More Travels

Systems at Malaysian immigration are STILL down, so I am still without job, income and anything to do.  Better explore Malaysia a bit more.

Cameron Highlands

Sepideh and I took a coach up the worlds windiest road to reach the rather chilly Cameron Highlands, an area of tea plantations and strawberry farms.  Located about 1500m above sea level the Camerons can get pretty chilly (by Malaysian standards), and can drop to 16 ˚C or lower (British summer).

The food in Cameron Highlands is great.  Lots of Indian.  We have overdosed on Teriyaki chicken and Naan.  Sepideh and I had the best meal I have had since I arrived in Malaysia; a South Indian steamboat.  The soup dish is cooked at the table.  Half the pot contains Tom Yam, one of the spiciest foods here (we ordered strictly non-spicy), and the other half is a vegetable broth.  The boiling pot is delivered with a tray of greens, meat, seafood, egg & noodles which you cook yourself in the soup.

Sepideh and the steamboat.

Slightly confused by the steamboat concept I asked the waiter for clarification please. 

Was told in reply: 'Sorry miss, we're fresh out of clarification'

Haha.

Public transport in the area is patchy, so Sepideh and I signed up to a tour.  We were in a group with 3 girls & 3 lads from Kent.  strangely I had already met the lads in Taman Negara, and one had graduated from Cardiff with me this year and was in halls with Colston.  Small world.  The tour began with a 3 hour jungle trek.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my trainers and lent my only rucksack to Sophie for the weekend, so off I trotted with a leather handbad and flip flops.  Absolute tool!

Sepideh & me at a Rafflesia, the worlds largest breed of flower. 

After the jungle trek we visited an aborigine tribe, who still hunt animals by shooting darts dipped in a poisonous homemade Ipoh solution from blow pipes.  The poison can take an elephant down in 4 seconds!  Health & safety is yet to be introduced here, so we all had a go at target practice with the blowpipes.  After practice we were able to buy a blowpipe for 25 ringgit (£5).  The boys bought 3.

On the way back to the van we passed the villages pet monkey, chained up ready to eat.  Bizarrely we were also told the aborigine tribe had just received support from the government for living, and then walked past a row of concrete houses with satellite.  At least after a hard days hunting with darts the aborigines can unwind with an episode of The Simpsons. 

The tour also involved a visit to a strawberry farm, reptile sanctuary & tea plantation.  I was in heaven at Boh Tea plantation, and bought 2 cups!  It's refreshing to be served tea properly.  The previous day I had ordered a tea in Starbucks only to be given an Earl Grey - as if that's the default.  I asked them politely to please change it for English Breakfast with a splash of milk, only to then receive such a tea with condensed milk.  & that was at Starbucks!!!!

View from the cafe at Boh Tea Plantation.  Me with my tea, & Sepideh.

After the tour we went for dinner and back to the hostel bar for drinks.  Randomly bumped into Miriam Jones, a girl from the flat above me in halls.  We stayed at Jungle Bar, the slightly less dead of the 2 bars in town.  We introduced Sepideh to English drinking, with a round of arrogance.  Basic concept: Pour any amount of your drink into a glass, the more confident you feel the more you poor.  Flip a coin.  If you lose drink, if you win pass the glass to the next player to add to. Hayden, one of the lads, was overly arrogant and overly un-lucky and ended up drinking the better part of a bottle of rum.  After a few rounds the game escalated and saw the boys get their tribal blowpipes out.  They spent a good 15 minutes blowing darts at each other from point blank range whilst the girls hid. 

 Recreating a David Attenborough documentary; one animal, one shooter, and one commentator.

Fair to say Sepideh was somewhat surprised by English parties.  She said it's really nice that we all spend time talking to each other at a get together.  Perhaps less nice that we shoot each other though.  I assured her this wasn't common.

Iranian Party

The night we got back from Cameron Highlands I was invited to a surprise birthday party for Parimah's boyfriend, Reza, with all Sepideh's Iranian friends.  The party was lovely and so polite.  As soon as we arrived Sepideh was dancing with her friends in a huge group, clapping and cheering each other.  They were teaching me the distinctive hip swing in the dancing of people from North Iran, and shoulder shimmy of southerners.  True to my roots I moved my shoulders.  Every time you sit down for breath some one drags you up again.

After 3 hours dancing it was time for cake and presents. We watched and clapped as Reza opened his presents.  The cake was massive and the candle blow out climaxed from a count down of TWENTY-FIVE!!! Parimah then delivered Reza the knife to cut the cake with a fancy dance.  This is a traditional Iranian act, mainly at weddings, where the bride dances the knife to the groom.  Sepideh told me that all the guests had chipped in 30 ringgit for the cake and gifts.  In England the only chip in is some of drink for a dirty pint, and if you're unlucky something gross like washing up liquid (Colesy!). 

The party finished about 1am.  Before leaving each guest shakes hands with everyone in the room to say goodbye. So SO polite, and so much more civilised than a good old British stumble home to an afterparty or a round of blowpipe shooting!! Culture really is such a weird thing.  How we come to expect a party to be.

Perhentians

This weekend was a bank holiday, so Sophie and her French friend Anne sampled the delights of the Perhentians.  Randomly Sophie met the 3 lads there just before they came to the Cameron Highlands.  The small world gets smaller! Unfortunately Soph had another 250 ringgit (£50) stolen from out of her bag, when she left it behind hotel reception.  So bad that you can't even trust the staff.  When we were on Tioman Island one of our friends had 300 ringgit stolen from his wallet during a snorkeling trip, where the only guy on the boat with his stuff was the driver!!

Domestic Bliss

Back to KL now, and trying to stay put as I am rapidly running out of travel funds.  It's so frustrating sitting around in KL with nothing to do though.  I just want this bloody visa to hurry up!  Soph and I are going on a hot date tonight; dinner and a food shop.  Romance is not dead.  Probably hitting Bukitbintang (bar district) on Saturday too with Portugese Vitor, Malaysian Dennis and Romanian Iulia.

Sadly Sepideh has bought her ticket to go back to Iran.  She leaves on October 12th.  Means Soph and I will get our own rooms, but I'm really going to miss Sepideh.  She's been so kind and welcoming to us.

Travels....

There have been further delays to my Visa as the system for the entire Malaysian Immigration has been down, so I have met some awesome people, been traveling, seen 2 sharks, been to a Malaysian wedding, met the Mayalsian minister for Tourism, and had a good old time. On the downside I have been annihilated by bed-bugs, and have a foot the size of a cantaloupe melon after being bitten by a poisonous spider in the jungle. On the plus side, I am really falling in love with Malaysia. 

Penang.

German Vera and I got a sleeper train for 40 Ringgit (£8) up to Butterworth, where we caught a ferry for 1.2 RM (22p) over to Palau Penang (Penang Island).  Bargain! We stayed at Reggae Penang, where we met Luke.  Together the 3 of us caught a train which travels almost vertically up Penang Hill, to a viewing platform 2750 feet (823m) above sea level.  For some reason 'foreigner' train tickets were 30RM (£6), whilst locals paid a mere 4RM.  Nonetheless, the views were incredible and the Mojito disappointingly small.

Luke, me & Vera at top of Penang Hill

German Vera and I got pretty confused trying to navigate around Gerogetown.  Everywhere we went seemed to be signed towards 'Jalan Sehala'.  We thought  this old Jalan Sehala must be a pretty major place, and followed the signs around trying to find it.  Later on Luke helped us work out Jalan Sehala translates to 'One Way' in English.  That'd be why it wasn't on the map then.

In the evening we went out with some other travelers from Reggae to Penangs ridiculously over-priced 'club' strip.  Fortunately we met a rather splash African dude who showered the group with Moet Champagne and insisted on getting his ringgit out for a stroke during any song about money.  Also met a really nice couple called Wei and Fontain, and Wei starts working in KL in October. At the end of the night we took a trip to Malaysia's answer to Cardiff's chippy ally.  I was given a polystyrene box of 'fish balls and sauce'.  Apart from this bizarre dish the food in Penang is incredible!!

The day we left Penang coincided with a celebration at Reggae Penang for the Chinese Hungry Ghosts Festival.  Reggae staff cooked an absolute feast for the ghosts and burnt a pile of bank notes from hell.  Ghosts from the realms of hell rise to eat the food, and the burning alleviates their suffering.  The food was really tasty.

 

Feast and fire for the Chinese Hungry Ghosts Festival, Reggae Penang.

Mengkuang Titi

Luke and I paid to do a Homestay with an un-believably kind and welcoming family in a village near Butterworth, called Mengkuang Titi.  We dressed in traditional Malaysian clothes and celebrated the end of Hari Raya with them, by feasting and dancing.  Bizarrely the locals treated us like celebrities, wanting to shake our hands, sit us in VIP seats, give us food, and take photos.  We were invited up on stage to dance for the guests, and were casually ordered to receive curry from the Malaysian Minister for Tourism.  

 End of Hari Raya celebrations

 Receiving curry from the Minister of Malaysian Tourism. 

Minister: 'Do you like spicy food?'

Meg: 'Oh yes, love it!'  Shit. I lied to the minister!

Luke and I dancing in our traditionals.  The dress is a Baju Kurung.

 We had a go at making some local delicacies.  This is Dolon, a sticky chocolatey desert that needs to be stirred for 6 hours over a fire! 

The next day we attended a local Malay wedding, and an open house Hari Raya ceremony (where the host provides food at their house, for anyone and everyone to attend and eat) at the richest villagers house.  At both events we were handed plates and told 'Makanan, makanan, MAKANAN' ('Eat, eat, EAT'), just as you'd be offered a glass of something bubbly at a British wedding.  I makananed until I was sick on a bus. 

Tioman

After being stuffed to bursting we headed to Palau Tioman, for our own fasting period.  Tioman is really beautiful, and a bit more advanced than the Perhentians owing to the presence of a road, airport, electricity and hot water.  

Sunset on Salang Bay

 We made some good English and Malaysian friends, and together enjoyed the cheap duty-free alcohol on the island.  2 of the Malaysian group we joined actually work in KL and live just down the road from me in Bangsar.  They were a really nice couple from Romania (Iulia) and Malaysia (Dennis), going to try and meet up with them soon.  Had a bit of an embarrassing moment when I met a lad from Reading.  After introduced himself with the sentence 'Hi I'm Alec' I spent the rest of the day thinking what a cool name Malec was. Cringe!

The days were spent playing cards, sunbathing and snorkeling.  The sea is infested with jellyfish, and snorkeling is a bit of a contortionist feat trying to dodge the armies of tentacles.  Worth it though, Luke, Shane, Jodie, Alec & I saw 2 Reef Sharks when snorkeling just off the beach from our chalet.  One was about 1.5m, and the other a little babba. 

Jody, Alec, me & Shane snorkeling

Unfortunately my bed in the chalet had bedbugs, and I got bitten to pieces.  New traveling tip: Always check under the sheets of beds before accepting a room.  If the beds got bugs there will be tiny specks of blood over the mattress.  I found this out post-bites.  

IBM also emailed me to say there has been further delay to my visa application, and it has been put on hold.  Time to wait for my work permit somewhere else.

Lake Kenyir

The largest man made lake in South East Asia, containing 340 small islands.  Luke and I found it purely by looking at a map and liking the sound of the name.  We then hitched there from a nearby town where the bus dropped us in a car of 5 lovely Malaysian students/professionals.  

 Luke, Miza, Nur, Hazimah & me

We got there and checked into a house boat, which after being told was 'full miss, too full' in fact had no one staying on it at all. Bizarre!

House Boat

After showering and makananing we did a boat tour of the islands, which took us to a herbal farm and waterfall.  It was organised by the fancy Lake Kenyir Resort.  When we arrived the hotel had one guest booked in, and they didn't seem to mind us hanging out there in the day and doubling their guest figures.  We saw monkeys, Hornbills & an Eagle.

View from Lake Kenyir Resort

At sunset we walked to the one restaurant near our accommodation for some food.  They shut at 5pm.  WTF! Starving hungry we asked 2 guys called Eddy and K if there was anywhere else to eat.  Luckily they were driving to a local village for dinner, and so for the 2nd time in a day we hitched a ride with some locals.  I had Mee Goreng (fried chicken noodles) for 4.5 RM (<£1), which is fast becoming my favourite meal here.

Kuala Terengganu

One of the girls who gave us a lift to Lake Kenyir, Hazimah, invited us to stay with her family and attend her cousins wedding.  For the second time in a week I found myself in Baju Kurung at a traditional Malay wedding reception.  The married couple arrived with a band of hand drummers and the whole village turned up to watch and makanan.  Weddings run from 10am-4pm at the birdes house.  The whole village turns up.

 The bride and groom in red, surrounded by villagers and drummers

We congratulated the bride and groom at their thrown-like chairs, by placing rice and flower petals in their palms and shaking their hand.  Either side of the throwns are the wedding gifts.  The groom offers 7 presents to the bride.  She must better this offering but with an odd number of gifts.  One of the traditional presents is a boiled egg wrapped up as a flower.

Asiah, Luke, me & Zeemah in the bride and grooms throne

After the wedding Zeemah and her sister, Asiah, took us to a waterfall and night market.  In the evening her mother cooked a fish supper for the family, and we joined them to eat with our hands.  We tried all sorts of local foods wrapped in Banana leaves served with sweet tea. Hazimahs family were so so kind to us.  I can't wait to go back and visit them during the year, and have them to stay with me in KL.

The next day Zeemah and her fiance, Affis, gave us a tour of Kuala Terengganu, the capital of Terengganu state.  We tried our hand at some local crafts (Batik and leaf folding), visited and ate lunch at a local fishing village, took a boat ride along the river, and visited the Crystal and Floating Mosques.  It was a Friday so by law Assif, as a male, had to pray at a mosque.  They were really incredible buildings.  We had another taste of fame and respect during a rather intense photo-shoot with a group of Muslims at the Crystal Mosque.  They were really keen to meet us, taught us a bit about Islam, sang us some of the Arabic statements (which Muslims MUST learn in order to pray), took our names for Facebook, and even gave me a Qur'an to take away (which is now stored up high and safely in my bedroom, as per instructions).  For dinner we paid 2.5RM (50p) for a bowl of Laksa, a local fish broth dish with noodles, veg and an egg.

 Chilling with some Muslim women at the Crystal Mosque like an absolute celeb

Haffis, Luke, Zeemah & me outside Crystal Mosque

IBM informed me that the embassy still had my visa application on hold, as the system was still down, so Luke and I decided on Teman Negara national park as our next stop.  The jungle!

Teman Negara

Spent the first night in a 4-bed dormitory at a pretty dirty hostel called Rippi ran by 3 sarcastic and slightly odd Malaysians, but for 10RM (£2) a night you can't really complain.  Ate dinner on a floating restaurant, and decided to spend our second night sleeping in the middle of the jungle.  For 5RM (£1) you can book a night in a 'jungle hide'.  

After a challenging 12Km trek over streams, through tree roots, and up and down some pretty steep slopes we discovered that a hide is a dormitory room built about 5m off the ground to lessen the risk of death by animal eating, with 6 or so mattressless-bunk beds, no electricity and a toilet that has been blocked for a good year now.  It was basic.  We washed under a hose, stretched our legs, ate some rice and chicken which we had carried with us, played regimental rummy, and watched Peep Show on Luke's iPod before going to bed.

I'm amazed we made it if I'm honest.  6 people were booked into the hide but we were the only ones there.  Also, as with the jellyfish at Palau Tioman, Tamen Negara is infested with leeches and I was freaked out!!  The Wildlife Office advised me not to wear my flipflops (the only shoes that made it here in my 20Kg luggage allowance) into the jungle, but to invest 15RM (£3) in some super sexy gummy shoes.  I sported them with a bikini, sun top and shorts (I hadn't exactly planned to be away this long and had packed largely for the beach!).  During the day walked past this mega-serious trekking brigade, kitted out in waterproof head-to-toe everything and snazzy leech socks.  They did not look impressed with us.  However, in a group of 8 walking veterans they had had 21 leeches.  Luke had 2 and I had none.  Shorts are definitely the way forward because you can see when one of the little gits is on your leg.  

Whilst I am pretty smug about the leeches, I did manage to get some form of viscious poisonous spider inside my gummy shoe and now have a lovely swollen right foot. Fit! After parading it to Mum and Rach via skype and email I have been assured that it will unlikely need to be amputated, and the swelling will not spread up my body to my head. 

The spider that bit me.

(Mum, this is a joke).

The sounds of the jungle at night are insane!  It was like the wildlife was in my sleeping bag.  Some of the bugs imitated sounds, and we heard a chainsaw, a puppy, and I swear an old Nokia ringtone at one point!  We saw only a bit of wildlife on the trek; some type of Orb spider, a porcupine, a deer with a squashed in face, and organised armies of millions of ants.

 Walked the longest canopy walkway in the world

The whole experience kept making me want to sing Chase & Status: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbBEX1NxqgI 03:57 in.

Back to KL

Travels over, I moved back into the condo with the girls last night, and Sepideh's friend Parimah came over for an ice cream moving in celebration.  It feels so nice to be back in KL, with proper toilets.  The apartment is kind of starting to feel like home.  I just wish my visa would hurry up and get sorted, I really want to start my role and get some income.  Feels a bit like I'm in Limbo living here without income or work whilst Soph and Sepideh work and study.  After the stolen bag, Sophie's mugging, bed bugs, and big foot I feel as though I could do with some good luck.

Had a lovely visit from Zeemah and Asiah in KL.  Zeemah has invited me to her wedding next year, and their Mum has me a Baju Kurung especially for it, tailor-made to my exact measurments!  It's maroon with little flowers. So lovely.  I am so over-whelmed by their kindness!!

Sepideh, Parimah and I are thinking of going to the Cameron Highlands next week if the systems are still down.