Distance covered since last blog: 4,705km
August 11th was a date that had been on my mind for months - Sean Morton's arrival in Malaysia, and the start of a new chapter in my travels. I woke up nice and early, and set off on the 70km bus journey to Kuala Lumpur airport to pick him up when his plane landed at 11:15am. For some odd reason I couldn't find the flight from London on the Arrivals board, so went over to the Air Asia information desk to question them. The woman there told me that there was only one flight arriving from London that day, and it landed at 11:15pm. Predictably I got stroppy and refused to believe her so asked the bloke sitting next to her to double check - he confirmed it. Turns out I'd misread the email and turned up 12 hours early. So I got back on the bus to the city, spent the day milling around not really doing anything, then returned to meet him at the correct time.
Our first business was to conduct a walking tour of Kuala Lumpur, which we did in about two hours. There isn't a whole lot to see really, and once you've taken an obligatory photo of the Petronas Towers there isn't much else. Besides, it was unbearably hot so we spent a fair chunk of the afternoon enjoying the air conditioning of a shopping mall. One of the big things we hope to enjoy in Malaysia is Malay cuisine, but unfortunately for the first two days of Morts' time with me, I was struck down with a stomach bug and didn't eat for 48 hours. Not an ideal start to the tour, but things picked up. Despite my weakened state, we went for a night out in Kuala Lumpur. Our first stop was 'Reggae Reggae Bar', which we learnt later is the only bar in the city that allows under-age people in. It was pretty weird, and we got out of there sharpish and went to the more suitable area of Bukit Bingtang. It was only fractionally more suitable however, because to get in to most bars you needed to be suitably dressed - shorts and flip-flops didn't cut it with the bouncers. I spotted an Irish pub that was showing England thrashing India, so we went in for a pint there. £7 for a pint of Strongbow and £4.50 for a Carlsberg. We had one round then left. Night out fail.
Malaysia is split into two parts - the Malaysian Peninsula and Borneo. Our plan was to do Borneo first, so the next day we flew to one of the main cities on Borneo, Kota Kinabalu. (Just a little aside: we went to the wrong airport in Kuala Lumpur first - I've had terrible luck there!) Kota Kinabalu is a tiny place, so after a 30 minute walking tour we headed to BB Bar, ordered a bucket of beers and spent the afternoon playing cards. The next day we caught a minibus to Mount Kinabalu with the intention of trekking up it. In hindsight I'm furious at myself for letting Morts talk me into doing this - as I proved in Nepal, I can't trek and hate almost every single moment of the trekking itself. Mount Kinabalu is over 4,000 metres tall, which is 700 metres higher than I made it in the Himalayas! Needless to say it was hideous, I completely darked out, my legs started to feel like they were going to collapse again and at about 2,300 metres a monsoon hit the mountain. This was our call to turn back having been trekking for a grand total of 2 and a half hours. My second massive trekking fail of the tour. Despite this though, the trek began the start of our time as outdoor 'adventure travellers'.
Off the coast of Kota Kinabalu are a collection of island that make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, so we decided to spent the day visiting a couple of them, catching some sun and doing some snorkeling. My swimming shorts smelt so repulsive that I abandoned them in Kuala Lumpur, so before getting over to the islands I had to buy a new pair. We found a suitable shop and were pleased to see a wide range of swimming shorts. The Medium size looked like it might be a little tight, so I bought a pair of Large without trying them on. I went into the toilet to change into them, only to find to my shock that I couldn't even squeeze them round my thighs. I went back to the shop rather sheepishly and asked if they had anything bigger. My embarrassment wasn't helped by the shop assistant yelling across the room to her friend to go into the stock room and bring out some Extra Large. I thanked them and went back to the toilet to get changed where I found to my horror that I still couldn't get the velcro bits to join round the waist! It was too much of a humiliation to go back and ask for the XXL, so I threw them in the bin and decided to just swim in my normal shorts. £3 badly spent. It's worth mentioning that Asian people are tiny and an Asian XL is in no way comparable to a European one.
Our afternoon on the islands was very pleasant. We did lots of of snorkeling, looking at the Chinese girls on the beach, playing cards and fishing with plastic bags (crumble crisps near a shoal of fish, then creep up on them when they're not looking). This was also the day I lost my iPod. I don't need to go into detail about that - but needless to say I was pretty bummed out.
We treated ourselves the following day to a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan on other side of north Borneo, and checked into our 'jungle lodge'. It was really remote and would have been one of my favourite places so far, had it not been for the totally incompetent staff, average food and overpriced beer. They did give us a free lift to the Sepilok Orangutan Centre however, where we had a fun morning. We are in Malaysia during a monsoon season, but this doesn't stop us dressing like it's a sunny summers day, so despite the downpour we arrived at Sepilok in vests, shorts and flip flops. Obviously we didn't waste money buying waterproofs, and just elected to 'wear it' and get soaked on the feeding platform which is fully exposed to the elements. It was really worth it though, and I speak for both of us when I say Orangutans are some of the most banter animals in the world. Near Sepilok is the Rainforest Discovery Centre where we stumbled upon something that sounds like it's going to be seriously lame, but turned out to be brilliant - the 'Plant Discovery Garden'. We basically had it to ourselves, so were able to eat whatever we wanted - cinnamon, peppercorns, ginger, figs. I'm pretty sure that sort of behaviour isn't allowed, but what can I say? We're a couple of adventure travellers who play by there own rules.
We wanted to go a little deeper into the Sandakan area of Borneo, so we went to spend a couple of days at a little Homestay on the banks of the Kinabatangan River. This was a few days pretty much solely dedicated to wildlife spotting, whether it be Proboscis monkeys in the trees or tropical birds in the forest. We did three separate river cruises, but the highlight for me was the jungle trek. We had tried to get to an oxbow lake in our boat, but the little river was blocked by a felled tree, so we had to retreat and trek through the rain forest instead. This is how trekking should be! Not up a mountain, but hacking through the undergrowth with a machete, getting shin deep in mud and batting off aggro mosquitoes. At the end of our time in the Kinabatangan region, we both agreed that it was 'money well spent'.
A short flight through a lightning storm later, and we were back on the Malaysian Peninsula and got into Kuala Lumpur at 2.30am. We didn't do much the next day until the evening, where we made a pretty sizeable dent in a bottle of vodka playing a drinking trivia game, then headed back to the Bukit Bingtang district but this time more suitably dressed. Upon closer inspection of the bars we discovered that the drinks were too expensive, there were too many blokes, and most clubs were blaring deafening hip hop/dance music so I refused to go in. Therefore, we had a curry and went back to the overpriced Irish pub, ordered two £4.50 pints of Carlsberg, watched the cricket, then went home. Another massive night out fail in Kuala Lumpur.
With Pangkor done, we moved on to Penang, a far bigger and more touristy island. We stayed in the Little India district of the main city Georgetown and needless the say the first thing we did the next morning was rent a new set of motorbikes. Driving a motorbike round busy city streets in the pouring rain is a very different experience to the empty country lanes of Pangkor, but I think I handled myself well and we took in a lot of the old British colonial sites that are scattered round the city. We did venture out of town for the afternoon and cruised along the north shore of the island towards Taman Negara, the 'must see' National Park on the island. We got to the front gate but were told we couldn't take our bikes in, so turned round and left. Another major tourist site ignored by me - just stick it on the pile with Chiang Mai, Pukhet, and The Great Wall of China. That night was a designated 'night out', and Morts had caught wind of a club called 'Slippery Senoritas' which he'd heard good things about. We pre-lashed with a savage game of 'Drinking Spartacus' then headed out in our best gear - my top even had sleeves! There was a really good live band on and the place was packed. We got chatting to a couple of Swiss girls, and despite Morts completely failing as my 'Wingman' and disappearing to make Malaysian friends at the bar, things worked out well for all.
The next day was a bit of a fail as we recovered from the night before, then the day after we boarded the early morning ferry to our third and final island, Langkawi. Langkawi is where I am at the moment. I know it's been six weeks since I last blogged, and I could keep going about what we've been up to for the past few days, but I've been typing for hours and frankly can't be bothered. Keep an eye out for 'Adventure Travellers - Malaysia Part II'
August 11th was a date that had been on my mind for months - Sean Morton's arrival in Malaysia, and the start of a new chapter in my travels. I woke up nice and early, and set off on the 70km bus journey to Kuala Lumpur airport to pick him up when his plane landed at 11:15am. For some odd reason I couldn't find the flight from London on the Arrivals board, so went over to the Air Asia information desk to question them. The woman there told me that there was only one flight arriving from London that day, and it landed at 11:15pm. Predictably I got stroppy and refused to believe her so asked the bloke sitting next to her to double check - he confirmed it. Turns out I'd misread the email and turned up 12 hours early. So I got back on the bus to the city, spent the day milling around not really doing anything, then returned to meet him at the correct time.
Our first business was to conduct a walking tour of Kuala Lumpur, which we did in about two hours. There isn't a whole lot to see really, and once you've taken an obligatory photo of the Petronas Towers there isn't much else. Besides, it was unbearably hot so we spent a fair chunk of the afternoon enjoying the air conditioning of a shopping mall. One of the big things we hope to enjoy in Malaysia is Malay cuisine, but unfortunately for the first two days of Morts' time with me, I was struck down with a stomach bug and didn't eat for 48 hours. Not an ideal start to the tour, but things picked up. Despite my weakened state, we went for a night out in Kuala Lumpur. Our first stop was 'Reggae Reggae Bar', which we learnt later is the only bar in the city that allows under-age people in. It was pretty weird, and we got out of there sharpish and went to the more suitable area of Bukit Bingtang. It was only fractionally more suitable however, because to get in to most bars you needed to be suitably dressed - shorts and flip-flops didn't cut it with the bouncers. I spotted an Irish pub that was showing England thrashing India, so we went in for a pint there. £7 for a pint of Strongbow and £4.50 for a Carlsberg. We had one round then left. Night out fail.
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| Morts on the Kuala Lumpur walking tour |
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| Trekking |
Our afternoon on the islands was very pleasant. We did lots of of snorkeling, looking at the Chinese girls on the beach, playing cards and fishing with plastic bags (crumble crisps near a shoal of fish, then creep up on them when they're not looking). This was also the day I lost my iPod. I don't need to go into detail about that - but needless to say I was pretty bummed out.
We treated ourselves the following day to a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan on other side of north Borneo, and checked into our 'jungle lodge'. It was really remote and would have been one of my favourite places so far, had it not been for the totally incompetent staff, average food and overpriced beer. They did give us a free lift to the Sepilok Orangutan Centre however, where we had a fun morning. We are in Malaysia during a monsoon season, but this doesn't stop us dressing like it's a sunny summers day, so despite the downpour we arrived at Sepilok in vests, shorts and flip flops. Obviously we didn't waste money buying waterproofs, and just elected to 'wear it' and get soaked on the feeding platform which is fully exposed to the elements. It was really worth it though, and I speak for both of us when I say Orangutans are some of the most banter animals in the world. Near Sepilok is the Rainforest Discovery Centre where we stumbled upon something that sounds like it's going to be seriously lame, but turned out to be brilliant - the 'Plant Discovery Garden'. We basically had it to ourselves, so were able to eat whatever we wanted - cinnamon, peppercorns, ginger, figs. I'm pretty sure that sort of behaviour isn't allowed, but what can I say? We're a couple of adventure travellers who play by there own rules.
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| Classic Orangutan tomfoolery |
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| Eating the cinnamon tree |
A short flight through a lightning storm later, and we were back on the Malaysian Peninsula and got into Kuala Lumpur at 2.30am. We didn't do much the next day until the evening, where we made a pretty sizeable dent in a bottle of vodka playing a drinking trivia game, then headed back to the Bukit Bingtang district but this time more suitably dressed. Upon closer inspection of the bars we discovered that the drinks were too expensive, there were too many blokes, and most clubs were blaring deafening hip hop/dance music so I refused to go in. Therefore, we had a curry and went back to the overpriced Irish pub, ordered two £4.50 pints of Carlsberg, watched the cricket, then went home. Another massive night out fail in Kuala Lumpur.
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| Celebrating England beating India 4-0 From Kuala Lumpur the plan became a route due north straight up the west coast, moving from island to island. The first of these was Pangkor, a tiny island only 7km from top to bottom. There is no public transport available so the only way to get around was for me to man up and get over my fear of riding motorbikes. Frankly, I took to it like a duck to water and was zipping around in no time. As it happens, the island is so tiny we had seen everything by about midday, so parked up the hogs - The Green Hornet and The Green Growler - and hit an almost deserted beach. I proposed swimming to an off shore island, which was far more tough than I thought it was going to be (especially when being attacked by microscopic jellyfish). Once I'd got my breath back, Morts took me on a 'Swimming Nature Tour' round the island, taking in fish, crabs, sea cucumbers and a bat cave. His behaviour in the bat cave does make me wonder whether he has a future career as a tour guide though: 'I'm gonna f*cking rile them up', followed by screaming and splashing them with water as they slept. |
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| Me and The Green Hornet |
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| The lads out at Slippery Senoritas |
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