Kulula Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia), the biggest diversity of people and culture I’ve seen so far. Three nights was quiet enough for me there and really I wanted to only stay two but bus tickets were sold out till the follow day. Stayed in Classic Inn Budget Hotel which was across the street from Times Square mall. A mall consisting of 14 floors, indoor amusement park, university, and a shopping haven. The stores were just like at home and so were the prices. I need to get out of here.
I was on a mission to find the iPhone 3Gs in KL. Been wanting it for awhile now. I’m a technology freak so the addiction kicks in every now and then. I suppose I don’t really “need” it but hell it’s darn cool. What really attracted me was the Unlocked version of the phone to use any SIM card. I eventually found it (after a bit of searching around) across the street from Times Square where there was a technology mall. Price was 3000RM. Crazy I know. First and hopefully only biggest technology purchase I’ll make in a long time. Loving the iPhone and all of it’s features. Highly addicted to it. Translate any language, listen to music finally on bus rides, read books without carrying a book, and heck play a game every now and then.
I absolutely loved the Indian food in Malaysia. So many choices of food at inexpensive prices got me eating all the time. I need to get ready for the food in India anyway so I guess I might as well start eating Indian food now! Eating with my hands is something I would need to get use to. For tourist attractions in KL I went to a bird park. It was known for the biggest free bird park in the world and it really was fascinating. Birds of all shapes, sizes, colors, and sounds. Loved having of having all the parrots, owls, and eagles all over me eating food out of my hand.
The famous Petronos Twin Towers in KL quite the mission to get to the sky bridge. I met Steve (Works in South Korea, originally from Canada) and we went on a mission to get there. First we had to get the free tickets and in order to get it, you have to get on the line at 7am. Tickets are limited so the sooner the better. After over an hour on the line, we finally got our tickets that gave us a time when to come back. A few hours later we went back for our scheduled time. Pretty nice view of all of KL. Not much to see really besides big buildings, cars, and more buildings. I find it funny that such a large oil company can be the icon of an entire country. Regardless, it was still neat. After that we made a random entrance to a traditional Malay dance show. The dances were highly complex and took many dances from its surrounding countries and used it in their own form of a Malay dance. You could tell the mixture of India and China was well blended in Malaysia from it’s dance form and music. Beautiful dances and even got a group shot with the dancers! Very productive day I must say.
KL Tower was way better then Petronos Twin Towers although I did have to pay an entrance fee this time. It was another view of the city but this time at night. The city lit up bright especially the Petronos Twin Towers.
Cameron Highlands
The drive to Cameron Highlands (a few hours from KL in the middle of Malaysia) was an adventure in itself. Our driver thought it would be great to go 100kmph up hill in a one lane road made for two ways with 90 degree turns every half a second. It was a roller-coaster. The weather in Cameron Highlands was the coldest I’ve felt since I left from home! It wasn’t actually cold but it had a chilly feel to it which made it very comfortable. It’s perfect trekking weather and that’s what Cameron Highlands is famous for with backpackers.
Steve and I had done trek path 1 which is good for a few hours up hill completing in one day. We had thoughts of going with a tour to a few different places but we wanted to go budget and figured it was going to be a better experience going on our own anyway. And we were right! Path 1 took about 2 1/2 hours to get to the top. The path was nearly straight up at times having a rope to climb up with, very muddy covering our feet with mud by the time we got to the top, and extremely tiring. Eventually we got to the top highly accomplished that we made it up in one piece lol. The walk down was simpler since now there was a road. One our way down we stopped by a Tea Plantation. The surrounding smell of the tea growing around us was refreshing. By now though our legs feel like their going to fall off doing whatever it takes to get back quicker before dark or rain. We had many hours of walking to go so we decided to stick our thumbs out and didn’t take long before a truck stopped and picked us up. It was like a farm truck and seems like they usually have animals in the back where we were sitting. Quick and easy ride down to the bottom though. Next was somehow getting back to our town from where we were. No buses in sight and just one main road that led to our town. We had no choice but to walk it which really would take us hours to get back. We had our thumbs out once again but got distracted by a strawberry picking farm we made a stop at. Delicious strawberries! Ok so again we continue our walk and no one was stopping for us. About an hour later a bus eventually comes and picks us up on the side of the road. It took us exactly where we needed to go. Very adventures day and a way better deal then a tour package.
Penang – Georgetown
The drive to Georgetown was just as wild. Road safety is unheard of but the ride is fun. Penang was a British colony many years ago so it’s still got that sort of British feel to it with it’s buildings. Quiet and peaceful village with again great Chinese and Indian foods. Steve and I rented a motorbike and simply just drove around the entire island. I love renting motorbikes and driving around, I get to see what I want when I want to at my own pace and even discover new and hidden things. We stopped by random attractions along the way at pretty much anything that looked interesting. 2 nights in Georgetown was enough to see everything on the island.
Perhentian Islands
Guess how the ride was? Ah I’m sure you’ve guessed it. Crazy. Perhentian Islands required me to take a boat there which instantly reminded of the Thailand beaches. Steve and I stayed in Long Beach which has the majority of the backpackers and the prices are reasonable I suppose. I was determined to get my Scuba Diver Open Water PADI Certificate. The certificate basically means I’m an official Scuba Diver that has been trained the basics of scuba diving and can go to some sites that require me to have at least a Open Water Certificate. The cost was around $200US and it included 3 days of intensive diving from 8am till about 6pm of nonstop videos, books, and diving. Well worth the money if you ask me. It would cost a fortune in the states or Australia. The corals and fish lit my eyes up. Surrounding walls covered in corals of all different shapes and sizes. And the fish, whoa! Crazy world down there. I have my divers log book filled in with everything I saw for memories sake of all the dives and diving experience I have. As for the island itself, real chilled out. Ate tons of fish, relaxed, and slept early. Easy days.
Train to Singapore now. There’s an express train that goes there on the Jungle Line. About 12 hours through the jungle. I was suppose to take the morning train but it got filled so instead I’ve booked the sleeper train which I don’t mind anyway. I just had 10 hours to kill waiting for the train and thankfully there’s a Tesco to kill time in. For the folks at home, Tesco is England’s answer to Walmart but it’s also in some areas of Asia. Time flies in Tesco lol.
Reminder: Pictures are uploaded via Facebook. I can’t be bothered to put pictures here. Too much work and it’s hard enough to find time to write blog entries.
