Penang - Sat 6/03 - Tues 9/03

Penang…Now here is a place that surprised me immensely. I had assumed that Penang would be a quiet sort of a place. It is a relatively small island (70km’s around) off Malaysia’s West coast which I thought would be kind of similar in character to Melaka, which is back on the mainland but further south. We had heard that Penang is unusual by Malaysian standards because it is the only place where the ethnic Malays are the minority. It is the Chinese that are the majority here and Penang is the only place in Malaysia where this reversal of the majority and the minority occurs. Once we were on the ferry to Penang from the port of Butterworth on the mainland we could see just how different from my expectations this place was going to be. The main city of Georgetown far from resembling the quaint fishing village I had envisioned was actually a modern city with towering apartment and office buildings lining the island’s foreshore as far as the eye could see in both directions. It was reminiscent of the Gold coast and Surfer’s paradise in some ways as the buildings had the same brash appearance and gave the impression of Georgetown being a very prosperous city.

Once arrived we checked into the super popular ‘Travellers lodge’ where we got a room for 23 ringgit (about $8 AUD) a night and then went and took refuge from the oppressive heat in a huge nearby shopping mall for the remainder of the afternoon.

Penang is a mixture of old Chinese style shops and businesses crammed into narrow lane ways which is similar to Melaka. In amongst these historical buildings are enormous high rises filled with apartments, hotels and offices.

On our second day we decided to rent a motorbike and this was easily one of the most fun things we have done on our trip so far. We picked her up, a snazzy new 125cc automatic and after sussing out a few places of interest to visit it was off into the maniacal traffic we went. Zooming around on the little bike was heaps of fun and we soon found our way to Penang National Park. This is on the north west of the island and had some nice beaches (although nothing close to the pristine beaches of Malaysia’s east coast) and we went for a walk to a quiet beach and chilled out reading books in the shade for an hour or so. The heat in Penang is something else and the middle of the day is somewhere that must be spent in the shade or you will really suffer. Once we had recharged our batteries we were off to the ‘Canopy Walk’ which was a series of swing bridges set amongst the tree-tops in an isolated section of the national park forest. This was pretty cool, although I think I enjoyed it more than Kate and even though we were about 15 metres off the ground there were still some enormous trees stretching towards the sky far above us. We then walked back to the park’s entrance and zoomed off with a vague idea where we were going but not really sure what to expect.

We had found in the brochure a temple that looked interesting to visit back around in the hills above Georgetown but we weren’t entirely sure how to get there and, to be honest I was thinking ‘great, another Buddhist temple’. Wrong again! The place we found was far and away the best temple I have ever been to and I must say I have been to a few! It was set in the hills high above Georgetown and is a very famous Chinese Buddhist temple. It consists of many buildings but the two main attractions are the amazing pagoda which is about 50m high (imagine the leaning tower of Pisa without the lean) and the main attraction, an enormous statue (maybe 30m high?) of a female who is obviously significant to Buddhists covered over by a huge structure decorated with all manner of carved pillars, lanterns and mind blowing illustrations. Words hardly do it justice but this place was insane. The views over Georgetown were amazing and the whole of the city skyline was laid out below us. The walk up the spiral staircase of the Pagoda was spectacular with statues of the Buddha inside on every level as you went up. Hopefully the pictures will show just how cool this place was as it is just too difficult to describe using words alone.

On our way home we found an awesome food stall market outside a group of shops on a main road. There were heaps and heaps of little stalls selling all kinds of delicacies and we were both in foodie heaven. This is also where the first of our less than savoury encounters with some of the locals occurred whilst in Penang. Now on the whole Penang was an awesome place but we also met some odd-balls. As we munched away happily on our food at the stalls market some old Chinese bloke started screaming at us (in Chinese of course) and at first we didn’t realise he was targeting his rantings at us. No-one around us batted an eyelid as this bloke screamed and screamed from a few metres away at us. He then wandered off a bit and we thought he’d said his bit, but he turned around and kept shouting from a little further away. This pattern kept repeating until he was half way down the street and he was still going! By this time we were trying hard not to laugh but it had been a bit unsettling at first. Luckily all he did was yell but it certainly shook us up a little especially as we had no idea why he had chosen us to go off at.

Unfortunately he wasn’t the last bloke we met with a few screws loose and even worse most of them resisded at the place we were staying! For some reason the ’Traveller’s lodge’, although very cheap, resembled a rest home as the majority of tenants were a bit ’aged’ shall we say?? Unlike the nice old folks you usually encounter in a rest home this lot were a bit different and from our limited interactions they just seemed a bit odd. Most seemed to be the type that reside in Asia almost permanently, like an old Aussie bloke we met who talked so much his tongue got just about got sunburnt, and they seemed to have just lost that grasp of reality a bit. The majority seemed harmless but it was always unfortunate when one got talking to you and then that was it, there was no stopping them. They’d talk about all sorts of odd things, like the Engish bloke who had had a row with a guest house owner round the corner and was now plotting to buy the guest house next door to it with the idea of running the bloke who had offended him out of business. And on and on it went, mad rambling after more mad rambling, it definitely got a bit much in the end and I was glad in some ways to be moving on.

All this brings me to the least savoury moments of our trip and it all starts with a place called ‘shit alley’. Ahh shit alley, what a grimy lurkway you are. It all began when we were on our way back from breakfast on the second day. First let me describe shit alley. It is a walkway running along side of a ditch that all manner of filth is piled up in and flows into. The ditch is next to a walkway which is next to a block of flats. As we ambled along shit alley on that sunny morning we saw a bloke squatting above the ditch. Now I thought to myself ‘that’s odd’ and no sooner had this thought had popped into my head and I, very involuntary had seen his doodle! We both saw it and carried on walking and after we had turned out of said alley we both said ’Yuck!! We just saw that old bloke’s wang!!’ He had obviously just taken a dump earning ‘shit alley’ it’s name in the process. This was only the beginning however as on another walk along shit alley later that night we saw a huge rat on the other side of the ditch so I took great delight in throwing some sticks I found nearby at those disgusting vermin. Top fun! Why you may ask would we walk down shit alley in the first place I hear you ask?? Well, simple. It was a good shortcut and saved us a long walk around the block to get home. Also we weren’t expecting to encounter any trouble as Malaysia has always seemed like a very safe place for travellers. That was until our last night.

Let me set the scene. We had just eaten again at this fantastic Chinese restaurant we had found earlier that is probably the best Chinese food either of us has ever had. They brought food around to you on trolleys and you just picked what you wanted, brilliant. We were walking back to our accommodation when we saw some lightening flashes and felt a few spots of rain. Now we were really eager to get home. What better way than a quick jaunt down shit alley? As soon as we turned into the street that shit alley runs off of things went a bit pear shaped. Some of you may know that Kate isn’t particularly fond of dog’s she doesn’t know and as we turned into this street there was a gang of about six of them roaming around. Kate froze and I said something along the lines of ’don’t worry, they’re just someone’s pets, it’ll be fine’. At that moment two of the dogs started having a massive fight and all the dogs went nuts. Kate went white and nearly ripped my hand off saying stuff it we’ll go the long way round and me thinking damnit now we’re definitely going to get wet! So we turned about face, left the street and abandoned the weaker dog to it’s fate but wait! As luck would have it there was another entrance to shit alley further along the main street that we hadn’t noticed before. I said ’Sweet’! So we turned and went down shit alley ignoring the shadowy figure siting a little down the lane holding what appears to be…a bag?? Oh great. Just a moment too late I realised it was a glue sniffer who was sitting there watching us approach through unfocused eyes. Sensing I may have made a slight mistake (what is it they say about alleyways on dark nights??) we strode past projecting as much confidence as we could and that is when the gluey got up and started following us! I let Kate go in front of me and put myself between her and the gluey. She (that’s right it was a woman!) started walking behind me like a shadow and at any moment I expected to feel a glue encrusted hand against my back or shoulder. She skulked silently behind us for a few metres while Kate practically broke into a run to get out of the alley as fast as she could. I looked over my shoulder into the shadowed face of our pursuer and said something staunchly heroic along the lines of ’…umm are you owwright mate???’ With that the phantom stopped and gave me the death stare and launched into another incomprehensible diatribe consisting no doubt of the finest foul expletives that the Chinese language has to offer! Our second for our stay in Penang. I replied something along the lines of …‘yeah, no worries, we’ll get it off you next week…’ and kept on waking trying to catch up to Kate. We both felt pretty freaked out by this incident and by now, with the collection of odd-bods that we had met, we were both pretty keen to move on. I think we were lucky as the alley situation could have ended a lot worse but it was enough for us by that stage and I guess we learned a valuable lesson. Malaysia has seemed so safe wherever we have travelled but it just takes one encounter in a dark alley to make you a lot more careful.

Anyway we were due to leave in the morning for Langkawi, another island about two hours to the north by ferry. Langkawi is a tax free island so I was looking forward to buying some tax free beer at long last as it has been relatively expensive to drink everywhere else in Malaysia, with the exception of Tioman which is another tax free island. Unfortunately things didn’t go to plan and we were 45 minutes early for our ferry that cost us 120 Ringgit for our tickets…at the wrong ferry terminal!!! We missed the ferry to Langkawi, the only one that day and then had to muck around getting to the mainland and then catching a bus, taxi and then another ferry over to Langkawi. A costly mistake! My limited patience for even the slightest mishap was sorely tested here as it dawned on me just how much we had lost and how much longer it was going to take to get there!! I blame shit alley!!! Well anyway we arrived in Langkawi hours after most of the other travellers so we got just about the last cheapish room on the island, about 40 ringgit ($13 AUD). After all the highlights of Penang (the scenery, the food) and the lowlights (the nutters!!) we were glad to be somewhere a lot more chilled out and with cheap beer!! More about that next time. ’Til then.
View of Georgetown on Penang Island. We took a short ferry from to Penang Island which was really cheap (AUD$0.70).
The lame canopy walk we went on in Penang National Park. It took like 5 minutes to walk through the tree and cost us $AUD3!!! A total waste of money as you didn't see any birds or monkeys. A floating fishing villiage we saw while on a stroll in the National Park. I did not even attempt to put my toes into the water as it didn't look swimable!
Tim found a chicken foot in is soup!! He was not very impressed.
The bronze statue of Kuan Yin in Kek Lok Si Temple.
Kuan Yin statue. On the pillars are many intricate carvings which unfortunately we did not get to see up close as their was construction happening to the shelter.
These carvings are at bottom of the structure that holds the statue and I am sure the carving would have been similar on the pillars.
The seven storey main pagoda of the temple or the Pagoda of 10,000 Buddhas (the white tall building in the background)
The view from the pagoda. You can see there were many impressive buildings. I heard that the temple is the largest Buddhist temple in South East Asia.
The monks/nuns or workers were growing pumpkins like they are beans! I assume it must be easier for them to pick the best pumpkin to offer to Buddha. Some obviously had grown quite large so they had been tied to the pumpkin to the wire structure. Mum - I thought you might like this picture.
Ceilings inside many of the buildings were lined with Chinese lanterns.
This is the street stalls we found after our visit to the temple. People on motorbikes would drive up to a stall and order food - this was a new meaning to 'take-away' food for me!
Me eating a pork bun at the street stalls. Pork buns are now my new favorite food! yummy.
Shit alley with all it's lovely rubbish.
A typical street in Penang - it has no foot path so you have to walk on the road so we often walk one in front of the other. If you walked side by side then you would get knocked over by a car or motorbike.
So you can imagine our excitement when we found a foot path!
Our favorite Chinese restaurant in Penang - Tai Tong.
Drinking a burning hot cup of Teh Tarik (translates to pull tea) in a take-away bag!

Cameron Highlands - Wed 3/03 to Fri 5/03

Cameron Highlands…After the sun and sand of the Perhentians, we thought it might be nice to go somewhere a little cooler and without a beach. The Cameron highlands is in central Malaysia, a couple hours drive from the West coast. It is unusual compared to the rest of Malaysia as it is (obviously) a mountainous region and it has a much cooler climate. The average daytime temperature is between 16 and 28 degrees, unlike the almost permanent 35 degrees throughout the rest of the country. The landscape is dominated by misty peaks ranging in height from about 5000 to 6500 feet above sea level. This makes the highlands the highest place in peninsular Malaysia and a bit of a contrast to the rest of the country. As we stepped out of the bus we were greeted with a nice cool breeze and a much more comfortable temperature than anywhere we had been before.

The Cameron highlands is a very popular place for tourists, both local and overseas and there are hotels galore. Most are very tall apartment like buildings but as usual there was no chance of us staying anywhere like this. We did however find a great guesthouse called ‘Father’s’ that had awesome facilities, such as a movie room, internet access (albeit quite slow) a back bar and a full range of tours and services on offer. On our first afternoon we decided to walk into the town and have a look around. I was surprised by how many ‘palangi’s’ or foreign tourists there were. It was also nice to be back in a place with an abundance of cheap restaurants and good Indian food as we had been quite limited for choice on the Perhentian Islands.

The afternoon had another unexpected surprise in store for me as we were wandering along near a park just off the main street. I heard a noise, it was a very familiar noise and like a whippet my head shot around in the direction from whence it came. What I saw was something so wonderful I nearly broke into a sprint straight towards the source of this heavenly sound. I had heard, of course, the sound of people skateboarding! A small concreted area surrounding a fountain in this small park was home to the Cameron highlands skate crew. Not much of a spot I must say but it is was all these kids had and I certainly wasn’t complaining. Within seconds I had commandeered a board and was off skating around like a little kid again. The locals had a couple obstacles and two grind rails and some pretty rough ground. I didn’t care though as I was just so happy to be rolling again. The kids seemed genuinely surprised to see some random foreign bloke skating around in their little spot but they were happy to let me use their boards and asked me heaps of questions. I don’t know if I did much to impress them skating wise as the board I was riding wasn’t the best, the spot was pretty average and I hadn’t skated for a month but I certainly didn’t care and they didn’t seem to either. After a bit of a skate, and an obligatory photo with them all we said our good-byes and I skipped away a lot happier than when I arrived.

The Cameron highlands are known for their bush walks and mountain treks and so on the second morning we thought we’d give one a go. We chose an easy one (relatively) called Mount Jasar and the peak was a mere 5500 feet above sea level. It would take us an hour or so to reach the top and sounded pretty straight forward. So after some fluffing around trying to find a shop to sell us some water and snacks we headed off up the mountain. The first part of the trek was pretty simple and not too steep. The last half an hour or so involved clambering up a near vertical track climbing over tree roots and ducking under branches. The view at the top however was pretty awesome and we could see all the peaks around us and the town and giant hotels in the valleys below. After a hip jarring climb down the same track we decided that this would be enough of a walking experience for us and the rest of our stay would be devoted to doing something that didn’t involve walking up incredibly steep hills. We succeeded in this by booking a ‘countryside’ mini-van tour for the next day.

The tour cost 25 RM (about 8 bucks AUD) and consisted of visiting a Buddhist temple, rose farm, tea plantation, a butterfly enclosure, a strawberry farm and a bee farm. I must admit at first I thought this tour sounded pretty lame but once we got going and we met our guide ’Mr Singh’ it was actually pretty cool. Our guide had a funny habit of saying some English words very slowly so they sounded like ’rooose gar…din’ but he was a nice guy and had good knowledge of the places we visited and the Cameron Highlands in general. He did get very stressed though when one of our group went missing and our schedule got delayed while he went to look for the missing person. This was pretty funny as he started stressing hard out (the guy was 5 minutes late) but in the end the missing party was found and we were on our way again.

Highlights were the enormous tea plantation that covered about three hillsides in this certain valley. We could see people picking the tea (they earn about 40 RM a day (about $13 AUD) and it looked like back breaking work. You feel a bit bad sometimes as you know the people that live and work here get paid stuff all and compared to these people we are all so fantastically rich it makes you feel a bit guilty. Anyway the tea place was cool and the cup of tea we had very tasty and with that we were off to the butterfly farm. Now I thought of all the places we visited this would be the least interesting. How wrong I was! You see only the first little bit is a butterfly enclosure, the back two thirds is full of giant bugs, spiders, snakes, lizards and (my favourite!) scorpions. Now we all know that at home if you go to a zoo or a animal enclosure of any kind they will not in a million years let you touch any of the animals. Not so in Malaysia. Within seconds Kate had a giant Rhino beetle on her arm and I was eyeing up the tank with about 100 scorpions in it. The bloke that worked there was a bit of a character and he was grabbing bugs, snakes and scorpions out of their tanks for us to play with. I wore a couple of scorpions as lapels for a little while and it was definitely one of the cooler things I have done so far on this trip. They are pretty placid and just kind of sit on you. One started crawling towards my neck but the handler guy grabbed it by it’s tail and flipped it around so it went the other way. He assured me that they’re not dangerous if you know how to handle them but they were real live poisonous scorpions so I never thought you could ever handle them safely. The handler told us that he was so hard that if the scorpions bit him the scorpion would die and we all had a big laugh while surrounded by deadly snakes and other dangerous critters.

Once back at the guest house I was yarning to the owner and she said that all the deadly animals that they have at the butterfly farm are poached by people around the Cameron highlands. This means that if someone catches a snake or a scorpion they can take it to the butterfly farm (or another one like it) and sell it to them. So all the cool snakes and scorpions I had seen had actually been stolen from the wild and put into captivity for the viewing pleasure of foreign tourists like….me. This bummed me out a bit but the lady said not to worry, it’s just how it is here. She also told me that they get a lot of snakes in the storerooms of my beloved Indian restaurants in the town. Naively I asked why? The answer I didn’t want to hear. It’s because they’re filthy of course! The snakes go in to catch the rats that are foraging in there and the poor bloke who goes in to get some more supplies gets a heart attack. They have spitting cobras, vipers and all manner of dangerous and deadly snakes in the highlands and we had seen but a small selection.

The owner also told me a funny story about when a snake made it’s way into the back bar of the guesthouse. While all the guests ran to get their cameras a snake handler was called. This bloke thought he had the snake under control until it made a lunge for his hand and latched on by it’s considerable fangs to that webbing of skin between your thumb and index finger. As the guests all shrieked in horror and the snake handler turned white the snake began to coil itself around the poor blokes arm. With the cameras of the guests furiously clicking the man was escorted to the car and transported to the hospital with the snake still firmly in place on his arm. Once arriving in the E.R ward of the local hospital the man did not receive any medical help unfortunately, quite the reverse. The power the snake had over the people at the hospital was so considerable that everyone who saw it immediately ran screaming from the building leaving only the man and the snake to remain together alone! Thankfully the only creatures like this we saw were at the butterfly farm and we made it away from the Cameron highlands without any encounters of this sort ’in the wild’.

The next day it was time to move on again and we caught a bus to the West coast island of Penang. This is the centre of Chinese culture in Malaysia and is the only place in the country where the Malay people are the minority and the Chinese the majority. It is a historically significant port on the Straights of Malacca and is very prosperous with tall apartment towers reminiscent of the Gold Coast overlooking the ocean. Anyway more about this place next time. ‘Til then.
The Cameron Highlands skate crew. Tandoori chicken cooking it a claypot. We've had the best indian while we have been in Malaysia. The best was in Tuala Terenggganu and Malaka. A cricket on a beautiful flower. I found this on one of our walks around the city. At the butterfly farm there were heaps of insects and reptiles which the owner would take out of their small enclosure so you could pet and/or take a photos of them. Tim was keen on the scorpions while I preferred the insects!
The scorpion pit! This is the animal handler. In this picture he was tormenting a tourist with a poisonous snakes. Me with the stick insect that looks like a leaf. A close-up of this beautiful stick insect.Me and the rhino beetle. One of the many colourful and beautiful butterflies from the Butterfly farm.
Tim being an Orang Utan.
Us at the BOH tea planation.
The tea planation. Every 3 weeks the new tea shoots are cut by a machine and after 3 years the trees are given a good prune to stop it turning into a tree. The tea plant produces tea shots for about 120 years - these plants on the BOH plantation are 80 to 90 years old. The plantation is self efficient - the workers and their family live on the farm where they have a shop, doctors clinic and even a hindi, buddist and muslim temple.
The strawberry farm. We ate some dried strawberrys, strawberry cake and strawberry shake - all very yummmmmmy. The farm produces 30kgs of strawberries every day which are sold to the local hotels. We were really surprised to hear that the plants continously produce fruit all year round. As you can see the plants are risen to minimise pests and are planted in this plastic tube which contains ground coconut husks (the husks have heaps of minerals).
The view from the Rose Gardens. You can see the terraces in the background - the hills are sooo steep that they have to cut terraces into the hills in order farm the farm as well as the hot houses filled with either flowers, cucumbers, strawberries or tomatoes (white buildings).
The famous ugly green rose. This isn't a hybrid - it is natually green.
All the hotels and many of the buildings look like this in Cameron Highlands.
The view of the misy mountains from the top of the Mount Jasar.
The view of the town from Mount Jasar.
A mountain side filled with hot houses.

Perhentian Islands - Wed 23/02 - Tues 02/03

The Perhentian Islands…This was a place that we had both heard a lot about and we were eager to see if it lived up to expectations. It is known as the most beautiful islands in a nation of beautiful islands so we were expecting something pretty special. The trip from Kuala Terennganu was slow involving a few bus changes but was otherwise uneventful. The boat over to Pulau Perhentian Kecil (this means the small island) was quite fun and we were skipping across the swell in a twin outboard motored speed boat. Once we arrived at Long beach, where most of the budget guest houses are located we had to pay a further two ringgit each to get ourselves and our belongings off the first boat and onto the shore.

We were both struck with just how clear the water was here. It is far and away the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to and much more beautiful than the best beaches I have seen in both Australia and Thailand. I know it’s a big call but the water was completely clear with only white sand underneath, it was hard to believe that it was salt water and not fresh water. As we hadn’t booked a place, which we have found to be unnecessary at this time of year here, we traipsed with all our gear into the first guest house that we saw. The ‘Matahari’ our guide had said was okay so we decided to give it a go. Result! The room (which is a stand alone hut with a double bed, big verandah, mosquito net and fan) was 20 ringgit per night, around $6.50 AUD. This was the cheapest hut we had found in Malaysia and it was on the best island we had encountered. We were both pretty happy with this and immediately went for a swim in the amazing water.

The next few days consisted of reading our books on the beach, eating, swimming and pretty much doing bugger all. Now this may sound idyllic, dear reader, but I must confess. When you are born ginger and you have a million thoughts racing around your head all day, every day you start to get, dare I say it….a little…bored? I know, I know it beats working for a living but still there’s only so much sitting on the beach reading, doing nothing you (I) can take.

With this in mind we decided to go on a snorkelling trip around the Perhentian’s organised through the place that we were staying. They also had a dive shop attached so for a mere 40 ringgit ($12AUD) we spent a whole day exploring 5 top snorkelling sights around both the main islands. First we stopped in a shallow channel between the islands where the driver of the boat searched the water for turtles. Not little tiddlers either, they’re the kind of turtles that could feed a village for a whole month, they’re more than a metre from head to tail and when the bloke spots one he says ’right in you go’. With that we literally drop right on top of the unsuspecting turtles who are just floating quietly along the bottom having their lunch. You can swim so close that if you put your hand out you can touch them and you can see all the little swirly designs on the backs of their shells. We also went to a place called ’Shark point’ where you can see reef sharks swimming around along with all the obligatory multi-coloured tropical fish. It really was awesome and the way the sharks swim through the water is amazing. After a few more stops where we were able to ambush a couple more turtles it was time for a swim and a final snorkel at a deserted white sand beach and then back to Long beach.

Long beach itself was a good place to chill out but it did make us wonder whether there is actually anyone back in Scandinavia because it seems as though the entire population is having a holiday in Malaysia, namely the Perhentians. There was a very young crowd of Swedes and Norwegians, some who appeared they had been trapped in a toaster. One disturbing trend was for a couple of the guys to grease each other up with oil then run around in their undies kicking a soccer ball back and forward to one another up and down the beach. Not boxers either but full on tighty whitey style briefs! Disturbing was a word that sprang to mind but I guess the Scandinavian’s don’t get much practise at going to the beach so they might not know how to do it yet.

Anywho after all the snorkelling, swimming and doing nothing we thought it might be a good time to get away from the islands and head inland to the Cameron highlands. This is the mountainous region of Malaysia and has a much cooler climate with peaks rising to a touch under seven thousand feet above sea level but more about this place next time. Til then.
The crystal clear water....
Me looking a bit more tanned after a few more days on an island.
A half-opened umbrella. You could rent an umbrella for $AU3 per day. We did a few days as there wasn't a lot of shade on Long Beach.
Our bungalow. It was the cheapest accomodation we have had so far on our trip - RM20 - $AU7 per night. It was this cheap because it is the low tourist season. In the high season I am sure that you would have to pay about $AU20 per night.
A traditonal hut next to our bungalow. It was obviously unused!
A huge monitor lizard. We have seen dozens of these on the islands. They move pretty fast once they see you!
A super-quick sand crab.
A squirrel eating some fruit (looks like small nashi pears). Again, once they spot you they are off!

Pulau Kapas - Mon 22/03 - Wed 23/02

Pulau Kapas…Kapas is a very small island about two and a half hours further up the coast from Cherating. You catch a boat from a place called ’Marang’ on the mainland and from there it’s a short 5km blat in a speed boat over to the island. When we arrived we went straight to the guesthouse that we had thought looked good in our guide book. We met the owner and the first thing that struck us was how much building work was going on. It’s the end of the monsoon season here where boats don’t run to the islands and most accommodation places close their doors. As they are now re-opening prices are comparatively low to the high season but a lot are still working on maintenance and renovation. The room the guy showed us looked like the cow shed at Kate’s Mum and Dad’s place only not as nice and initially he told us it would be 40 ringgit per night. He then came back and told us it was 30 ringgit, this is about $10 AUD and about what we expect to pay for a basic but clean and liveable room. We accepted and tried to ignore the blatantly shabby state of the room and put it down to it being the beginning of the season. The owner had a bit of a weird vibe about him, neither of us could really put our finger on it but something seemed a bit off.

The island was pretty beautiful but the stretch of beaches that were able to be accessed by us on foot was quite small so options for exploring were limited. We went on a couple of walks, including one ‘jungle trek’ to the other side of the island that obviously hadn’t been attempted for some time. There were the most mosquitoes I have ever seen swarming all over us, huge spiders hanging in webs that I kept bumping into along the track and a trail in the bush that we lost after walking for a while. What was supposed to be a 30 minute stroll to the other side of the island turned into a mosquito infested mission so we abandoned our planned walk and literally ran out of the bush back towards the beach!

While strolling along one of the beaches we did have a pleasant encounter with some local fisherman who had come ashore to get some coconuts. They motioned at us to stop while one of them scaled up a very tall coconut tree on the edge of the sand. This brave bloke then stood on the huge bunch of coconuts at the top of the tree. By jumping up and down on them he knocked one or two fee and they fell with a dull thud down to his friends waiting below. Once there one of the blokes chopped the tops off them with a machete and offered them to us. They had so much milk in them we couldn‘t drink it all! Then he showed us how to chop them in half, cut off a small chunk to use as a spoon and scoop the insides out. Delicious! After gorging ourselves and having a pidgin conversation with much laughing and acting out of what we were trying to say to one another, the fisherman jumped in their little boat filled with coconuts and headed back to their vessel.

Other than this really unexpected and nice experience the island (and the people inhabiting it) just didn’t seem quite right so we decided to leave after two nights. A major factor in our decision to leave came on our second night when I was reading in our room, laying on my back looking up towards the ceiling. I thought I saw a head poke out for an instant and then disappear. I thought I must be imagining things until I thought I saw it again. I grabbed our mag-light (an invaluable purchase) and searched the top of the wall with the light. I thought to myself ’aww it’s probably a cute squirrel or a cool lizard or something’ then I saw the head. I thought ’what is that’ then it turned around quick as a flash and I caught a glimpse of it’s long ribbed tail….RAT!! I leaped up and tried to follow it with my torch. It flew along the top of the wall and tried getting into the next door neighbours room but was thwarted by a wooden beam. It turned around came back along our wall, went through a gap in the wall and outside. We went round the side of the hut and scanned around with the torch. No sign of it. After this every noise and creak we heard from outside sounded like the dreaded rat returning. Most wildlife doesn’t bother me too much, unless it’s crawling in or near my bed (no sheep jokes please…) but I hate rats!! Kate didn’t seem to fond of them either and throw in a couple more spiders, a cat with enormous balls that sprayed all over Kate’s sarong (that was actually pretty funny and he was ginger, typical) and we had had just about enough of this island and it’s queer inhabitants.

The beaches were nice but there’s no shortage of places here with nice beaches so in the end we decided to pack bags and go. Kapas didn’t end up being our favourite place in Malaysia but there you go, you win some you lose some.

After this we headed back to the mainland with the idea of moving further up the East coast to the much hyped Perhentian Islands. Before we arrived there we spent a coulpe of nights in the state capital of Kuala Terengganu. As we were feeling like we had spent a lot of time at beachy type places recently we thought it might be nice to have a couple ’rest’ days in a small city. This place was okay with an interesting Chinatown and a few historical places of interest. On the second day here I had a classic ’fair skinned ginger in a tropical environment’ type moment where I drank too much coffee and not enough water and felt like I’d been run over by a truck. Might I add at this point that Kate, although rather fair skinned also doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat at all and indeed seems to gain strength and energy from the sun compared to my tendency to whither up and beg for mercy after very little exposure to the tropical heat. After about 10 gallons of water and a few hours lying down I was up and at ‘em again and ready for the trip up to Kuala Besut the following day to catch a boat out to the Perhentians, but more about that next time. Til then.
One of the many small beaches on Pulau Kapas.
The view from our bungalow.
A local fisherman was up in this coconut tree (unfortuately you can't see him) kicking down the coconuts for us and his mates. You can see one of the coconut falling from the tree.
Tim enjoying his coconut!
Tim eating his coconut. The fisherman made a 'spoon' out of the coconut flesh for us so we could easily scoop out of flesh.

Me drinking my coconut milk!
Tim relaxing in his hammock. This is our life when we are on islands - reading and chilling.
The cat that peed on my sarong - look at how big his balls are. All the male cats have huge balls and crooked tails.

Cherating - Wed 17/02 - Mon 21/02

Cherating...Alright now this place is known as the capital of the small Malaysian surf scene. The town is located about half way up the East coast of the Malaysian peninsula and is a popular place for Malaysians to take their holidays. In surfing terms the town is home to an average left hand point break by world standards but by local standards it is the Waimea bay (Byron bay??) of Malaysia. When we arrived we found a nice guesthouse (read bungalows) across the road from the beach. The place also hired out surfboards for a relatively expensive 40 ringgit (our room for the night costs 40 RM also-roughly $12AUD) but as I’ve had no skates and definitely no surfing recently I was out there. The point only gets surf during the Monsoon months of November to February so it’s a long time between drinks for the local crew throughout the rest of the year. That means that the local boys were out there all day every day no matter how small the surf. I got up for a dawny on our second day and headed out into the small but peeling waves. The point is extremely shallow so there’s a current that pushes you along the point and away from the best surfing spot. This means that you have to paddle constantly to stay in the right spot. This would be fine if I’d been for more than one surf in the last six months but as it was my guts were hanging out after the first twenty minutes! Then I realised that the locals were catching a wave down the point then paddling into shore and walking back up through the shallow water in front of the rocks and then jumping in again at the far end of the point therefore saving themselves an exhausting paddle after every wave. It was this little discovery that set me on a collision course with a scaly bottom feeder of the deep but more about that later. The beach itself was nothing special with silty unclear water on an all too rubbish strewn foreshore. Once again by mainland Malaysian standards this is quite good but by Island standards it is almost unswimmable!

As the water wasn’t great we went on a couple of boat trips up the Mangrove lined river away from the town. The first one we did at night and this was a fire-fly watching trip. Basically the boat cruises up very slowly along the riverbank with the driver waving a red torch above his head. This attracts the fire-flies as the male of the species thinks it’s the female. What else would get a bunch of blokes out of the trees? The effect is staggering as thousands of what looks like little fairies come drifting out of the trees towards you and they’re so tiny but you can catch them gently and then let them fly away again. This was actually pretty cool and we had heaps of fun trying to (gently) catch the little buggers.

The other river trip we did involved going up the river again for a nature spotto where you hope to see some local wildlife. This didn’t disappoint either and we saw about five big black and yellow snakes (I think they were members of the cobras species?) asleep in the branches just above the river. Apparently they can jump and if they wanted to they could have easily just dropped down off the branch into the boat with us but luckily they are primarily nocturnal so we could observe them from less than two metres away in complete safety…apparently. As it was we saw more huge monitor lizards, birds and some kind of hybrid spider crab that looked just like a giant crab only hairy, the kind of stuff nightmares are made of really.

We also had a lovely and much needed surprise one afternoon when the bar/venue next to our guesthouse sprang to life with the sound of hardcore heavy metal music! This was very much unexpected and we went over to check it out. It was a Malaysian metal extravaganza that had been going all afternoon with bands from all around the country. This was the last thing I was expecting on an otherwise quiet afternoon but after a month on the road I was only too happy to hear some angry live music Malaysian style. Unfortunately by the time we were aware of the goings on there was only one band, ‘The Padangs’ left to play. They were obviously who all the kids were waiting for and they were actually really good. Super heavy with lots of screaming, I was in Asian metal heaven! The locals had their own brand of metal dancing that involved one guy hanging onto his friends legs, while his friend had his arms on the floor (think wheel-barrow races at Primary school). The guy with his upper body on the floor would then leap up off the ground and slap/punch those around him while his friend spun him around in a circle-hilarious! I thought to myself “why hasn’t anyone at home thought of this?”. Then I realised if you hit the floor and then came back up again in a bar or venue at home you’d come up covered in spit, beer and broken glass! So anyways ‘The Padangs’ went off and it was over all too soon.

Back to the surfing. So one evening I was getting in a few waves before dark when I met one of the local sea creatures in a most unfortunate way. The sun was just about to sink below the horizon and as all surfers will do I thought to myself ‘may as well get one more in eh’. With that I began the walk through the shallows back up the point. I was just exchanging a few words with one of the local guys when I felt the most extraordinary feeling in the side of my foot. I literally stopped what I was saying and doubled over grabbing my right foot. You can imagine the kinds of thoughts (foul expletives) that were running through my mind. The bloke I was talking to was saying ‘jellyfish jellyfish’ and I was saying fffaaarrrkk!! I looked at my foot and it was bleeding out of a cut about an inch wide and it was burning like I couldn’t believe. I turned tail and raced back to my towel on the beach and tried pressing that against the cut to stop the bleeding. All that did was put sand all through the cut and it was beginning to feel like my foot was on fire. I was at the end of the point and our guesthouse was about 500m away which was looking like a damn long way just at that moment. I realised that I was on my own and I had no way to call anyone for help so I was going to have to walk back. Shit. The stagger that ensued was one of the most painful experiences of my life and I was really starting to wonder just what the hell had bitten or stung me. Once I got back to where Kate was at our bungalow I started on the whole ‘get the first aid kit No I’m not joking seriously just get it arrg my foot No really I got stung or bit I don’t…just get it lemme sit down I’m freaking dying over here please just get something arrg it hurts like a arrg please do something get the panadol the aspirin anything I don’t care Jesus please and so on. All in all I think I took it pretty well really. Kate said ‘I’ll either pee on it or get some vinegar.’ I said ‘I’ll take the vinegar thanks’ and she went to the store across the road to get some. When she put that on there it did absolutely nothing and by now I was ready to cut the damn thing off! The bloke at the guest house took one look at it and said ‘sting ray stingray-very painful’. I said…something (use your imagination here). Sting ray stings bleed and jellyfish ones don’t so with the diagnosis made it was off to the doctors which turned out to be about twenty km’s back up the main highway. The next hour or so was one that I would rather forget but if I had to describe it I would probably say it’s like someone pushing really hot thin sharp knives or daggers into wherever you’ve been stung and then taking them out and pushing them in again. Once we found a doctor and waited for her to finish up her previous patient I was in the room and having needles inserted into the wound in order to kill the pain, sounds like a bit of a contradiction really but it worked. After that it was just another quick shot in the arm to guard against any allergic reactions as the poison makes it’s way around your body. Add in a few tablets like anti-histamines, swelling reducers, anti-biotics and painkillers and I was right as rain. Travelling is full of so many rewarding and life-changing experiences that let you grow as a person….yeah right!! I was absolutely spewing that I’d managed to stand on a sting ray and I have vowed to never go through anything like that again if I can possibly help it.

Alright enough ranting, so after that little ‘mishap’ things went pretty much back to normal other than the enormous bandage on my foot, the limp and suddenly being known throughout the community as ‘that sting-ray guy’. So after a few more days we decided to move onto Kapas Island to see if we could find some crystal clear water where I could watch out for anything that might be lurking beneath the surface but more about that next time. Til then.


This is Tim after had been to the doctor for his sting ray sting.
The stingray cut.
One of the many big spiders we have seen. These spiders are called The batik orb-weaver nephila antipodiana spider (the guy at the Butterfly farm in Cameron Highlands called it Ox spider so not sure which name is correct). We have seen heaps of these absolutely everywhere. Their body is big - about as big as your thumb and with the his long legs it is a hands-breadth. The guesthouse owner said that the spider isn't poisonous and he said that it doesn't move at all - he just stays in the same spot all day. Even though he said this I kept an eye on it every morning... and guess what - she moved and we never saw her again.... If you want to learn more about this spider then go to this website http://malaysianspiders.blogspot.com/search/label/nephila%20antipodiana%20spider
This is a cute tiny bird in his nest.
For dinner one night we had a Nasi Ayam (Chicken and rice) - a malaysia dish. I was looking at the chicken thigh and i thought it was pretty damn large for a normal chicken - really large!! I thought that we were eating cat (there are millions of cats in Malaysia)- the size of the chicken bones i thought matched the size of the cats bones. I was then convinced that i had eaten cat until i saw these huge chickens/roosters and figure we must have eaten one of these beast.
Cherating beach and the surf break in the background - it is sooo small that you probably can't even see it.
The punk festival goers dancing to 'The Panangs'.
The singer of 'The Panangs'
The mangrove river cruise. We cruised up the Cherating river where the guide spotted snakes, lizards, otters, and crabs amongst the mangrove trees.
Houses set on the river bank..
A mangove seed.
A poisonous snake. We saw many of these chilling out in the mangrove trees. Our guide said that they would only come down from the trees every few days to catch a feed of rat or a fish.
A Hornets nest. We didn't hang out near it for very long - thankfully!!