Sunday, January 16, 2011
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Jan 13: to Kuala Lumpur!
Today was uneventful: we slept in grabbed some breakfast, and grabbed a taxi to the bus station. The bus ride was about 2 hours, and we hopped off, located the subway station (without any help from the taxi drivers), and made our way to Chinatown. The subway stop was much further from the main area than our map indicated, and everything was wet from the rain (making it difficult to walk with our shitty flip flops). After a bit of searching, we found a spot for the night, and then we ate some food because we were starving (hadn't eaten since late breakfast). We also decided that our hostel wasn't quite up to standard, so we looked for a while until we found a place suitable for tomorrow night. Afterward, we hung out, watched a bit of TV, and went to bed.
Jan 14: exploring the Lake Gardens in KL
This morning we planned to head over to the Lake Gardens. Unfortunately, the 'afternoon rain' was a bit early, and it started
raining around 11, so we looked for some shelter. After an hour or so, we got fed up, and bought an umbrella. We then made our way to the National Monument, snapped a picture, and headed toward the butterfly garden. Unfortunately, it was closed because of the rain. So, we headed to the bird park, and had a great time. We saw lots of very colorful and birds, and it even stopped raining. After the rain stopped, we saw a lot more birds, and even several peacocks displaying. We also got to see the bird keeper feed the eagles pieces of meat and/or little baby chickens (we had seen those hatching earlier)--the guy threw them up in the air, and the birds flew down and caught them After the birds, we had a quick snack of chicken sandwich and mashed-potatoes-from-a-machine (turns out the mashed potatoes were better than the sandwich). Then we headed back to the butterfly garden, si
nce it was no longer raining. There weren't too many butterflies, but the ones we did see were quite beautiful, with the exception of the butterfly that wouldn't leave us alone and kept pooping (?) on us (large droplets of a water-like substance kept coming out of it's abdomen...ew). Afterwards we headed to the orchid garden, which didn't have that many orchids, and then to the planetarium, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we tried to make it to the National Museum, but we were quite exhausted and hungry (and felt we didn't really have the energy to explore a museum), and decided to just have a quick look at the old train station and the National Mosque. The old train station (and the new one) were both quite beautiful, with amazing architecture. Afterwards, we headed to the National Mosque, where we were given robes and I was given a head covering. We wanted to just take a quick look around, but we ended up talking to this tour guide/muslim (?) for over an hour about Islam. Thoroughly exhausted and starving, we found the train station (with a little bit of trouble, actually) and made our way back. We had some ok-Indian food and then headed back to our hostel, where we ate some chocolate and watched School of Rock and then went to bed.
Jan 15: Chow Kit market, Little India, and lots of food fails
This morning we woke up, hopped on the subway, and headed towards the Chow Kit market, which is a giant wet market (meaning they sell fresh products like veggies, meats and seafood) a little further out from the center of Kuala Lumpur. The market itself was pretty interesting (we think it was the biggest wet market we've been to yet) and we spent a while just wandering around (and bought some mangoes). After Chow Kit, we decided to skip the subway and walk back through Little India, on the way picking up a bright orange drink. In my mind, there are two options for a bright orange drink: orange or mango. Wrong. It was sweet corn flavored, and disgusting (food fail #1). It turns out there was a market set up in Little India that day and we decided to wander through the streets trying foods as we went. This was a good idea in theory, but in practice it turned out to be disastrous. First we picked up a samosa (decent, but cold) and some interesting looking spring rolls (they were gross, food fail #2). Walking down the street, we redeemed ourselves by splitting a chicken sandwich (Asian style, covered in red and white sauces that you really have no idea what they are). We also tried red paste grilled in a banana leaf (also gross, tasted like fish, food fail #3). Eventually we escaped the food fail market and found ourselves at the Masjid Jamek mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur. After a brief walk around the mosque, we found we were hungry and sat down at an Indian Nasi Campur (buffet style) restaurant and split a plate of the buffet and this awful noodle dish. The noodle dish was.... horrible. It was basically spaghetti noodles covered in gross peanut sauce with apples, cucumbers, bread, mystery meat, and something else that tasted so bad we can't even remember what it was (ULTIMATE FOOD FAIL!!! #4). I'm not even exaggerating, this food was really that bad
. As Steph eloquently put it, the food was so bad "my soul hurt". Feeling a little bit sick, we walked over to Mederka square, hoping some historical buildings would soothe our aching stomachs. Mederka square is where the people declared their independence from Britain and has a whole bunch of old-style architecture, including a cricket field. It was pretty interesting to see all these buildings that are basically half-european, half-malaysian in style. After Mederka square we headed over to the Central Market, which was built in 1936 as a wet market. As tourism increased, however, it completely changed into a trinket market, holding tacky Malaysian souvenirs of all kinds (and pretty high prices). After walking around the market for a while we went to look for tour to a city near by, but it was really expensive and we decided to pass. After we decided it was time for some internet to catch up on some blogging and decide what to do for the next few days (we were really behind at this point). A while later, we headed towards Chinatown for a rice claypot, some veggies (pretty good, pretty much gourmet compared to what we had experienced earlier this day), and a beer (ugh, $5!). After some food we headed back to our hostel and watched Night at the Museum: The Battle for the Smithsonian while eating some mangoes and chocolate before heading to bed.
Jan 16: Batu Caves and exploring Chinatown
Today we woke up, ate some Roti, and hopped on a bus headed towards the Batu Caves. After about a 30 minute bus ride (the caves are about 13km outside Kuala Lumpur), we hopped out and joined the 500 hundred or so other people going to visit the temple. Batu caves is a pretty neat location; it's basically a temple inside this huge cave. It was an especially interesti
ng time to visit this temple, because we visited only a few days before the annual Hindu Thaipusam festival. Thaipusam is a pretty big deal over here, where devotes cleanse themselves by fasting, shaving their heads, and doing a pilgrimage while engaging in various acts of devotion. What we saw was mostly people carrying pots of milk on their head or walking up the stairs on their knees (this girl did this the entire way up and there were lots, and lots, and lots of stairs). Apparently during the festival itself, however, people end up piercing their bodies with hooks and their tongues and cheeks with skewers as acts of devotion. After visiting the temples in the big cave, we paid 5 ringgit to go inside the "Dark Cave", which true to its name, was really dark. The cave has been kept as dark as possible, with lights spread out far enough so your just able to see where you are walking and not much else. This makes the cave really interesting because the entire time you are walking you can hear the screeching of bats all around you (and smell and see bat guano everywhere also). At on
e point during the walk we came upon a stretch of 3 lights that were flickering so we couldn't see anything, and decided it was a good time to turn around since we didn't have a light of our own to guide the way. Outside the Dark Cave there were tons of monkeys ready to steal stuff from you, but we managed to avoid them on our way down. After a brief confusion about where to catch the bus, we were on our way back to Kuala Lumpur. Once we were back in the city we decided to explore Chinatown and found ourselves at the Sri Mahamariamman temple, another Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur. When we walked inside, there was some sort of ceremony going on and there were people playing awesome music. The ceremony was interesting to witness because it involved this guy putting all kinds of things (like berries, coconut milk, red paint, yellow paint, white powder) on this statue and then washing them off with water. It was a fascinating experience, to say the least. After this, we wandered around Chinatown some more and eventually ended up wandering to a street called Jalan Alor for some food. Jalan Alor is a famous hawker street, which means it is full o
f stalls to order food. We had some chicken wings (supposedly the best in the world, but they weren't, but were still good), some koey teow, and some veggies. After some dinner, we ended up wandering around this area of town (named the Golden Triangle, don't know exactly why, but it is where the nicest malls and hotels are located) and got a tad bit lost. We eventually found our way out by finding Jalan Alor again (very lucky, actually) and found that we had done a giant loop of the area. At this point we were tired and ready to head back to the hostel for some mangoes and chocolate and TV (we watched Smallville, it was the only thing in English on TV).
Jan 17: Petronas towers, and massage!
Today we woke up early and headed towards the Petronas towers hoping to make it to the observation deck (its supposedly free, according to our guidebook). Once we got there, however, we found out that the towers are closed on Mondays and furthermore are closed for some maintenance, and also cost 10 ringgit (instead of free). A little bit disappointed, we walked outside for some pictures and wandered around the area briefly looking for a park. We discovered that the park we were looking for was actually the opposite direction we were walking, and upon finding it, discovered it was actually kind of lame. At this point we hopped back on the subway and headed back towards Chinatown for some blogging time. After a super long session to get all these past 3 blogs updated, we decided we hadn't eaten in a while and found some delicious duck with noodles for a snack. After a snack, we headed for a massage shop we had scouted out the night before. What we got was a painful, back-cracking, butt rubbing, and exceedingly relaxing massage. We both decided that we were definitely in a bit of pain after, but it still felt great. Next we walked around looking for a guesthouse to exchange our books (we had 4 to exchange at the time) and finally found a place that would take 2 of our books, but really had no books we really wanted. We ended up trading them anyways since we had nothing to read on the flight home. After trading our books we headed back to Jalan Alor for some grilled fish, mussels in a delicious sauce, and garlic baby-bok choy. The fish was pretty good and the other two were pretty awesome. Satisfied from dinner, we decided to go back to our hostel for some relaxation (we definitely wanted to lay down after that massage) and to pack our bags. After packing we went out for our last errands: book exchange (if possible, all our books sucked), gift buying (Steph had a last minute purchase) and for a snack. We ended up being about 50 ringgit short of our budget goal, so luckily we ran into an exchange on our way. After picking up the necessary cash, we headed for Central Market to a book store we had found. It turns out our trade earlier that day worked out for the better, since we got much more money for new books than we would have with the old (the two we got earlier were in really good condition). So we bought two books and headed back to Chinatown for our snack, picking up a fresh mango on the way. Once there we found a place to eat our last koey teow and roti bom and chased it with a beer.
Jan 18: back home!
Today was uneventful: we slept in grabbed some breakfast, and grabbed a taxi to the bus station. The bus ride was about 2 hours, and we hopped off, located the subway station (without any help from the taxi drivers), and made our way to Chinatown. The subway stop was much further from the main area than our map indicated, and everything was wet from the rain (making it difficult to walk with our shitty flip flops). After a bit of searching, we found a spot for the night, and then we ate some food because we were starving (hadn't eaten since late breakfast). We also decided that our hostel wasn't quite up to standard, so we looked for a while until we found a place suitable for tomorrow night. Afterward, we hung out, watched a bit of TV, and went to bed.
Jan 14: exploring the Lake Gardens in KL
This morning we planned to head over to the Lake Gardens. Unfortunately, the 'afternoon rain' was a bit early, and it started
raining around 11, so we looked for some shelter. After an hour or so, we got fed up, and bought an umbrella. We then made our way to the National Monument, snapped a picture, and headed toward the butterfly garden. Unfortunately, it was closed because of the rain. So, we headed to the bird park, and had a great time. We saw lots of very colorful and birds, and it even stopped raining. After the rain stopped, we saw a lot more birds, and even several peacocks displaying. We also got to see the bird keeper feed the eagles pieces of meat and/or little baby chickens (we had seen those hatching earlier)--the guy threw them up in the air, and the birds flew down and caught them After the birds, we had a quick snack of chicken sandwich and mashed-potatoes-from-a-machine (turns out the mashed potatoes were better than the sandwich). Then we headed back to the butterfly garden, si
nce it was no longer raining. There weren't too many butterflies, but the ones we did see were quite beautiful, with the exception of the butterfly that wouldn't leave us alone and kept pooping (?) on us (large droplets of a water-like substance kept coming out of it's abdomen...ew). Afterwards we headed to the orchid garden, which didn't have that many orchids, and then to the planetarium, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we tried to make it to the National Museum, but we were quite exhausted and hungry (and felt we didn't really have the energy to explore a museum), and decided to just have a quick look at the old train station and the National Mosque. The old train station (and the new one) were both quite beautiful, with amazing architecture. Afterwards, we headed to the National Mosque, where we were given robes and I was given a head covering. We wanted to just take a quick look around, but we ended up talking to this tour guide/muslim (?) for over an hour about Islam. Thoroughly exhausted and starving, we found the train station (with a little bit of trouble, actually) and made our way back. We had some ok-Indian food and then headed back to our hostel, where we ate some chocolate and watched School of Rock and then went to bed.Jan 15: Chow Kit market, Little India, and lots of food fails
This morning we woke up, hopped on the subway, and headed towards the Chow Kit market, which is a giant wet market (meaning they sell fresh products like veggies, meats and seafood) a little further out from the center of Kuala Lumpur. The market itself was pretty interesting (we think it was the biggest wet market we've been to yet) and we spent a while just wandering around (and bought some mangoes). After Chow Kit, we decided to skip the subway and walk back through Little India, on the way picking up a bright orange drink. In my mind, there are two options for a bright orange drink: orange or mango. Wrong. It was sweet corn flavored, and disgusting (food fail #1). It turns out there was a market set up in Little India that day and we decided to wander through the streets trying foods as we went. This was a good idea in theory, but in practice it turned out to be disastrous. First we picked up a samosa (decent, but cold) and some interesting looking spring rolls (they were gross, food fail #2). Walking down the street, we redeemed ourselves by splitting a chicken sandwich (Asian style, covered in red and white sauces that you really have no idea what they are). We also tried red paste grilled in a banana leaf (also gross, tasted like fish, food fail #3). Eventually we escaped the food fail market and found ourselves at the Masjid Jamek mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur. After a brief walk around the mosque, we found we were hungry and sat down at an Indian Nasi Campur (buffet style) restaurant and split a plate of the buffet and this awful noodle dish. The noodle dish was.... horrible. It was basically spaghetti noodles covered in gross peanut sauce with apples, cucumbers, bread, mystery meat, and something else that tasted so bad we can't even remember what it was (ULTIMATE FOOD FAIL!!! #4). I'm not even exaggerating, this food was really that bad
. As Steph eloquently put it, the food was so bad "my soul hurt". Feeling a little bit sick, we walked over to Mederka square, hoping some historical buildings would soothe our aching stomachs. Mederka square is where the people declared their independence from Britain and has a whole bunch of old-style architecture, including a cricket field. It was pretty interesting to see all these buildings that are basically half-european, half-malaysian in style. After Mederka square we headed over to the Central Market, which was built in 1936 as a wet market. As tourism increased, however, it completely changed into a trinket market, holding tacky Malaysian souvenirs of all kinds (and pretty high prices). After walking around the market for a while we went to look for tour to a city near by, but it was really expensive and we decided to pass. After we decided it was time for some internet to catch up on some blogging and decide what to do for the next few days (we were really behind at this point). A while later, we headed towards Chinatown for a rice claypot, some veggies (pretty good, pretty much gourmet compared to what we had experienced earlier this day), and a beer (ugh, $5!). After some food we headed back to our hostel and watched Night at the Museum: The Battle for the Smithsonian while eating some mangoes and chocolate before heading to bed.Jan 16: Batu Caves and exploring Chinatown
Today we woke up, ate some Roti, and hopped on a bus headed towards the Batu Caves. After about a 30 minute bus ride (the caves are about 13km outside Kuala Lumpur), we hopped out and joined the 500 hundred or so other people going to visit the temple. Batu caves is a pretty neat location; it's basically a temple inside this huge cave. It was an especially interesti
ng time to visit this temple, because we visited only a few days before the annual Hindu Thaipusam festival. Thaipusam is a pretty big deal over here, where devotes cleanse themselves by fasting, shaving their heads, and doing a pilgrimage while engaging in various acts of devotion. What we saw was mostly people carrying pots of milk on their head or walking up the stairs on their knees (this girl did this the entire way up and there were lots, and lots, and lots of stairs). Apparently during the festival itself, however, people end up piercing their bodies with hooks and their tongues and cheeks with skewers as acts of devotion. After visiting the temples in the big cave, we paid 5 ringgit to go inside the "Dark Cave", which true to its name, was really dark. The cave has been kept as dark as possible, with lights spread out far enough so your just able to see where you are walking and not much else. This makes the cave really interesting because the entire time you are walking you can hear the screeching of bats all around you (and smell and see bat guano everywhere also). At on
e point during the walk we came upon a stretch of 3 lights that were flickering so we couldn't see anything, and decided it was a good time to turn around since we didn't have a light of our own to guide the way. Outside the Dark Cave there were tons of monkeys ready to steal stuff from you, but we managed to avoid them on our way down. After a brief confusion about where to catch the bus, we were on our way back to Kuala Lumpur. Once we were back in the city we decided to explore Chinatown and found ourselves at the Sri Mahamariamman temple, another Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur. When we walked inside, there was some sort of ceremony going on and there were people playing awesome music. The ceremony was interesting to witness because it involved this guy putting all kinds of things (like berries, coconut milk, red paint, yellow paint, white powder) on this statue and then washing them off with water. It was a fascinating experience, to say the least. After this, we wandered around Chinatown some more and eventually ended up wandering to a street called Jalan Alor for some food. Jalan Alor is a famous hawker street, which means it is full o
f stalls to order food. We had some chicken wings (supposedly the best in the world, but they weren't, but were still good), some koey teow, and some veggies. After some dinner, we ended up wandering around this area of town (named the Golden Triangle, don't know exactly why, but it is where the nicest malls and hotels are located) and got a tad bit lost. We eventually found our way out by finding Jalan Alor again (very lucky, actually) and found that we had done a giant loop of the area. At this point we were tired and ready to head back to the hostel for some mangoes and chocolate and TV (we watched Smallville, it was the only thing in English on TV).Jan 17: Petronas towers, and massage!
Today we woke up early and headed towards the Petronas towers hoping to make it to the observation deck (its supposedly free, according to our guidebook). Once we got there, however, we found out that the towers are closed on Mondays and furthermore are closed for some maintenance, and also cost 10 ringgit (instead of free). A little bit disappointed, we walked outside for some pictures and wandered around the area briefly looking for a park. We discovered that the park we were looking for was actually the opposite direction we were walking, and upon finding it, discovered it was actually kind of lame. At this point we hopped back on the subway and headed back towards Chinatown for some blogging time. After a super long session to get all these past 3 blogs updated, we decided we hadn't eaten in a while and found some delicious duck with noodles for a snack. After a snack, we headed for a massage shop we had scouted out the night before. What we got was a painful, back-cracking, butt rubbing, and exceedingly relaxing massage. We both decided that we were definitely in a bit of pain after, but it still felt great. Next we walked around looking for a guesthouse to exchange our books (we had 4 to exchange at the time) and finally found a place that would take 2 of our books, but really had no books we really wanted. We ended up trading them anyways since we had nothing to read on the flight home. After trading our books we headed back to Jalan Alor for some grilled fish, mussels in a delicious sauce, and garlic baby-bok choy. The fish was pretty good and the other two were pretty awesome. Satisfied from dinner, we decided to go back to our hostel for some relaxation (we definitely wanted to lay down after that massage) and to pack our bags. After packing we went out for our last errands: book exchange (if possible, all our books sucked), gift buying (Steph had a last minute purchase) and for a snack. We ended up being about 50 ringgit short of our budget goal, so luckily we ran into an exchange on our way. After picking up the necessary cash, we headed for Central Market to a book store we had found. It turns out our trade earlier that day worked out for the better, since we got much more money for new books than we would have with the old (the two we got earlier were in really good condition). So we bought two books and headed back to Chinatown for our snack, picking up a fresh mango on the way. Once there we found a place to eat our last koey teow and roti bom and chased it with a beer.
Jan 18: back home!
Melacca, Malaysia
Jan 9- Jungle Railway to Melacca
Today we were super excited to ride the 'Jungle Railway'. Instead of taking one bus (with a transfer), we decided to spend the extra time and money (2 trains, 3 buses) to get to Melacca via the Jungle Railway. We were planning on getting up for the 7:30 bus this morning but we we're pretty tired from the last two days in the rain forest and decided that the 10am bus would be better. After eating our last meal at the floating restaurants, we headed over to the bus station. About an hour or so later, we arrived at Jerantut. After a brief walk from the bus station to the train station, we found out that we had a couple hours to kill and went to eat some delicious chicken and rice, eventually boarding ou
r train to Gemas at around 1:45 (30 minutes late. Our book quotes that these trains can run as much as 2 hours late, so I think we got lucky). The ride ended up actually being quite lame. Perhaps the northern part of the railway is more jungle-y, but it felt more like the 'palm-plantation railway' than the 'jungle railway'...oh well. We got to Gemas at about 4pm, at which point we once again started to ask around about where the bus station was. It turns out that we didn't need to take a bus and instead hopped onto another train that took us to Tampin, about an hour away. Once we arrived at Tampin, it was a 1km walk over to the bus station which included a stop for a snack of delicious pork buns. Once we were at the bus station we found our bus and took another hour long bus ride to Melacca. In Melacca we were dropped off at the main bus terminal and had to hop onto a city bus that took us close to our hostel for the night. So, in total, it was a pretty epic travel day, but 2 trains and 3 buses later we had finally arrived in Melacca. Now in the city we grabbed some naan and mutton masala and soon found ourselves exhausted and heading to sleep.
Jan 10- Historical Bits of Melacca and "Little India"
Today we slept in really late, had a brief internet session, and ate some lunch before heading off for the days sightseeing. After lunch we started walking towards the Maritime Muse
um. The Maritime Museum is located inside a replica of a Portuguese trading ship, which you get to climb on top of and inside to see the rest of the museum. The museum outlines the history of trading and shipping in Melacca, which is basically what this city has done since the 1400s. In 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal took over the city and the Portuguese controlled it for a while before, in1641, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and controlled the city. Then, in 1824 the city got traded (yeah, apparently you could trade cities at that time. awesome) to the British in exchange for a city in Indonesia. So the British ruled until finally in 1946 when finally the Malaysians controlled Melacca. Wow. Long History. After this sweet museum, we headed out to see some of the other historical sites of the city. Our first stop was at this old waterwheel, which was pretty sweet. Next we saw some of the original wall of the city built by the Dutch and Portuguese that still have some old cannons on them as well as an old crane. After checking these out we found an old church (Christ Church, built by the Dutch) and then some more museums. We wandered through the Museum of Ethnography, the Education Musem, and the Stadthuys, which are basically just old buildings built by the Dutch. After this, we headed up a big hill and found ourselves at St. Pauls Church, the church in Melacca built by the Portuguese. Here there was this Asian guy playin
g guitar and belting out oldies, which was awesome. After this we walked down the hill and found ourselves at Melaka's Sultanate Palace, which is a replica of where the Sultan lived hundreds of years ago. The Palace was a long wooden house built with no nails and now houses a history of the Sultans of Melaka, laws, and other cultural information. By now we had had enough of museums and history for one day and decided to wander through the streets of "Little India" which was either really little, or we just didn't go to the right place (when I say small, I mean there were only a couple places selling sar
i's and blasting Indian music). After a while we wandered upon this place selling what looked like delicious burritos, so with high hopes we bought one. It turns out that we were really, really wrong. It was a burrito-esque thing, but it was filled with noodles and other Asian ingredients and really wasnt that good. Needing something a little better to eat, we went in search for chicken rice balls, which we hadn't had yet. We found a spot to have some and ate some dumpling soup, rice balls, and an enormous mound of barbecue pork (dumpling soup was the best of the three). After some dinner we decided we were tired and started the long walk back to our hostel to read and eventually go to sleep.
Jan 11- Enduring Beauty and China Town
Today we woke up and decided to hit up a museum we missed the day before, the Museum of Enduring Beauty. It turns out this museum is in a building with two other museums, which were the People's Museum and the Kite Museum. In the People's Museum displays the various cultural influences on Malaysia's peopl
e, mainly Chinese, Indian, Muslim, and Malay. It also mentions the Chitty People, who are a cross of Malay and Indian peoples and have their own food (Nyonya food, basically its a variety of Chinese food) and their own language. The museum also had a decent exhibit on this game called gasing, which has nothing to do with farting, but is a game of spinning tops. I guess in Malaysia top spinning is something of a national sport. The Kite museum was mostly boring, but they had some cool kites. The Museum of Enduring Beauty was really cool. The basic idea of the museum is to display people who are literally enduring things which make them beautiful, like tattoos, lip plugs, scarring of the body, feet binding, neck stretching, head distorting, and other wacky ways that people have physically changed their body in the pursuit of beauty. The pictures in the museum w
ere mostly horrible, but there was enough information and so-so pictures to keep us plenty interested. People do some pretty crazy shit to make themselves attractive within their cultures. After these museums we walked over to Chinatown and did some shopping. After a while of shopping, we stopped into a place for some coffee and a bite to eat. We ordered mango chicken (delicious) and some naan and curry, which turned out to be fake naan (aka pita bread, wtf?). While we were eating it started pouring, so we ended up staying in the restaurant for a while to wait out the rain. By this time it was getting late and it was still raining, so we caved and took a taxi back to our hostel, where Steph took a nap (I was reading The End of Mr. Y, an awesome book, so I couldn't sleep). Later that night we walked around looking for food but it was semi-late by Melaka standards (it was just past 9:30... whew!) and lots of places were closed. We ended up eating at this place that was basically the Malaysian version of a Chillies or Applebees, and really wasn't that good at all (in all honesty, it was horrible).
Jan 12- Boat trip, Fancy house, and Walking around forever looking for the ocean
Today we got up and went back to Chinatown hoping to go to the Baba Nyonya Museum, which is basically a big fancy house you get to tour. It turns out we got there at the exact wrong time (it closes for two hours for lunch) and so we instead headed to the river hoping to go to the Portuguese village by a boat. We got to the boat station a
nd bought our tickets but had about 25 minutes to kill so we went to the bathroom and ended up going to the free Malaysian Customs Museum. This museum was actually really cool because they had a bunch of stuff they've confiscated over the years (like sexual or revealing figurines, porn, opium pipes, shoes with stash holes in them, animal hides, taxidermized frogs playing instruments, etc.). As we were leaving they guard asked us to sign the notebook since it was a brand new museum and they wanted to know where we were from and whatnot. As we were exiting the museum we saw our boat being loaded and started walking over to get on, but it turns out those two minutes Steph was signing the guest book made us miss that boat, so we ended up waiting another half hour for the next boat. The boat ride didn't take us to the village like we thought it was going to but instead was a tour (DAMN!) and was all in all pretty tacky. It was interesting to see the different buildings along the river and see how some were more European and others were more Chinese and Malaysian. There were also some pretty sweet murals on the walls and some monitor lizards in the river itself. After the tour, we ended up right back where we started and tried again for the Baba Nyonya Museum. This time we were victorious and got there right as a tour of the house was starting. The house itself was pretty interesting but both 
of us decided it wasn't quite as cool as the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Georgetown (another big fancy house in Malaysia). Either way we got to see some pretty interesting antiques, including bottles of 100 year old cognac and an old school ice-cream machine (hand crank operated). When we had finished the tour we found it was raining outside (in Malaysia, it is always raining) and decided to get some coffee and a snack to wait it out. When it stopped raining we stopped at Hang Jebat's tomb, and then we headed over to the mall to grab a trinket we couldn't find at the market and ended up buying a Prosperity Burger at the McDonalds (the advertisements were so good...and I think it's probably bad luck to not eat one). It turns out, as we could have expected, it wasn't that good. At this point Steph had here mind set on trying to reach the ocean so we spent the next good while walking to try and find a way to get there. Eventually we found a good spot and ended up in this lot full of really long tubes. It was really weird. Seriously, there were just these tubes everywhere. I think the site was under construction for something, but must have been abandoned because these tubes were just stuck in the ground pretty randomly. After some pictures by the tubes, we started walking back towards our hostel and grabbed some more Nyonya food. Tonight we tried to find the Light and Sound Spectacular, a nightly show mentioned in our guidebook. While we were walking we saw a wooden shack that said "tickets for light show" on it and there was thi
s guard inside. So we walk up and I say "two please" and he just gives me this awkward look. Steph then asks if this is where the light show is and the guard just points behind him. So we walk a little further and find out that, in fact, the light show has been shut down. I guess the only reason I mention this is that Malaysians are often too polite to disappoint you (meaning that guard could have just told us the light show wasn't happening but instead pointed behind him). Disappointed and tired, we headed back to our hostel for some sleep.
Wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Melacca? click here
Today we were super excited to ride the 'Jungle Railway'. Instead of taking one bus (with a transfer), we decided to spend the extra time and money (2 trains, 3 buses) to get to Melacca via the Jungle Railway. We were planning on getting up for the 7:30 bus this morning but we we're pretty tired from the last two days in the rain forest and decided that the 10am bus would be better. After eating our last meal at the floating restaurants, we headed over to the bus station. About an hour or so later, we arrived at Jerantut. After a brief walk from the bus station to the train station, we found out that we had a couple hours to kill and went to eat some delicious chicken and rice, eventually boarding ou
r train to Gemas at around 1:45 (30 minutes late. Our book quotes that these trains can run as much as 2 hours late, so I think we got lucky). The ride ended up actually being quite lame. Perhaps the northern part of the railway is more jungle-y, but it felt more like the 'palm-plantation railway' than the 'jungle railway'...oh well. We got to Gemas at about 4pm, at which point we once again started to ask around about where the bus station was. It turns out that we didn't need to take a bus and instead hopped onto another train that took us to Tampin, about an hour away. Once we arrived at Tampin, it was a 1km walk over to the bus station which included a stop for a snack of delicious pork buns. Once we were at the bus station we found our bus and took another hour long bus ride to Melacca. In Melacca we were dropped off at the main bus terminal and had to hop onto a city bus that took us close to our hostel for the night. So, in total, it was a pretty epic travel day, but 2 trains and 3 buses later we had finally arrived in Melacca. Now in the city we grabbed some naan and mutton masala and soon found ourselves exhausted and heading to sleep.Jan 10- Historical Bits of Melacca and "Little India"
Today we slept in really late, had a brief internet session, and ate some lunch before heading off for the days sightseeing. After lunch we started walking towards the Maritime Muse
um. The Maritime Museum is located inside a replica of a Portuguese trading ship, which you get to climb on top of and inside to see the rest of the museum. The museum outlines the history of trading and shipping in Melacca, which is basically what this city has done since the 1400s. In 1511, Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal took over the city and the Portuguese controlled it for a while before, in1641, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and controlled the city. Then, in 1824 the city got traded (yeah, apparently you could trade cities at that time. awesome) to the British in exchange for a city in Indonesia. So the British ruled until finally in 1946 when finally the Malaysians controlled Melacca. Wow. Long History. After this sweet museum, we headed out to see some of the other historical sites of the city. Our first stop was at this old waterwheel, which was pretty sweet. Next we saw some of the original wall of the city built by the Dutch and Portuguese that still have some old cannons on them as well as an old crane. After checking these out we found an old church (Christ Church, built by the Dutch) and then some more museums. We wandered through the Museum of Ethnography, the Education Musem, and the Stadthuys, which are basically just old buildings built by the Dutch. After this, we headed up a big hill and found ourselves at St. Pauls Church, the church in Melacca built by the Portuguese. Here there was this Asian guy playin
g guitar and belting out oldies, which was awesome. After this we walked down the hill and found ourselves at Melaka's Sultanate Palace, which is a replica of where the Sultan lived hundreds of years ago. The Palace was a long wooden house built with no nails and now houses a history of the Sultans of Melaka, laws, and other cultural information. By now we had had enough of museums and history for one day and decided to wander through the streets of "Little India" which was either really little, or we just didn't go to the right place (when I say small, I mean there were only a couple places selling sar
i's and blasting Indian music). After a while we wandered upon this place selling what looked like delicious burritos, so with high hopes we bought one. It turns out that we were really, really wrong. It was a burrito-esque thing, but it was filled with noodles and other Asian ingredients and really wasnt that good. Needing something a little better to eat, we went in search for chicken rice balls, which we hadn't had yet. We found a spot to have some and ate some dumpling soup, rice balls, and an enormous mound of barbecue pork (dumpling soup was the best of the three). After some dinner we decided we were tired and started the long walk back to our hostel to read and eventually go to sleep.Jan 11- Enduring Beauty and China Town
Today we woke up and decided to hit up a museum we missed the day before, the Museum of Enduring Beauty. It turns out this museum is in a building with two other museums, which were the People's Museum and the Kite Museum. In the People's Museum displays the various cultural influences on Malaysia's peopl
e, mainly Chinese, Indian, Muslim, and Malay. It also mentions the Chitty People, who are a cross of Malay and Indian peoples and have their own food (Nyonya food, basically its a variety of Chinese food) and their own language. The museum also had a decent exhibit on this game called gasing, which has nothing to do with farting, but is a game of spinning tops. I guess in Malaysia top spinning is something of a national sport. The Kite museum was mostly boring, but they had some cool kites. The Museum of Enduring Beauty was really cool. The basic idea of the museum is to display people who are literally enduring things which make them beautiful, like tattoos, lip plugs, scarring of the body, feet binding, neck stretching, head distorting, and other wacky ways that people have physically changed their body in the pursuit of beauty. The pictures in the museum w
ere mostly horrible, but there was enough information and so-so pictures to keep us plenty interested. People do some pretty crazy shit to make themselves attractive within their cultures. After these museums we walked over to Chinatown and did some shopping. After a while of shopping, we stopped into a place for some coffee and a bite to eat. We ordered mango chicken (delicious) and some naan and curry, which turned out to be fake naan (aka pita bread, wtf?). While we were eating it started pouring, so we ended up staying in the restaurant for a while to wait out the rain. By this time it was getting late and it was still raining, so we caved and took a taxi back to our hostel, where Steph took a nap (I was reading The End of Mr. Y, an awesome book, so I couldn't sleep). Later that night we walked around looking for food but it was semi-late by Melaka standards (it was just past 9:30... whew!) and lots of places were closed. We ended up eating at this place that was basically the Malaysian version of a Chillies or Applebees, and really wasn't that good at all (in all honesty, it was horrible).Jan 12- Boat trip, Fancy house, and Walking around forever looking for the ocean
Today we got up and went back to Chinatown hoping to go to the Baba Nyonya Museum, which is basically a big fancy house you get to tour. It turns out we got there at the exact wrong time (it closes for two hours for lunch) and so we instead headed to the river hoping to go to the Portuguese village by a boat. We got to the boat station a
nd bought our tickets but had about 25 minutes to kill so we went to the bathroom and ended up going to the free Malaysian Customs Museum. This museum was actually really cool because they had a bunch of stuff they've confiscated over the years (like sexual or revealing figurines, porn, opium pipes, shoes with stash holes in them, animal hides, taxidermized frogs playing instruments, etc.). As we were leaving they guard asked us to sign the notebook since it was a brand new museum and they wanted to know where we were from and whatnot. As we were exiting the museum we saw our boat being loaded and started walking over to get on, but it turns out those two minutes Steph was signing the guest book made us miss that boat, so we ended up waiting another half hour for the next boat. The boat ride didn't take us to the village like we thought it was going to but instead was a tour (DAMN!) and was all in all pretty tacky. It was interesting to see the different buildings along the river and see how some were more European and others were more Chinese and Malaysian. There were also some pretty sweet murals on the walls and some monitor lizards in the river itself. After the tour, we ended up right back where we started and tried again for the Baba Nyonya Museum. This time we were victorious and got there right as a tour of the house was starting. The house itself was pretty interesting but both 
of us decided it wasn't quite as cool as the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Georgetown (another big fancy house in Malaysia). Either way we got to see some pretty interesting antiques, including bottles of 100 year old cognac and an old school ice-cream machine (hand crank operated). When we had finished the tour we found it was raining outside (in Malaysia, it is always raining) and decided to get some coffee and a snack to wait it out. When it stopped raining we stopped at Hang Jebat's tomb, and then we headed over to the mall to grab a trinket we couldn't find at the market and ended up buying a Prosperity Burger at the McDonalds (the advertisements were so good...and I think it's probably bad luck to not eat one). It turns out, as we could have expected, it wasn't that good. At this point Steph had here mind set on trying to reach the ocean so we spent the next good while walking to try and find a way to get there. Eventually we found a good spot and ended up in this lot full of really long tubes. It was really weird. Seriously, there were just these tubes everywhere. I think the site was under construction for something, but must have been abandoned because these tubes were just stuck in the ground pretty randomly. After some pictures by the tubes, we started walking back towards our hostel and grabbed some more Nyonya food. Tonight we tried to find the Light and Sound Spectacular, a nightly show mentioned in our guidebook. While we were walking we saw a wooden shack that said "tickets for light show" on it and there was thi
s guard inside. So we walk up and I say "two please" and he just gives me this awkward look. Steph then asks if this is where the light show is and the guard just points behind him. So we walk a little further and find out that, in fact, the light show has been shut down. I guess the only reason I mention this is that Malaysians are often too polite to disappoint you (meaning that guard could have just told us the light show wasn't happening but instead pointed behind him). Disappointed and tired, we headed back to our hostel for some sleep.Wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Melacca? click here
Taman Negara, Malaysia
Jan 6: Off to Taman Negara--oldest rainforest in the world (or so we are told)
We woke up quite early in order to grab some roti for breakfast before our minivan came to pick us up. Sadly, the roti stands were not open quite yet, so we had 'coconut rice'. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why they gave it that name. It's a parcel of rice (in a banana leaf) with curry sauce. At first, I thought it might be coconut-flavored rice with curry, but no. Then I thought there was a chunk of
coconut on top of the rice and curry, but it turned out to be egg. Either way, it ended up being delicious, and we headed back to our hostel with full bellies. We hopped on our minibus and were on our way! The drive was absolutely gorgeous. We rode through the rainy, misty rainforest, and every so often caught a glimpse of a Orang Asli village that got upgraded (i.e. someone built them all concrete homes). We got to the border of the rainforest, then had to wait for a couple of hours for our boat to depart. We grabbed some lunch, played some cards, and hopped on our boat for an equally gorgeous butt-numbing 2.5 hour boat ride upstream to the town right next to Taman Negara. After disembarking, we searched a bit for a hostel, and finally found one with a river view. The town is quit
e small, and Taman Negara is actually across the river (you pay a boat river 1 ringgit (30 cents) for a crossing. There are 2 rivers that intersect here: one a deep dark black, and the other a light brown...it was really cool to watch the waters mixing. There are about 10 floating restaurants on our side of the river, accessible by boardwalk from the shore. So, we settled into our hostel, and then went out to grab some food at one of the floating restaurants. We got sweet and sour chicken and red chile chicken, which tasted almost exactly the same. Afterwards, we watched the information video about Taman Negara while eating a mango pancake, and then headed to bed.
coconut on top of the rice and curry, but it turned out to be egg. Either way, it ended up being delicious, and we headed back to our hostel with full bellies. We hopped on our minibus and were on our way! The drive was absolutely gorgeous. We rode through the rainy, misty rainforest, and every so often caught a glimpse of a Orang Asli village that got upgraded (i.e. someone built them all concrete homes). We got to the border of the rainforest, then had to wait for a couple of hours for our boat to depart. We grabbed some lunch, played some cards, and hopped on our boat for an equally gorgeous butt-numbing 2.5 hour boat ride upstream to the town right next to Taman Negara. After disembarking, we searched a bit for a hostel, and finally found one with a river view. The town is quit
e small, and Taman Negara is actually across the river (you pay a boat river 1 ringgit (30 cents) for a crossing. There are 2 rivers that intersect here: one a deep dark black, and the other a light brown...it was really cool to watch the waters mixing. There are about 10 floating restaurants on our side of the river, accessible by boardwalk from the shore. So, we settled into our hostel, and then went out to grab some food at one of the floating restaurants. We got sweet and sour chicken and red chile chicken, which tasted almost exactly the same. Afterwards, we watched the information video about Taman Negara while eating a mango pancake, and then headed to bed. Jan 7: Hiking in the Rainforest in the rain
This morning we awoke to the sound of rain, which made us rather sad. When we decided to come here, we knew it was the rainy season and were risking visiting during a time where it just rained all day, every day, but w
e were hoping that it wouldn't. Anyway, we decided to sleep in a bit, discouraged by the rain. We finally got up, got some breakfast, and headed across the river to do some hiking (despite the warnings that it was 'dangerous' by the tour agent trying to sell us one of his tours). We decided to do one of the more common loops, which included the Jungle walkway (although it was probably closed because of all the rain) and a hike to the top of a hill for some nice views (even though the views would probably be obstructed by the large amounts of clouds). Like I said, it was raining, so we had on some cheapo plastic rain c
overs (like trash bags), but we soon became very hot and sweaty, and decided to take them off, especially since we were a bit sheltered by all the trees. So...it was wet and rainy and muddy (and later we would discover there were lots and lots of leeches), but were enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. There is just something quite magical about being in the rainforest while it's raining. Also, we didn't see another soul our whole hike (I guess other people weren't quite as brave as we were). We got to the Jungle Walkway, and of course it was closed, so we continued to the top of the hill (Bukit Teresek), where we literally saw 
nothing but whiteness (yay!). Feeling a little bit disappointed but at the same time also a bit accomplished, we headed back down the mountain. It turns out this part of the trail was muddier than the first part, actually, much muddier. We avoided large prickly vines, large puddles of water and/or mud, and screamed as we slid down muddy slopes, but finally we made it to a part of the trail that was a bit less muddy (thank god). This is the point in the story where we found out about leeches. My ankle was 
itching, so I looked down and saw several leeches. At this point, I took off my shoe, and handed it to Phil, so he could do the leech removing. It turns out that this is quite difficult, since if you pull the leech off with your hand, it will just immediately attach to your hand. We quickly discovered that leaves were quite useful for removing leeches (we found out later that lighters and salt work quite well too). During the 5 minutes it took Phil to get the leeches out of my shoe (the had crawled quite deep), I noticed there were also leeches on my other ankle, but I couldn't really do anything about it, since I was standing on that foot, and Phil had my other shoe...so I just had to wait. So, finally after removing 4 leeches from my ankles and several more from my shoes (Phil also had a few, but less, since he had 2 pairs of long socks--the leeches were sucking blood through both pairs anyway), we hastily continued our journey, quite eager to make it to the safety of boardwalks and no more leeches. We finally returned to civilization, talked to the park ranger (who gave us a nice map), and crossed back over the river for a nice long (cold) shower, removal of a few more leeches (noting the leech-hickies) and some dinner at another floating restaurant. Quite tired, we went to bed.
e were hoping that it wouldn't. Anyway, we decided to sleep in a bit, discouraged by the rain. We finally got up, got some breakfast, and headed across the river to do some hiking (despite the warnings that it was 'dangerous' by the tour agent trying to sell us one of his tours). We decided to do one of the more common loops, which included the Jungle walkway (although it was probably closed because of all the rain) and a hike to the top of a hill for some nice views (even though the views would probably be obstructed by the large amounts of clouds). Like I said, it was raining, so we had on some cheapo plastic rain c
overs (like trash bags), but we soon became very hot and sweaty, and decided to take them off, especially since we were a bit sheltered by all the trees. So...it was wet and rainy and muddy (and later we would discover there were lots and lots of leeches), but were enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. There is just something quite magical about being in the rainforest while it's raining. Also, we didn't see another soul our whole hike (I guess other people weren't quite as brave as we were). We got to the Jungle Walkway, and of course it was closed, so we continued to the top of the hill (Bukit Teresek), where we literally saw 
nothing but whiteness (yay!). Feeling a little bit disappointed but at the same time also a bit accomplished, we headed back down the mountain. It turns out this part of the trail was muddier than the first part, actually, much muddier. We avoided large prickly vines, large puddles of water and/or mud, and screamed as we slid down muddy slopes, but finally we made it to a part of the trail that was a bit less muddy (thank god). This is the point in the story where we found out about leeches. My ankle was 
itching, so I looked down and saw several leeches. At this point, I took off my shoe, and handed it to Phil, so he could do the leech removing. It turns out that this is quite difficult, since if you pull the leech off with your hand, it will just immediately attach to your hand. We quickly discovered that leaves were quite useful for removing leeches (we found out later that lighters and salt work quite well too). During the 5 minutes it took Phil to get the leeches out of my shoe (the had crawled quite deep), I noticed there were also leeches on my other ankle, but I couldn't really do anything about it, since I was standing on that foot, and Phil had my other shoe...so I just had to wait. So, finally after removing 4 leeches from my ankles and several more from my shoes (Phil also had a few, but less, since he had 2 pairs of long socks--the leeches were sucking blood through both pairs anyway), we hastily continued our journey, quite eager to make it to the safety of boardwalks and no more leeches. We finally returned to civilization, talked to the park ranger (who gave us a nice map), and crossed back over the river for a nice long (cold) shower, removal of a few more leeches (noting the leech-hickies) and some dinner at another floating restaurant. Quite tired, we went to bed.Jan 8: Jungle Walkway, more leeeeeches (ugh) and a Night Safari!
We were quite excited to wake up to the sound of NO RAIN! Quite excited, we grabbed some breakfast and crossed the
river to go back to the Jungle Walkway (which was open, since it wasn't raining!). After paying our 5 ringgit, we headed up, and enjoyed the rickety 30 min walk 120 feet up in the air! Quite satisfied, we decided to do a bit more trekking, but on the other side of the black river (we also really wanted to cross the river, so we could see the brown river and the black rivers mixing up close). We started our hike on the opposite side of the river, quite happy that it was not raining, and stopping to check for leeches every 5 minutes or so. We saw some wild boar tracks, and got pretty excited (we really wanted to spot some kind of wild animal...maybe an elephant or a tiger...even though we knew we probably wouldn't). We continued our trek, stopping every few minutes or so beca
use we thought we heard an animal (even though we didn't...it turns our there are lots of random noises in the rain forest). Then, we really did hear a wild animal--a boar squealing. At this point we realized that we actually didn't really want to encounter a wild boar, especially after hearing many stories about how aggressive they are. We stood there for a while, trying to decide what to do, until we heard another squeal (much closer) and lots of rustling. At this point, Phil grabbed a stick and we both ran behind a tree. It turns out this tree just happened to be home to quite a few termites, which had decided to come out in full force after we disturbed them. After running back out onto the main trail to brush a bunch of termites off us, we decided we had had enough of mosquitoes, leeches, termites, and boars and decided to turn around. We boated across the river, took a quick shower, grabbed some food, and booked ourselves a "night safari tour". At 8pm, we boarded a pickup truck with a whole bunch of other people (4 inside the cab, 6 in the bed, and 5 of us on the top...yes, we were o
n top) and headed out to the palm tree orchard (which I thought was a strange place to search for wildlife, but it actually worked out in the end). The guide connected a giant, super bright spot light to the car battery, and began scanning the trees. Our first sighting was a slow loris [note: while this link provides video footage of a slow loris, I think our picture (left) of the slow loris in action is much more useful]. After that, we saw some owls, a bunch of really pretty kingfishers, several cows, lots of mice, a palm civet (the same ones that eat coffee and poop it out to make that very special variety of coffee) and a leopard cat (!! this one was definitely the cutest of them all, and hung around for a while...we watched it for about 5 minutes...it didn't seem to mind the super bright light at all).
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Taman Negara? click here
We were quite excited to wake up to the sound of NO RAIN! Quite excited, we grabbed some breakfast and crossed the
river to go back to the Jungle Walkway (which was open, since it wasn't raining!). After paying our 5 ringgit, we headed up, and enjoyed the rickety 30 min walk 120 feet up in the air! Quite satisfied, we decided to do a bit more trekking, but on the other side of the black river (we also really wanted to cross the river, so we could see the brown river and the black rivers mixing up close). We started our hike on the opposite side of the river, quite happy that it was not raining, and stopping to check for leeches every 5 minutes or so. We saw some wild boar tracks, and got pretty excited (we really wanted to spot some kind of wild animal...maybe an elephant or a tiger...even though we knew we probably wouldn't). We continued our trek, stopping every few minutes or so beca
use we thought we heard an animal (even though we didn't...it turns our there are lots of random noises in the rain forest). Then, we really did hear a wild animal--a boar squealing. At this point we realized that we actually didn't really want to encounter a wild boar, especially after hearing many stories about how aggressive they are. We stood there for a while, trying to decide what to do, until we heard another squeal (much closer) and lots of rustling. At this point, Phil grabbed a stick and we both ran behind a tree. It turns out this tree just happened to be home to quite a few termites, which had decided to come out in full force after we disturbed them. After running back out onto the main trail to brush a bunch of termites off us, we decided we had had enough of mosquitoes, leeches, termites, and boars and decided to turn around. We boated across the river, took a quick shower, grabbed some food, and booked ourselves a "night safari tour". At 8pm, we boarded a pickup truck with a whole bunch of other people (4 inside the cab, 6 in the bed, and 5 of us on the top...yes, we were o
n top) and headed out to the palm tree orchard (which I thought was a strange place to search for wildlife, but it actually worked out in the end). The guide connected a giant, super bright spot light to the car battery, and began scanning the trees. Our first sighting was a slow loris [note: while this link provides video footage of a slow loris, I think our picture (left) of the slow loris in action is much more useful]. After that, we saw some owls, a bunch of really pretty kingfishers, several cows, lots of mice, a palm civet (the same ones that eat coffee and poop it out to make that very special variety of coffee) and a leopard cat (!! this one was definitely the cutest of them all, and hung around for a while...we watched it for about 5 minutes...it didn't seem to mind the super bright light at all).wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Taman Negara? click here
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Jan 3- Off to the Cameron Highlands
We got up this morning and went with our friends Claudia and Dominik to grab some Roti for breakfast. After some packing and with a full belly, we waited until our mini-bus came for us at about 11:30. We we
re only the second group of people to pick up so we ended up driving around Georgetown collecting passengers, finally leaving the city around 12:15ish. After a fairly uneventful 5 hour drive, we finally arrived in Tanah Rata, up in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. The Cameron Highlands themselves comprise a large area (712 sq km according to Wikipedia) and several towns, but Tanah Rata is where the most hotel/hostel development is. We ended up picking a place called the Father's Guest house, which is slightly removed up on a hill but is a nice spot to stay. After putting on some pants and a jacket (its cold up here! ~1500 m altitude) we walked the one main street of the town and ended up eating a HUGE dinner comprising of a mutton rice put (mmmmm!!) and some tandori chicken. After dinner we headed back up to our hostel and caught the tail end of a movie while playing scrabble (as expected, steph kicked my ass).
re only the second group of people to pick up so we ended up driving around Georgetown collecting passengers, finally leaving the city around 12:15ish. After a fairly uneventful 5 hour drive, we finally arrived in Tanah Rata, up in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. The Cameron Highlands themselves comprise a large area (712 sq km according to Wikipedia) and several towns, but Tanah Rata is where the most hotel/hostel development is. We ended up picking a place called the Father's Guest house, which is slightly removed up on a hill but is a nice spot to stay. After putting on some pants and a jacket (its cold up here! ~1500 m altitude) we walked the one main street of the town and ended up eating a HUGE dinner comprising of a mutton rice put (mmmmm!!) and some tandori chicken. After dinner we headed back up to our hostel and caught the tail end of a movie while playing scrabble (as expected, steph kicked my ass).Jan 4-Rafflesia!!!! and tea...(Cameron highlands, Malaysia)
Today we signed up for a trek to see the enormous rafflessia flower, the largest flower in the world! Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants, which means its "roots
" just go into another plant, and it sucks all of its nutrients from there instead of the soil. It's flower is supposed to smell like rotting flesh, which gives it it's nickname, the 'corpse flower.' We got up, ate some breakfast and then happily hopped into the "horny truck", which has water buffalo horns secured on the front of it (I was very happy about this). After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the tiny Orang Asli village. Orang Asli is roughly translated as "original", meaning they were some of the original peoples to live in the jungles of Malaysia. Here we got to try out a blow pipe, which was neat. Soon, however, we were off treking to find the star of todays adventure, the rafflessia flower. After a (very) muddy hour of hiking, we had found our prize. It was really cool to be able to see this flower and definitely worth the money we paid. We also smelled it, and, unfortunately, it did not smell like rotting flesh, just a little bit like cheese. After another five minutes hiking, we saw a pretty "meh" waterfall and turned around for another muddy hour of hiking back to the cars. After another 45 minutes in the horny truck, we arrived at the BOH ("Best of Highlands") tea factory and took a tour. It was interesting to see how the tea is processed and whatnot, but the r
eally cool part of this trip was getting to see the surroundings. We were literally surrounded by tea plants and it was an awesome view, to say the least. We also learned that the tea plants were 80-100 years old, and even though they were little bushes, they grow into huge trees if they aren't pruned. After a while at the tea plantation, we headed off to the butterfly farm. It was much more than a butterfly farm and we got to see and hold many different types of bugs. During this time, I think the guide fell in love with how interested and fearless Steph is and used her to hold all the scorpions the rest of us didnt want to hold (there were 4 on her at one time; I guess scorpions have a good grip because they definitely can hold on to her jacket). After some time looking at different bugs, snakes, lizards and butterflies, we left for the strawberry farm. This was ok, but since we can gro
w strawberries ourselves, the highlight of the whole experience was the strawberry milkshake. Or it could have been the fact that our guide told us the plantation imported the dried strawberries it sold from China. Who knows? After all this we found ourselves to be tired and dirty and ready for a shower. After a shower and some scones at our hostel, we watched the end of the movie Wallstreet (not much to do in this town but eat and watch movies... and that totally ok with us). After the movie we were ready for a more substantial meal and headed to the main street for some "meat in red sauce" with fried rice and some koey teow that tasted really similar to pad see ew. Afterward I got to watch the end of Eat Pray Love alone (lucky me!) while Steph wrote her Goldwater update letter (lucky her!). The only reason I write this is because earlier that day we were looking at the movies and Steph commented that she wanted to see that movie but didn't want to force me to watch it. Ha!
" just go into another plant, and it sucks all of its nutrients from there instead of the soil. It's flower is supposed to smell like rotting flesh, which gives it it's nickname, the 'corpse flower.' We got up, ate some breakfast and then happily hopped into the "horny truck", which has water buffalo horns secured on the front of it (I was very happy about this). After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the tiny Orang Asli village. Orang Asli is roughly translated as "original", meaning they were some of the original peoples to live in the jungles of Malaysia. Here we got to try out a blow pipe, which was neat. Soon, however, we were off treking to find the star of todays adventure, the rafflessia flower. After a (very) muddy hour of hiking, we had found our prize. It was really cool to be able to see this flower and definitely worth the money we paid. We also smelled it, and, unfortunately, it did not smell like rotting flesh, just a little bit like cheese. After another five minutes hiking, we saw a pretty "meh" waterfall and turned around for another muddy hour of hiking back to the cars. After another 45 minutes in the horny truck, we arrived at the BOH ("Best of Highlands") tea factory and took a tour. It was interesting to see how the tea is processed and whatnot, but the r
eally cool part of this trip was getting to see the surroundings. We were literally surrounded by tea plants and it was an awesome view, to say the least. We also learned that the tea plants were 80-100 years old, and even though they were little bushes, they grow into huge trees if they aren't pruned. After a while at the tea plantation, we headed off to the butterfly farm. It was much more than a butterfly farm and we got to see and hold many different types of bugs. During this time, I think the guide fell in love with how interested and fearless Steph is and used her to hold all the scorpions the rest of us didnt want to hold (there were 4 on her at one time; I guess scorpions have a good grip because they definitely can hold on to her jacket). After some time looking at different bugs, snakes, lizards and butterflies, we left for the strawberry farm. This was ok, but since we can gro
w strawberries ourselves, the highlight of the whole experience was the strawberry milkshake. Or it could have been the fact that our guide told us the plantation imported the dried strawberries it sold from China. Who knows? After all this we found ourselves to be tired and dirty and ready for a shower. After a shower and some scones at our hostel, we watched the end of the movie Wallstreet (not much to do in this town but eat and watch movies... and that totally ok with us). After the movie we were ready for a more substantial meal and headed to the main street for some "meat in red sauce" with fried rice and some koey teow that tasted really similar to pad see ew. Afterward I got to watch the end of Eat Pray Love alone (lucky me!) while Steph wrote her Goldwater update letter (lucky her!). The only reason I write this is because earlier that day we were looking at the movies and Steph commented that she wanted to see that movie but didn't want to force me to watch it. Ha!Jan 5- Relax and Internet (Cameron Highlands, Malaysia)
Today was our off day. We slept in till about 10:30 or 11:00 9, had a late breakfast or early lunch at 11:15 of Roti. Afterwords we began a massive internet session to try and decide what to do for the rest of our time in Malaysia (like whether or not to go to Singapore?) and to blog and basically relax while its raining.
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in the Cameron Highlands? click here
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in the Cameron Highlands? click here
Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Dec 30: exploring Georgetown
Dec 31: NYE on the Esplanade
We slept in again, then headed to Little India for breakfast (or really, lunch). Today we stopped at a place serving banana leaf curry, where they serve you on a banana leaf. At the top, 3 piles of
miscellaneous Indian food. In the middle, rice. On the side, your choice of either chicken fish or lamb. And you eat it with your hands. We were a bit disappointed that we got fake banana leaves, but we got over it, because the food was good! Afterward, we caught a bus to go check out the Kek Lok Si Monastery (the biggest in Malaysia). Turns out the bus ride was about an hour long, but we finally made it. We made our way through the RIDICULOUS amounts of souvenir stalls, and made it to the top! Little did we know there was another 'top' to the monastery. We had to pay a dollar each to ride the "First inclined lift in Malaysia!" and wait in like for 10 mins instead of just taking the 100 or so stairs. Oh well, it was funny. At the top, we got a nice view of Georgetown as well as a huge statue they'd put on top. After getting all our viewing in, we made our way through the souvenir stalls again, and hopped back on the bus. After getting back, we ha a quick snack of wan tan mee (we saw the ladies making the won tons the day before and decided to come back). Then it started pouring rain, so we had an in
ternet session. Around 9, we decided maybe we should get ourselves prepared for the New Year, aka buy some alcohol for some pre-gaming activities. Since we're in a Muslim-majority country, the alcohol is pretty heavily taxed ($4 for a big beer??!!! what??!!). We bought ourselves some coke and some rum (Stanley Morgan?...must be Captain Morgan's cousin...), and headed back to the hostel. After mixing our beverages, we had a couple of beers at the hostel before heading out. We stopped quickly to grab 1/4 of a crispy duck (the duck lady was starting to recognize us) and then headed to the Esplanade, where there was a band playing. We witnessed an all-male Malaysian band playing covers of Limp Bizkit's "Rollin" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" before we celebrated the New Year with the obligatory countdown. Afterward, we sang Happy Birthday to Georgetown (it became a city on Jan 1st, many years ago). Somehow, we ended up next to some other whiteys, and we all decided to grab a beer together. It was 3am when we grabbed a delicious burger from street vendor and headed home. A good start to a New Year!
Jan 1: Happy Birthday Georgetown!
Continuing our streak of sleeping in, we slept until about 11. We had a noodly breakfast down the street, and then headed to the Chocolate Factory, where we sampled many different and interesting chocolates. T
hen we headed to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Cheong Fatt Tze is your basic rags to riches story, as he started in China with nothing and made himself an empire which afforded him the nickname of the "Rockefeller of the east". After he died, his mansion was left to his youngest son, and then to his son's wife. His son's wife didn't have the funds to keep up the mansion, so rented out the rooms and the mansion quickly fell into ruin. In 1989 the mansion was purchased to save it from the bulldozer and underwent a massive reconstruction effort to bring it to its former glory. What stands today is pretty amazing. Its indigo blue, making it stand out from the rest of the houses around it (although that was apparently a popular color at the time of construction). We got an amazing tour guide to bring us through the mansion, seeing all the benefits of being a wealthy Asian man in the late 1800s and early 1900s (and learning about how his mansion was built perfectly according to feng shui standards). After touring the mansion, we went back to skype our families into the new year (being 15 hours ahead, we woke them all up at around 1:30am their time hehe!). After some skyping we headed over to the Georgetown City Day festival. What we thought was going to be a huge field covered with food stalls turned out to be maybe a dozen, but we still managed to find some delicious koey teow tasting rice-noodle-balls (which looked like fried potatoes). After a while, the City Day parade started and we got to see some of the cultural influences on the city, for instance, large Indian and Chinese populations. We got to see Silak (Malaysian martial arts), an Indian wedding dance, dragons of the Chinese New year, marching bands, and this awesome Malaysian past-time of throwing an enormous pole up in the air and balancing it on your head (it looks really hard actually). It was a pretty good time, all in all. After all this culture, we were worn out and ready for bed.
Jan 2: Penang National Park
We slept in quite late this morning (despite the racket of construction outside our un-closeable window), and changed rooms to the place next door, which had a hot shower in the shared
bathroom instead of a cold one. Also, our room was a wee bit bigger. Afterwards, we headed out to explore the town. Georgetown is quite an interesting city. It was a huge trading center, as well as commercial and financial district and there were many immigrants, meaning that even today the town is divided into sections, i.e. indian, chinese, etc. (more history? click here). Our first stop was little India, for some breakfast. We had some great dishes, having no clue what any of them were. Our next stop was supposed to be Khoo Kongsi, but we got lost and ended up at an old Muslim trader's mansion, which had been turned into a museum. Then we found another Chinese temple, where they had set out a huge meal (for the ancestors?), and were burning large piles of yellow paper, which we assume were all preparations for the New Year. Finally, we pulled out our seco
nd map (way better) and found our way to Khoo Kongsi, a clan house built by the Khoos, originally from China. It's a beautiful temple, and we explored it for a while before continuing on our journey. Next stop, mostly by accident, was the Kapitan Keling Mosque. We ended up talking with an imam, the equivalent of a priest. We had an awkward moment or two, when we explained that we, ahem, "weren't dedicated to any religions at the moment." He continued his planned speech, where he explained how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all intricately linked, gave us some mini-books including "Crucifixion or Cruci-FICTION?" and gave us a small tour of the Mosque, for which we had to don long black robes. Afterwards, we 
headed to Fort Cornwallis, probably one of the lamer forts we'd been to. It was built by Francis Light, an English dude, when he 'took possession of the island' in 1786. We checked out the magical Seri Rambai cannon, and went to grab some coffee. After coffee, we went to grab some dinner at the hawker stalls. We had 3 noodley dishes, which were quite good. They were all on our "Food Map of Penang" (a list of dishes Penang is famous for, and where to get them), so we felt like we had accomplished something. Then, bed!
bathroom instead of a cold one. Also, our room was a wee bit bigger. Afterwards, we headed out to explore the town. Georgetown is quite an interesting city. It was a huge trading center, as well as commercial and financial district and there were many immigrants, meaning that even today the town is divided into sections, i.e. indian, chinese, etc. (more history? click here). Our first stop was little India, for some breakfast. We had some great dishes, having no clue what any of them were. Our next stop was supposed to be Khoo Kongsi, but we got lost and ended up at an old Muslim trader's mansion, which had been turned into a museum. Then we found another Chinese temple, where they had set out a huge meal (for the ancestors?), and were burning large piles of yellow paper, which we assume were all preparations for the New Year. Finally, we pulled out our seco
nd map (way better) and found our way to Khoo Kongsi, a clan house built by the Khoos, originally from China. It's a beautiful temple, and we explored it for a while before continuing on our journey. Next stop, mostly by accident, was the Kapitan Keling Mosque. We ended up talking with an imam, the equivalent of a priest. We had an awkward moment or two, when we explained that we, ahem, "weren't dedicated to any religions at the moment." He continued his planned speech, where he explained how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were all intricately linked, gave us some mini-books including "Crucifixion or Cruci-FICTION?" and gave us a small tour of the Mosque, for which we had to don long black robes. Afterwards, we 
headed to Fort Cornwallis, probably one of the lamer forts we'd been to. It was built by Francis Light, an English dude, when he 'took possession of the island' in 1786. We checked out the magical Seri Rambai cannon, and went to grab some coffee. After coffee, we went to grab some dinner at the hawker stalls. We had 3 noodley dishes, which were quite good. They were all on our "Food Map of Penang" (a list of dishes Penang is famous for, and where to get them), so we felt like we had accomplished something. Then, bed!Dec 31: NYE on the Esplanade
We slept in again, then headed to Little India for breakfast (or really, lunch). Today we stopped at a place serving banana leaf curry, where they serve you on a banana leaf. At the top, 3 piles of
miscellaneous Indian food. In the middle, rice. On the side, your choice of either chicken fish or lamb. And you eat it with your hands. We were a bit disappointed that we got fake banana leaves, but we got over it, because the food was good! Afterward, we caught a bus to go check out the Kek Lok Si Monastery (the biggest in Malaysia). Turns out the bus ride was about an hour long, but we finally made it. We made our way through the RIDICULOUS amounts of souvenir stalls, and made it to the top! Little did we know there was another 'top' to the monastery. We had to pay a dollar each to ride the "First inclined lift in Malaysia!" and wait in like for 10 mins instead of just taking the 100 or so stairs. Oh well, it was funny. At the top, we got a nice view of Georgetown as well as a huge statue they'd put on top. After getting all our viewing in, we made our way through the souvenir stalls again, and hopped back on the bus. After getting back, we ha a quick snack of wan tan mee (we saw the ladies making the won tons the day before and decided to come back). Then it started pouring rain, so we had an in
ternet session. Around 9, we decided maybe we should get ourselves prepared for the New Year, aka buy some alcohol for some pre-gaming activities. Since we're in a Muslim-majority country, the alcohol is pretty heavily taxed ($4 for a big beer??!!! what??!!). We bought ourselves some coke and some rum (Stanley Morgan?...must be Captain Morgan's cousin...), and headed back to the hostel. After mixing our beverages, we had a couple of beers at the hostel before heading out. We stopped quickly to grab 1/4 of a crispy duck (the duck lady was starting to recognize us) and then headed to the Esplanade, where there was a band playing. We witnessed an all-male Malaysian band playing covers of Limp Bizkit's "Rollin" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" before we celebrated the New Year with the obligatory countdown. Afterward, we sang Happy Birthday to Georgetown (it became a city on Jan 1st, many years ago). Somehow, we ended up next to some other whiteys, and we all decided to grab a beer together. It was 3am when we grabbed a delicious burger from street vendor and headed home. A good start to a New Year!Jan 1: Happy Birthday Georgetown!
Continuing our streak of sleeping in, we slept until about 11. We had a noodly breakfast down the street, and then headed to the Chocolate Factory, where we sampled many different and interesting chocolates. T
hen we headed to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Cheong Fatt Tze is your basic rags to riches story, as he started in China with nothing and made himself an empire which afforded him the nickname of the "Rockefeller of the east". After he died, his mansion was left to his youngest son, and then to his son's wife. His son's wife didn't have the funds to keep up the mansion, so rented out the rooms and the mansion quickly fell into ruin. In 1989 the mansion was purchased to save it from the bulldozer and underwent a massive reconstruction effort to bring it to its former glory. What stands today is pretty amazing. Its indigo blue, making it stand out from the rest of the houses around it (although that was apparently a popular color at the time of construction). We got an amazing tour guide to bring us through the mansion, seeing all the benefits of being a wealthy Asian man in the late 1800s and early 1900s (and learning about how his mansion was built perfectly according to feng shui standards). After touring the mansion, we went back to skype our families into the new year (being 15 hours ahead, we woke them all up at around 1:30am their time hehe!). After some skyping we headed over to the Georgetown City Day festival. What we thought was going to be a huge field covered with food stalls turned out to be maybe a dozen, but we still managed to find some delicious koey teow tasting rice-noodle-balls (which looked like fried potatoes). After a while, the City Day parade started and we got to see some of the cultural influences on the city, for instance, large Indian and Chinese populations. We got to see Silak (Malaysian martial arts), an Indian wedding dance, dragons of the Chinese New year, marching bands, and this awesome Malaysian past-time of throwing an enormous pole up in the air and balancing it on your head (it looks really hard actually). It was a pretty good time, all in all. After all this culture, we were worn out and ready for bed.Jan 2: Penang National Park
Today we decided to, guess what, sleep in! I dont know what it is about Georgetown, but its a sleep in town. After a huge lunch of some delicious Indian food, we hopped on a bus for an hour long ride out to a national park. We really had close to zero expectations going out there (except hearing that there were monkeys), but were happily surprised to see that they h
ad a canopy walkway and a lighthouse we could hike to. So we grabbed a map and started walking. After maybe 20 minutes of easy walking (on concrete; this must be where most visitors go!), we found ourselves at the canopy walkway. It was pretty cool to be up above the jungle walking on these foot-wide rope walkways (supported by steel cables- completely safe). This really hadn't satisfied our desire to do some hiking, so we decided to head for the lighthouse. After another hour or so of more legitimate jungle hiking, we made it to Monkey Beach (seeing some monkeys right before arriving there). Once there, we asked a couple heading the opposite way if they'd made it to the lighthouse, which they had, but were sadly informed that it was closed for the day. Damn! Our hopes dashed, we sat on the beach for about 5 minutes before turning around and hiking our way out. Once we got back to the park entrance, we were ready for a snack and had some delicious roti before catching the bus back to our hostel. Once we got back we waited for a rendezvous with our Swiss friends Claudia and Dominik from Laos, which was supposed to happen around 8:00pm. After waiting a while and reading the paper (in English!), we went for some food. Tonights meal was a pretty awesome combo: duck and stingray. After the food, we went back to our hostel and by chance found our friends walking in with their packs! Since they had been coming from Thailand that day, they'd understandably had a long journey (involving 5 different mini-buses, once getting out of one to get back into the same mini-bus 10 minutes later). After some beers (and getting them some duck...the duck lady smiled and laughed at us), some more beers and a long catch-up session, we headed to bed.
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Georgetown? click here
ad a canopy walkway and a lighthouse we could hike to. So we grabbed a map and started walking. After maybe 20 minutes of easy walking (on concrete; this must be where most visitors go!), we found ourselves at the canopy walkway. It was pretty cool to be up above the jungle walking on these foot-wide rope walkways (supported by steel cables- completely safe). This really hadn't satisfied our desire to do some hiking, so we decided to head for the lighthouse. After another hour or so of more legitimate jungle hiking, we made it to Monkey Beach (seeing some monkeys right before arriving there). Once there, we asked a couple heading the opposite way if they'd made it to the lighthouse, which they had, but were sadly informed that it was closed for the day. Damn! Our hopes dashed, we sat on the beach for about 5 minutes before turning around and hiking our way out. Once we got back to the park entrance, we were ready for a snack and had some delicious roti before catching the bus back to our hostel. Once we got back we waited for a rendezvous with our Swiss friends Claudia and Dominik from Laos, which was supposed to happen around 8:00pm. After waiting a while and reading the paper (in English!), we went for some food. Tonights meal was a pretty awesome combo: duck and stingray. After the food, we went back to our hostel and by chance found our friends walking in with their packs! Since they had been coming from Thailand that day, they'd understandably had a long journey (involving 5 different mini-buses, once getting out of one to get back into the same mini-bus 10 minutes later). After some beers (and getting them some duck...the duck lady smiled and laughed at us), some more beers and a long catch-up session, we headed to bed.wanna see more pictures of our adventures in Georgetown? click here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)