in two days.
On the third day we decided to go to Universal Studios theme park. Our hotel staff are total dicks. Everything we ask them they just ignore or fail to do anything we need. The theme park is quite expensive but its worth it and going on a week day meant that there were never queues of more than five minutes for any of the rides. They have a madagascar crate ride that's ok but for kids. We did the two little roller coasters and the shrek 4D that scared the shit out of Cannelle with the spiders. We were building people up for the bigger rides as they had never been on anything like them. The Mummy Returns underground roller coaster was cool, but it was mental that there was a 45 minute queue for the shitty old car ride for kids that is in every theme park. The lockers here are mentally expensive and even though they give you 30 minutes for free, we didn't want to take any risks and had to go separately onto rides. The Waterworld show was quite cool if somewhat repetitive and definitely impressive for a little budget. After that we grabbed some lunch in the pizza place, before doing Lights, Camera, Action (overrated) and accelerator (a rubbish version of the teacup ride). That left us with the two roller coasters (both of which are really good, but the blue one is by far the most fun). Amir had recommended that we do the Transformers 3D ride. I thought it looked a bit crap when we got on, but its one of the best rides I have been on. That's how 3D should be used. Its the first time I have forgotten that I am watching something and I really felt like I was a part of the action. You need to sit in the front row to make sure you get the most from the ride as that feeling of being absorbed was lost a little the second time when you see people in front of you. Laura was super scared of the roller coasters and initially declined to do the blue one, but eventually we got her on it and she loved it. Gaby's ex Chris turned up in the park and had been visiting the rides as well. We went back on the blue roller coaster, the mummy and transformers as they were the stand out rides. Its expensive, but its still a cool park to visit. It would be the 3rd or 4th best park in the UK. We decided not to go to the aquarium and I think it was probably a good decision, because after you start scuba diving I don't think you can enjoy an aquarium. The Americans in Taman Negara had told us that you can't go to a zoo after a safari and I think its the watery equivalent. Afterwards we decided to go and watch Zero, Dark Thirty, which is a really, really good film. Possibly the best I have seen for the oscar, with Django and Life of Pi. Strong field this year. I got super sick in the cinema and had to run to the toilet and missed the very end of the film. If only I could have held on for 5 minutes. I got back just to see the credits role and apparently I didn't miss much. Its still annoying though. We missed the last tube and ended up walking back to the hostel.
The next day we woke up late and I saw that we had lost 2-1 to Leeds in the cup. Shitty, but we can focus on the league and Europe now. We changed our plan to go to Borneo next and booked a flight for the 12th from KL to Kuching. Then we headed off to the waterpark. Its much cheaper than the theme park, but not as much fun. We still had a really nice half day there. It was my first proper water park and was a little bit of an anticlimax, but Cannelle correctly pointed out that there is only so much you can do with slides. There was a slow floating tubing around the park where you can see some rays. We went on some shitty, average rides but there were some good ones. There was one like a whirlpool where you spiral round, one where you go up the sides and the best one was a tidal ride where you go down and up three times and we overturned at the end. Security is mental here. I even saw a sign that said 'safety first if you want to work'. Sounds like a definition for Singapore. The boat catcher at the bottom missed one boat and the security guard came over to stare at him. I half expected him to be sentenced to death the next minute and I doubt he has the money to pay off his sentence. They have a little assault course over water, which is fun and you could see the unease in one of the guards when some tourists were clearly having a laugh, but with a blatant disregard for safety. We went snorkelling there as well, but it was disappointing because you have to wear a life jacket and are floated by currents around an artificial course. Not like the real thing, though the locals enjoyed it. Afterwards we headed to Boat Quay to do a pub quiz. Laura and Jessica, who had been shopping, were late and we started with just the two of us, which involved a technology round on geek things and of course we didn't do too well, finishing third from last. There was a team using our Norfolk'N'Chance name. The girls had booked Iggys but there had been a mix up with the restaurant and we had to walk there afterwards to change the booking back to 12pm on Thursday. When we got back I got chatting with a guy from Abu Dhabi in the reception. He told me I should go and work there, because I can earn up to $10,000 a month. Interesting. I could buy a house quickly. He said that salaries were double those of Dubai due to the oil money. He also told me that he had been convicted of manslaughter for running someone over when he was speeding. It comes with a minimum of 9 years imprisonment, but being Singapore you can pay a fine instead. His was $180,000 which he could afford from his salary. You can pay off almost any crime. Interesting. He even told me that in Singapore they round up drug dealers every 3 months, which come with the death penalty and then they pay fines instead. Ah the moral conviction. So effectively there are no crimes in Singapore. There are just activities that the Singapore government effectively takes a cut from and to all intensive purposes the government is just a racketeering outfit. Unless you are poor. Then you are fucked. Though if you are rich there is nothing you can't buy your way out of.
It was our last full day in the hostel and we had to check out and change rooms. Only the stupid dickhead guy at reception refused to answer any of our questions and just plain ignored us. Arsehole. So we left our bags in Jessica's room and checked out. Only he wouldn't give us the key deposit without a receipt. We really didn't like each other. I got quite rude and so Cannelle had to check out for us. When we checked in again later, he said ah not that guy to Cannelle and this time we did not have to pay a key deposit as I didn't trust them to pay it back. They were often away from the desk when you are most likely to need them and that way they kept keeping key deposits. Anyway. We went to the zoo. Its a really cool zoo, though the animals still have a lot less space than at somewhere like Whipsnade, but its still good for a city zoo. I will just mention the highlights, which included giant pandas, red pandas, tree kangaroos and saltwater crocodiles (all to make us anticipated for the next trip). We also saw orangutans who were semi free and a fair few smaller animals were allowed to roam around as they saw fit. We saw a lot of Borneo and Indonesia wildlife, which made us excited for the rest of the trip. The white tigers and jaguars were impressive as always. We got to see a flying fox up close in the aviary and its a really beautiful creature. It was Jessica's birthday as well, so her and Cannelle went out for dinner in the evening. I walked into town later to join them and we went to a Cuban bar on Clarke Quay. Nobody wanted to buy any drinks so we stalled the as normal persistent barmen until we couldn't anymore, danced for fifteen minutes or so and then left without buying anything. Cheeky, but its expensive there. We got back and I read some more for Borneo. Some Dutch guys came in and asked if they could turn the light off. I told them to give me 15 minutes, which didn't seem to please them much.
We got up late for the last day in Singapore. I went to use the computer and the dickhead at reception told me that I couldn't drink there, even though there was clearly a sign that said 'no drinking beyond this point' about 5m away, so I told him that I clearly could. He really hated me. We checked out and took our bags with us to Iggys. Its in the Hilton and I don't think they are used to people turning up loaded with rucksacks but they looked after our bags for us. The food was exceptionally good as you would expect from the 26th best restaurant. The pudding was perhaps the best I have ever had and its the first time its been my favourite course ever. The lamb and tuna were excellent (both food I don't normally love). At the end you got to watch the pastry chef making the desserts and she chatted with us. She was new to Hong Kong and really nice and chatty. It was a really good cap to the meal. Shame we did not get the chance to try the other 2 restaurants in the top 100, but I am sure we will be back there in the future. If Cannelle has her way we would live there and I am not opposed, though I have to say that I lean towards Abu Dhabi if the salaries are to be believed. I think a roll call of Sydney, Melbourne, London, Tokyo, St Petersburg, Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires looks like a nice list for the next 10 years of places to live in between travelling. Singapore is awesome. Expensive, but awesome. How will the rest of Malaysia stack up against it.
In the morning we took the train to Harbourfront. We had a look at the cable car and could see Sentosa Island on the other side of the water. Its quite nice down there. We decided to walk the 9km trail over the Southern Ridges. It is nowhere near as bad as LP says and is a gentle stroll. Plenty of people seem to go jogging there to get their exercise. The walk involves a quick climb and then a walk of varying pleasantness. You walk up the hill to a viewpoint, that is crawling with busloads of tourists, before heading over a cool wave bridge, past a sentier sportif, that I stopped to work on my back with, before heading over a walkway through the forest, through a horticultural park and in the end at Kent Ridge Gardens. There are some amusing Singapore signs about how to deal with local monkeys and having to keep the noise down when you walk around residential areas. It took us a fair few hours to cover the whole route and it is nice for a day out, but not a must see. We finished up at Haw Paw Villa, that is a super kitsch. Cannelle hated it, but I found it quite cool to pass a bit of time. Its so kitsch, its almost cool. We then went over to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel complex, where what looks like a giant boat sitting on three hotels, but is actually a mental expensive casino and rooftop swimming pool. Needless to say its very nice around there, with a sort of mini Venice in the shopping centre. Its also far too expensive unless you came loaded with a big budget. The garden pods out the back are also quite cool. We headed to Orchard Road (the Oxford Street of Singapore) afterwards and its equally as shitty, with far too many people and far too many shops. If you like that sort of thing then you should be fine. We met up with Gaby and Laura (Austrian and English) and went to a bookstore, where we got an Indonesian dictionary, Gaby got some books for French and Jessica got an English textbook. Iggys was shut so we couldn't make a reservation even if LP does not have it in the right place. We went to Starbucks, got some dinner and then in the evening I helped to edit Gaby's letter of motivation for her law masters. We had done a lot of walking in two days.
On the third day we decided to go to Universal Studios theme park. Our hotel staff are total dicks. Everything we ask them they just ignore or fail to do anything we need. The theme park is quite expensive but its worth it and going on a week day meant that there were never queues of more than five minutes for any of the rides. They have a madagascar crate ride that's ok but for kids. We did the two little roller coasters and the shrek 4D that scared the shit out of Cannelle with the spiders. We were building people up for the bigger rides as they had never been on anything like them. The Mummy Returns underground roller coaster was cool, but it was mental that there was a 45 minute queue for the shitty old car ride for kids that is in every theme park. The lockers here are mentally expensive and even though they give you 30 minutes for free, we didn't want to take any risks and had to go separately onto rides. The Waterworld show was quite cool if somewhat repetitive and definitely impressive for a little budget. After that we grabbed some lunch in the pizza place, before doing Lights, Camera, Action (overrated) and accelerator (a rubbish version of the teacup ride). That left us with the two roller coasters (both of which are really good, but the blue one is by far the most fun). Amir had recommended that we do the Transformers 3D ride. I thought it looked a bit crap when we got on, but its one of the best rides I have been on. That's how 3D should be used. Its the first time I have forgotten that I am watching something and I really felt like I was a part of the action. You need to sit in the front row to make sure you get the most from the ride as that feeling of being absorbed was lost a little the second time when you see people in front of you. Laura was super scared of the roller coasters and initially declined to do the blue one, but eventually we got her on it and she loved it. Gaby's ex Chris turned up in the park and had been visiting the rides as well. We went back on the blue roller coaster, the mummy and transformers as they were the stand out rides. Its expensive, but its still a cool park to visit. It would be the 3rd or 4th best park in the UK. We decided not to go to the aquarium and I think it was probably a good decision, because after you start scuba diving I don't think you can enjoy an aquarium. The Americans in Taman Negara had told us that you can't go to a zoo after a safari and I think its the watery equivalent. Afterwards we decided to go and watch Zero, Dark Thirty, which is a really, really good film. Possibly the best I have seen for the oscar, with Django and Life of Pi. Strong field this year. I got super sick in the cinema and had to run to the toilet and missed the very end of the film. If only I could have held on for 5 minutes. I got back just to see the credits role and apparently I didn't miss much. Its still annoying though. We missed the last tube and ended up walking back to the hostel.
The next day we woke up late and I saw that we had lost 2-1 to Leeds in the cup. Shitty, but we can focus on the league and Europe now. We changed our plan to go to Borneo next and booked a flight for the 12th from KL to Kuching. Then we headed off to the waterpark. Its much cheaper than the theme park, but not as much fun. We still had a really nice half day there. It was my first proper water park and was a little bit of an anticlimax, but Cannelle correctly pointed out that there is only so much you can do with slides. There was a slow floating tubing around the park where you can see some rays. We went on some shitty, average rides but there were some good ones. There was one like a whirlpool where you spiral round, one where you go up the sides and the best one was a tidal ride where you go down and up three times and we overturned at the end. Security is mental here. I even saw a sign that said 'safety first if you want to work'. Sounds like a definition for Singapore. The boat catcher at the bottom missed one boat and the security guard came over to stare at him. I half expected him to be sentenced to death the next minute and I doubt he has the money to pay off his sentence. They have a little assault course over water, which is fun and you could see the unease in one of the guards when some tourists were clearly having a laugh, but with a blatant disregard for safety. We went snorkelling there as well, but it was disappointing because you have to wear a life jacket and are floated by currents around an artificial course. Not like the real thing, though the locals enjoyed it. Afterwards we headed to Boat Quay to do a pub quiz. Laura and Jessica, who had been shopping, were late and we started with just the two of us, which involved a technology round on geek things and of course we didn't do too well, finishing third from last. There was a team using our Norfolk'N'Chance name. The girls had booked Iggys but there had been a mix up with the restaurant and we had to walk there afterwards to change the booking back to 12pm on Thursday. When we got back I got chatting with a guy from Abu Dhabi in the reception. He told me I should go and work there, because I can earn up to $10,000 a month. Interesting. I could buy a house quickly. He said that salaries were double those of Dubai due to the oil money. He also told me that he had been convicted of manslaughter for running someone over when he was speeding. It comes with a minimum of 9 years imprisonment, but being Singapore you can pay a fine instead. His was $180,000 which he could afford from his salary. You can pay off almost any crime. Interesting. He even told me that in Singapore they round up drug dealers every 3 months, which come with the death penalty and then they pay fines instead. Ah the moral conviction. So effectively there are no crimes in Singapore. There are just activities that the Singapore government effectively takes a cut from and to all intensive purposes the government is just a racketeering outfit. Unless you are poor. Then you are fucked. Though if you are rich there is nothing you can't buy your way out of.
It was our last full day in the hostel and we had to check out and change rooms. Only the stupid dickhead guy at reception refused to answer any of our questions and just plain ignored us. Arsehole. So we left our bags in Jessica's room and checked out. Only he wouldn't give us the key deposit without a receipt. We really didn't like each other. I got quite rude and so Cannelle had to check out for us. When we checked in again later, he said ah not that guy to Cannelle and this time we did not have to pay a key deposit as I didn't trust them to pay it back. They were often away from the desk when you are most likely to need them and that way they kept keeping key deposits. Anyway. We went to the zoo. Its a really cool zoo, though the animals still have a lot less space than at somewhere like Whipsnade, but its still good for a city zoo. I will just mention the highlights, which included giant pandas, red pandas, tree kangaroos and saltwater crocodiles (all to make us anticipated for the next trip). We also saw orangutans who were semi free and a fair few smaller animals were allowed to roam around as they saw fit. We saw a lot of Borneo and Indonesia wildlife, which made us excited for the rest of the trip. The white tigers and jaguars were impressive as always. We got to see a flying fox up close in the aviary and its a really beautiful creature. It was Jessica's birthday as well, so her and Cannelle went out for dinner in the evening. I walked into town later to join them and we went to a Cuban bar on Clarke Quay. Nobody wanted to buy any drinks so we stalled the as normal persistent barmen until we couldn't anymore, danced for fifteen minutes or so and then left without buying anything. Cheeky, but its expensive there. We got back and I read some more for Borneo. Some Dutch guys came in and asked if they could turn the light off. I told them to give me 15 minutes, which didn't seem to please them much.
We got up late for the last day in Singapore. I went to use the computer and the dickhead at reception told me that I couldn't drink there, even though there was clearly a sign that said 'no drinking beyond this point' about 5m away, so I told him that I clearly could. He really hated me. We checked out and took our bags with us to Iggys. Its in the Hilton and I don't think they are used to people turning up loaded with rucksacks but they looked after our bags for us. The food was exceptionally good as you would expect from the 26th best restaurant. The pudding was perhaps the best I have ever had and its the first time its been my favourite course ever. The lamb and tuna were excellent (both food I don't normally love). At the end you got to watch the pastry chef making the desserts and she chatted with us. She was new to Hong Kong and really nice and chatty. It was a really good cap to the meal. Shame we did not get the chance to try the other 2 restaurants in the top 100, but I am sure we will be back there in the future. If Cannelle has her way we would live there and I am not opposed, though I have to say that I lean towards Abu Dhabi if the salaries are to be believed. I think a roll call of Sydney, Melbourne, London, Tokyo, St Petersburg, Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires looks like a nice list for the next 10 years of places to live in between travelling. Singapore is awesome. Expensive, but awesome. How will the rest of Malaysia stack up against it.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Malaysia Part 1 (Kota Bahru, Kuala Lipis, Jerantut, Taman Negara and Johor Bharu)
We eventually crossed the border from Thailand and were greeted by really smiley border officials who joked that we were from Belgium. Its so much more pleasant when you cross a provincial border checkpoint. It was late now so there was no chance of a local bus. It was taxi or stay here. The guy quoted us 50 ringgit to go to Kota Bharu. It seemed a lot, but we had no real choice and it was a 40 minute journey. Went to the ATM in the petrol station to draw money but they charged and I didn't want to pay. I also thought they weren't dispensing much cash, but I had thought I had needed 9000 (not 900) for 6 days and this ATM only dispensed 1500 (which I failed to calculate as 375 euros). So we got in the taxi and said he would need to take us to an ATM in the city. First he took us to another petrol station, but they charge, then to an ATM that didn't dispense to foreign cards. I told him to just take us to the HSBC ATM. There I got some money and went into what I thought was our hotel. I thought it was odd that it was in the wrong place, but I assumed LP had made a customary mistake. Instead it turns out that this place was calling itself JB Backpackers as well and was a bit shitty with rooms for 26 ringgit, but when you cross the border, you don't always know what the price should be. We decided to stay for 2 nights, which is probably too long, especially in that bullshit bedroom.
In the morning we went out to the local wooden mosque, rebuilt without nails, which is nice but not worth a special effort. Then we decided to walk around town, which took about an hour to see all the sights. Oh well. It was also raining a lot. So much for this side not being in the rainy season. Jessica was having nothing but rain on the other side, but she had split from Amir now and was travelling with an Austrian couple. We got some really good local Indian food for lunch. There is not a lot to do here, so we just relaxed for the rest of the day. Jessica lost her bankcard so she was a little bit fucked. Cannelle told her to come and join us, so we could lend her money, but she borrowed some of the Austrian girl and decided that she would meet us in Singapore at the weekend. In the evening we went to the night market but it was shut. I am not sure if that was to do with the weather, but probably. I can't imagine loads of people want to hang around a market in the rain.
We had arranged to get a taxi with the father of the owner of our fake hotel and set off early to catch the 'jungle train' to Kuala Lipis. Cannelle wanted to go directly to Jerantut, but I thought it was a waste of a day, so we may as well visit somewhere. The train is slow, but passes through some quite pretty scenery. You don't initially feel like you are in the jungle, but it picks up as it goes along. We got to Kuala Lipis and after stepping off the train I regretted stopping there. My back was also beginning to break from whatever knackered me in Thailand. Cannelle wasn't bothered about seeing the town, so she decided to stay with the bags while I had a look around. After a little wander I was glad that I stopped there. Its not worth going out of your way for, but I would definitely stop there on the way between the two towns. Especially if you plan to stay the night in Jerantut. The train pulls in to Kuala Lipis between 1pm and 2pm, while there is a bus to Jerantut at 5.20pm and its really cheap. I walked round the driving range and went to visit all of the colonial houses up the hill behind them. I also went to the school, government building and a few more colonial places. To see these places cross over the railway line when you arrive. The first lot are up the hill in front of you and accessed from the left. The second lot are left and then take the right hand fork on the road. They are all within a 10 minute walk of the train station. Its a really pleasant town. Nice place to pass some time in and I would even stay the night if you like pretty little untouristy towns. When we got to the bus station we were accosted by a local taxi driver, who wanted us to take a tour. We ended up crossing the street to his friends cafe and I grabbed some Horlicks and played with the mental cats. Being a Muslim country we were now surrounded by cats rather than dogs. We arrived in Jerantut and its not a bad little town as well, though it lacks the colonial buildings of Kuala Lipis. We grabbed dinner in pizza hut. The hotel bed was super saggy but it was not bad to get a private room for 15 ringgits. Cannelle noted that noone stared at her for not wearing a headscarf, even though we were in the most devoutly Muslim part of the country and she figured that in France they were wrong to try and ban it.
In the morning we grabbed the public bus to Taman Negara National Park. I was looking forward to it, but Cannelle was not really happy with any of the itinerary on the way to Singapore. She thought the park would be wet and full of leeches. I thought that there wouldn't be many tourists and we would have a better chance of seeing big animals in the rainy season. In the end we were both very wrong. Its touristy. I mean really touristy. You have to take a boat across and I misread the entrance fee as 7 ringgits, when it was actually 1 ringgit. Bargain. Damn European way of writing ones with a mark on the top confuses me. They had a nice sign saying 'take only photos, leave only footprints.' They do have some pithy phrases in Malaysia. At the entrance there is a resort and then the initial trail paths are all boardwalks. Interesting. It means you can hike in the jungle without actually touching the jungle. I assume its set up like that to avoid the mud and leeches, but it does lead to a homogenised feeling. If you add to that the huge number of useless tourists wandering around who make so much noise, then you can be certain you won't see anything big. Coming to this park is all about managing expectation. If you expect to see big animals then you will be disappointed. If you come to see some pretty jungle then you will get what you want. If you come in a large group or on a tour then you won't see anything as the noise is too great. If you come on your own then you will see some stuff. it seems all the animals that you are likely to see hang around the resort and you have a greater chance of seeing them there than you do in the actual jungle. I can give you a lowdown of what we saw, but first I'll say that we did a lot of research and it seems that noone sees anything of any note in the park. The only chance is really to do the long 7 day trek for 55km to the mountain summit. Then you may get something. Everywhere else you can forget it. We saw a troupe of monkeys immediately hanging around the roofs of the resort, then we went to the near hide and saw a rat. The hide is really pretty. We saw some blue pheasants on the boardwalk to the canopy walkway, which is a total waste of 5 ringgits as you have fuck all chance of seeing anything. Just go if you like walking across rope walkways up in the trees. Walking back I saw something weird on the walkway railing. It looked like a stick. I thought it must be a stick insect and even though it clearly was, I still wasn't sure. So we walked away a bit and then came back and sure enough it was walking along and really big. Cool. Its funny how the most boring animals in a zoo are really cool when you see them in the wild. Our damn monkey eyes mean that something has to move for you to see it. There is no chance that we would have seen it without it being on the main walkway. We then saw a giant millipede before grabbing lunch back on the bus side of the river. We then crossed again and struck out for a further hide. We saw a mouse deer (which was cool), then more monkeys and finally my first wild boar, as well as a praying mantis. All of these were in the resort again at various points. We got accosted by some annoying school kids and made our escape. We saw a snake and a little rodent creature on the way to the swimming area, where a local family was fucking about and making loads of noise. We saw some giant ants and small white spiders. We decided to leave the boardwalk and there were still no leeches. We were lucky with the lack of rain. It really wasn't supposed to be the time to go. We got freaked out by the jungle though and the cacophony of cool sounds around us. I regret turning back, but I still don't think we would have seen anything else cool. We saw the monkeys and some babies again on the way back before having to stop for a wild boar and her two babies. Again they were all in the resort. By this point we had seen a lot of cool things and we knew we weren't going to see anything else except a tapir maybe. Shame we didn't stay but we decided not to bother staying at a hide as noone seems to see anything. Too many tourists and the animals would have scattered long before. We went to the hide for a bit and met some cool Americans, so we ended up chatting away with them until the last bus back to Jerantut. The bus back was a minivan and took ages. The driver was also auditioning for a road safety video of how not to operate in a petrol station. Not content with leaving the engine on while we filled up, he proceeded to spark up a cigarette as well. Interesting. I hadn't planned on dying by being blown up in a petrol station amongst plantation trees. We grabbed some food and found out the Bradford and Swansea had both made it to the final of the League Cup. What an awesome result for football. Win - win. Either Tim's team makes it to Europe or a team from the fourth division does. I hope they have the budget for European travel. The hotels all advertise the Singapore train being at 1.45pm, but there is a cheaper local train at 9am and as we didn't want to wait around all day we decided to take that one. We had enjoyed the park a lot more than we were expecting. Go in with measured expectations and you will too.
In the morning we got the train to Johor Bharu. Its a really long train ride. We got in around 5pm, but still had enough light to have a look around the city. Its much better than we expected. Like a mini Singapore, sort of. I was most excited by the prospect of eating Nandos. There was a tower with lights which is really pretty. Its pretty modern as well, but has a nice colonial area that's not as tacky as some places. We got lost looking for the mosque as LP's map is shit (I imagine they didn't even really visit) and a crazy christian guy got hold of us. He kept wanting to take us to deserted places, but I shook him off. I figured the only way someone wants to take you to deserted parts of town in the dark is not for good intentions. It hadn't even occurred to Cannelle that he might want to mug us. We got a Nandos. Its nice, but its not the same as home. They don't use mayonnaise, they use cooked vegetables instead of salad and waiters come to your table rather than self ordering. An anti climax, but at least it meant that I was not longer craving having one. Hopefully in Oz it will be like home. The city is really expensive to stay in, but still cheaper than Singapore and certainly what you get for the price. We had had to get dorms in Singapore, so we enjoyed our hotel here and were off to Singapore the next day.
It took ages to cross the border the next day. We walked to immigration, got a stamp, took a bus over the causeway (its fractionally faster than walking) and waited ages (though not as long as at the Cambodia/Thailand border) to get our stamp and finally we were in Singapore. The first part of Malaysia had been a mix of better than expected, but still nothing special.
In the morning we went out to the local wooden mosque, rebuilt without nails, which is nice but not worth a special effort. Then we decided to walk around town, which took about an hour to see all the sights. Oh well. It was also raining a lot. So much for this side not being in the rainy season. Jessica was having nothing but rain on the other side, but she had split from Amir now and was travelling with an Austrian couple. We got some really good local Indian food for lunch. There is not a lot to do here, so we just relaxed for the rest of the day. Jessica lost her bankcard so she was a little bit fucked. Cannelle told her to come and join us, so we could lend her money, but she borrowed some of the Austrian girl and decided that she would meet us in Singapore at the weekend. In the evening we went to the night market but it was shut. I am not sure if that was to do with the weather, but probably. I can't imagine loads of people want to hang around a market in the rain.
We had arranged to get a taxi with the father of the owner of our fake hotel and set off early to catch the 'jungle train' to Kuala Lipis. Cannelle wanted to go directly to Jerantut, but I thought it was a waste of a day, so we may as well visit somewhere. The train is slow, but passes through some quite pretty scenery. You don't initially feel like you are in the jungle, but it picks up as it goes along. We got to Kuala Lipis and after stepping off the train I regretted stopping there. My back was also beginning to break from whatever knackered me in Thailand. Cannelle wasn't bothered about seeing the town, so she decided to stay with the bags while I had a look around. After a little wander I was glad that I stopped there. Its not worth going out of your way for, but I would definitely stop there on the way between the two towns. Especially if you plan to stay the night in Jerantut. The train pulls in to Kuala Lipis between 1pm and 2pm, while there is a bus to Jerantut at 5.20pm and its really cheap. I walked round the driving range and went to visit all of the colonial houses up the hill behind them. I also went to the school, government building and a few more colonial places. To see these places cross over the railway line when you arrive. The first lot are up the hill in front of you and accessed from the left. The second lot are left and then take the right hand fork on the road. They are all within a 10 minute walk of the train station. Its a really pleasant town. Nice place to pass some time in and I would even stay the night if you like pretty little untouristy towns. When we got to the bus station we were accosted by a local taxi driver, who wanted us to take a tour. We ended up crossing the street to his friends cafe and I grabbed some Horlicks and played with the mental cats. Being a Muslim country we were now surrounded by cats rather than dogs. We arrived in Jerantut and its not a bad little town as well, though it lacks the colonial buildings of Kuala Lipis. We grabbed dinner in pizza hut. The hotel bed was super saggy but it was not bad to get a private room for 15 ringgits. Cannelle noted that noone stared at her for not wearing a headscarf, even though we were in the most devoutly Muslim part of the country and she figured that in France they were wrong to try and ban it.
In the morning we grabbed the public bus to Taman Negara National Park. I was looking forward to it, but Cannelle was not really happy with any of the itinerary on the way to Singapore. She thought the park would be wet and full of leeches. I thought that there wouldn't be many tourists and we would have a better chance of seeing big animals in the rainy season. In the end we were both very wrong. Its touristy. I mean really touristy. You have to take a boat across and I misread the entrance fee as 7 ringgits, when it was actually 1 ringgit. Bargain. Damn European way of writing ones with a mark on the top confuses me. They had a nice sign saying 'take only photos, leave only footprints.' They do have some pithy phrases in Malaysia. At the entrance there is a resort and then the initial trail paths are all boardwalks. Interesting. It means you can hike in the jungle without actually touching the jungle. I assume its set up like that to avoid the mud and leeches, but it does lead to a homogenised feeling. If you add to that the huge number of useless tourists wandering around who make so much noise, then you can be certain you won't see anything big. Coming to this park is all about managing expectation. If you expect to see big animals then you will be disappointed. If you come to see some pretty jungle then you will get what you want. If you come in a large group or on a tour then you won't see anything as the noise is too great. If you come on your own then you will see some stuff. it seems all the animals that you are likely to see hang around the resort and you have a greater chance of seeing them there than you do in the actual jungle. I can give you a lowdown of what we saw, but first I'll say that we did a lot of research and it seems that noone sees anything of any note in the park. The only chance is really to do the long 7 day trek for 55km to the mountain summit. Then you may get something. Everywhere else you can forget it. We saw a troupe of monkeys immediately hanging around the roofs of the resort, then we went to the near hide and saw a rat. The hide is really pretty. We saw some blue pheasants on the boardwalk to the canopy walkway, which is a total waste of 5 ringgits as you have fuck all chance of seeing anything. Just go if you like walking across rope walkways up in the trees. Walking back I saw something weird on the walkway railing. It looked like a stick. I thought it must be a stick insect and even though it clearly was, I still wasn't sure. So we walked away a bit and then came back and sure enough it was walking along and really big. Cool. Its funny how the most boring animals in a zoo are really cool when you see them in the wild. Our damn monkey eyes mean that something has to move for you to see it. There is no chance that we would have seen it without it being on the main walkway. We then saw a giant millipede before grabbing lunch back on the bus side of the river. We then crossed again and struck out for a further hide. We saw a mouse deer (which was cool), then more monkeys and finally my first wild boar, as well as a praying mantis. All of these were in the resort again at various points. We got accosted by some annoying school kids and made our escape. We saw a snake and a little rodent creature on the way to the swimming area, where a local family was fucking about and making loads of noise. We saw some giant ants and small white spiders. We decided to leave the boardwalk and there were still no leeches. We were lucky with the lack of rain. It really wasn't supposed to be the time to go. We got freaked out by the jungle though and the cacophony of cool sounds around us. I regret turning back, but I still don't think we would have seen anything else cool. We saw the monkeys and some babies again on the way back before having to stop for a wild boar and her two babies. Again they were all in the resort. By this point we had seen a lot of cool things and we knew we weren't going to see anything else except a tapir maybe. Shame we didn't stay but we decided not to bother staying at a hide as noone seems to see anything. Too many tourists and the animals would have scattered long before. We went to the hide for a bit and met some cool Americans, so we ended up chatting away with them until the last bus back to Jerantut. The bus back was a minivan and took ages. The driver was also auditioning for a road safety video of how not to operate in a petrol station. Not content with leaving the engine on while we filled up, he proceeded to spark up a cigarette as well. Interesting. I hadn't planned on dying by being blown up in a petrol station amongst plantation trees. We grabbed some food and found out the Bradford and Swansea had both made it to the final of the League Cup. What an awesome result for football. Win - win. Either Tim's team makes it to Europe or a team from the fourth division does. I hope they have the budget for European travel. The hotels all advertise the Singapore train being at 1.45pm, but there is a cheaper local train at 9am and as we didn't want to wait around all day we decided to take that one. We had enjoyed the park a lot more than we were expecting. Go in with measured expectations and you will too.
In the morning we got the train to Johor Bharu. Its a really long train ride. We got in around 5pm, but still had enough light to have a look around the city. Its much better than we expected. Like a mini Singapore, sort of. I was most excited by the prospect of eating Nandos. There was a tower with lights which is really pretty. Its pretty modern as well, but has a nice colonial area that's not as tacky as some places. We got lost looking for the mosque as LP's map is shit (I imagine they didn't even really visit) and a crazy christian guy got hold of us. He kept wanting to take us to deserted places, but I shook him off. I figured the only way someone wants to take you to deserted parts of town in the dark is not for good intentions. It hadn't even occurred to Cannelle that he might want to mug us. We got a Nandos. Its nice, but its not the same as home. They don't use mayonnaise, they use cooked vegetables instead of salad and waiters come to your table rather than self ordering. An anti climax, but at least it meant that I was not longer craving having one. Hopefully in Oz it will be like home. The city is really expensive to stay in, but still cheaper than Singapore and certainly what you get for the price. We had had to get dorms in Singapore, so we enjoyed our hotel here and were off to Singapore the next day.
It took ages to cross the border the next day. We walked to immigration, got a stamp, took a bus over the causeway (its fractionally faster than walking) and waited ages (though not as long as at the Cambodia/Thailand border) to get our stamp and finally we were in Singapore. The first part of Malaysia had been a mix of better than expected, but still nothing special.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)