Sunday, January 14, 2007
Malaysia week one and a bit
For some strange reason I haven't been able to log into the blog for the last week.
I finished up my time in Singapore just mooching around... I spent a day on Sentosa Island - went luging (v tame although the ski lift was a wee bit high!), watched a pink dolphin show, saw some sharks in the Underwater World - and went to the Bukit Timah nature reserve - scaled a 163m high mountain for fun.
Last Saturday I got on the bus up to Kuala Lumpur. That was quite an experience - they've got it down to a fine art. You get driven up to the causeway linking Singapore to Malaysia, at which point you go into the Departures bit, then straight back on the bus, over the causeway and into the Malaysi Arrivals terminal - where I swear they had more passport people available for three coachloads of people than any airport would have for three plane loads! Then it was straight through customs, back on the bus and up to KL, smooth as silk. I arrived in KL at about 3.30 in the afternoon and got a taxi to the place I had booked - "the Haven" - which was really nice and clean, although the walls were a bit thin! It was actually only a 5 minute walk away from the bus station but it was at the start of a really long road and I hadn't known beforehand just how far up it would be.
I spent Sunday chilling out mainly, then on Monday I took a tour around the city on the new hop on hop off bus which had only just started about a week before and they were still ironing out teething problems - like knowing when to cue the recorded commentary... But it was really good to give me a better idea of the layout of the city and where areas were. I stopped off at the Petronas Twin Towers - highest twin towers in the world now, around 88 floors. Unfortunately the bridge between the two towers was closed on Monday so I had to go back on Tuesday to get my ticket. I got there at around 10.45am and the earliest I could get on the bridge would be 3.15pm. They only let about 20 people on it at a time for 10 minutes. The bridge is around 45 floors, or 170m up from street level, and you get a pretty good view of the city. Unfortunately the PC I'm at wont let me hook up my camera so I can't show photos at this stage.
On Wednesday I took a trip outside KL, up to Taman Negara - Malaysia's premier national park. I stayed in a wee village called Kuala Tahan. This is a three and a half hour bus ride and a three hour boat ride from KL. The boat trip was pretty cool, the boats were sampans which meant I was sitting at the water level, and felt a bit precarious at times. The village itself is a bit primitive. For a kitchen sink girl like me, not having hot water was, while not unexpected, a bit of a pain - it wasn't quite warm enough to be able to wash my hair in the cold water!
On the Wednesday evening I went out on a 4wd jungle safari. The truck was a toyota with two benches on the back, but Billy, one of the guides, invited me to sit up on top of the cab with him. It was a bit daunting, but was definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, as it is a rainforest, it had been raining and the ground was pretty muddy. So muddy that the truck got stuck. They spent about half an hour trying to get it out, but it had slid backwards and sideways into a ditch and was at what felt, from the top of the cab, rather precarious! So I got down pretty quickly! It was clear that we weren't gonna get the truck out after half an hour of pushing so we took a wee vote and decided that the guides were gonna walk up to the road for help, and I decided to go with them - I would have gone mad sat in the truck waiting. As it turned out, the road was only about a 10 minute walk away and we flagged down a bike straight away and the other guide went back to the village with him for help. Billy also called his cousin. Billy and I sat and waited on a bench by the road, and watched for barn owls. About 20 mins later the cousin arrived and went down to try to help get the truck unstuck. About an hour after that, the other guide arrived with another 4wd truck and Billy and I climbed in and went back to the others. Turns out they had just got the truck unstuck. So we headed back to the village, stopping along the way for water as the engine was in danger of overheating, and arrived back at about 1.30am rather than the 11pm we had been told! By the way, I was well prepared for this scenario... I had decent shoes, water, a torch, a penknife and an umbrella and a cell phone. I will always carry the kitchen sink with me!
The next day, Thursday, I went for a walk into the jungle and walked along the canopy walkway, which is the longest tree top walkway in the world at around 500m. This was pretty cool, but really high up - it was even freaking me out!
For the afternoon, I just chilled out as I didn't want to tempt fate and have anything else go wrong... such as getting stuck upstream or having a boat go kaput on me!
On Friday, we got the boat back down the river, this time only taking 2 hours, and then the bus back to KL.
Saturday, I went back to the Twin Towers as I had to take something back to M&S there. I also went to Times Square (where there are around 10 floors of shops - ridiculous! and no good shoes!) and went to the indoor theme park there. It cost about 3.50GBP to get in, and some of the rides were a bit scary! Check out http://www.timessquarekl.com/themepark.html. The roller coaster wasn't in action, but I did go on the Spinning Orbit and the Space Attack - the latter really scary as you come out of your seat when you're upside down - you're left praying that the overhead securing thingy doesn't come unstuck cos that's all that's holding you there!
Today, Sunday, I took a bus up to Lumut, about halfway up the west coast of Malaysia, to get a ferry to Pulau Pangkor where I am now. I'm staying at a place called the Seagull Beach Resort which isn't on the beach, and I wouldn't call a resort, but I have my own room with a bathroom and air con for about 5.75GBP a night. It's still ridiculously humid here, sweat just drips off you. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going on a snorkelling trip to a couple of nearby islands, otherwise I'll just spend my time here on the beach as I need to get my legs tanned. The beach here is really lovely so it's no hardship.
I'm not sure how long I'm gonna stay here, it depends on whether I decided to go to Langkawi or not. I need to get up to Bangkok in about 10 days max and I can fly from either Penang (where I'm headed next) or Langkawi for about 15GBP one way!
Will keep you posted. Hope everyone's having fun wherever you are, and are enjoying the winter.
Sx
I finished up my time in Singapore just mooching around... I spent a day on Sentosa Island - went luging (v tame although the ski lift was a wee bit high!), watched a pink dolphin show, saw some sharks in the Underwater World - and went to the Bukit Timah nature reserve - scaled a 163m high mountain for fun.
Last Saturday I got on the bus up to Kuala Lumpur. That was quite an experience - they've got it down to a fine art. You get driven up to the causeway linking Singapore to Malaysia, at which point you go into the Departures bit, then straight back on the bus, over the causeway and into the Malaysi Arrivals terminal - where I swear they had more passport people available for three coachloads of people than any airport would have for three plane loads! Then it was straight through customs, back on the bus and up to KL, smooth as silk. I arrived in KL at about 3.30 in the afternoon and got a taxi to the place I had booked - "the Haven" - which was really nice and clean, although the walls were a bit thin! It was actually only a 5 minute walk away from the bus station but it was at the start of a really long road and I hadn't known beforehand just how far up it would be.
I spent Sunday chilling out mainly, then on Monday I took a tour around the city on the new hop on hop off bus which had only just started about a week before and they were still ironing out teething problems - like knowing when to cue the recorded commentary... But it was really good to give me a better idea of the layout of the city and where areas were. I stopped off at the Petronas Twin Towers - highest twin towers in the world now, around 88 floors. Unfortunately the bridge between the two towers was closed on Monday so I had to go back on Tuesday to get my ticket. I got there at around 10.45am and the earliest I could get on the bridge would be 3.15pm. They only let about 20 people on it at a time for 10 minutes. The bridge is around 45 floors, or 170m up from street level, and you get a pretty good view of the city. Unfortunately the PC I'm at wont let me hook up my camera so I can't show photos at this stage.
On Wednesday I took a trip outside KL, up to Taman Negara - Malaysia's premier national park. I stayed in a wee village called Kuala Tahan. This is a three and a half hour bus ride and a three hour boat ride from KL. The boat trip was pretty cool, the boats were sampans which meant I was sitting at the water level, and felt a bit precarious at times. The village itself is a bit primitive. For a kitchen sink girl like me, not having hot water was, while not unexpected, a bit of a pain - it wasn't quite warm enough to be able to wash my hair in the cold water!
On the Wednesday evening I went out on a 4wd jungle safari. The truck was a toyota with two benches on the back, but Billy, one of the guides, invited me to sit up on top of the cab with him. It was a bit daunting, but was definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, as it is a rainforest, it had been raining and the ground was pretty muddy. So muddy that the truck got stuck. They spent about half an hour trying to get it out, but it had slid backwards and sideways into a ditch and was at what felt, from the top of the cab, rather precarious! So I got down pretty quickly! It was clear that we weren't gonna get the truck out after half an hour of pushing so we took a wee vote and decided that the guides were gonna walk up to the road for help, and I decided to go with them - I would have gone mad sat in the truck waiting. As it turned out, the road was only about a 10 minute walk away and we flagged down a bike straight away and the other guide went back to the village with him for help. Billy also called his cousin. Billy and I sat and waited on a bench by the road, and watched for barn owls. About 20 mins later the cousin arrived and went down to try to help get the truck unstuck. About an hour after that, the other guide arrived with another 4wd truck and Billy and I climbed in and went back to the others. Turns out they had just got the truck unstuck. So we headed back to the village, stopping along the way for water as the engine was in danger of overheating, and arrived back at about 1.30am rather than the 11pm we had been told! By the way, I was well prepared for this scenario... I had decent shoes, water, a torch, a penknife and an umbrella and a cell phone. I will always carry the kitchen sink with me!
The next day, Thursday, I went for a walk into the jungle and walked along the canopy walkway, which is the longest tree top walkway in the world at around 500m. This was pretty cool, but really high up - it was even freaking me out!
For the afternoon, I just chilled out as I didn't want to tempt fate and have anything else go wrong... such as getting stuck upstream or having a boat go kaput on me!
On Friday, we got the boat back down the river, this time only taking 2 hours, and then the bus back to KL.
Saturday, I went back to the Twin Towers as I had to take something back to M&S there. I also went to Times Square (where there are around 10 floors of shops - ridiculous! and no good shoes!) and went to the indoor theme park there. It cost about 3.50GBP to get in, and some of the rides were a bit scary! Check out http://www.timessquarekl.com/themepark.html. The roller coaster wasn't in action, but I did go on the Spinning Orbit and the Space Attack - the latter really scary as you come out of your seat when you're upside down - you're left praying that the overhead securing thingy doesn't come unstuck cos that's all that's holding you there!
Today, Sunday, I took a bus up to Lumut, about halfway up the west coast of Malaysia, to get a ferry to Pulau Pangkor where I am now. I'm staying at a place called the Seagull Beach Resort which isn't on the beach, and I wouldn't call a resort, but I have my own room with a bathroom and air con for about 5.75GBP a night. It's still ridiculously humid here, sweat just drips off you. Tomorrow I'm thinking of going on a snorkelling trip to a couple of nearby islands, otherwise I'll just spend my time here on the beach as I need to get my legs tanned. The beach here is really lovely so it's no hardship.
I'm not sure how long I'm gonna stay here, it depends on whether I decided to go to Langkawi or not. I need to get up to Bangkok in about 10 days max and I can fly from either Penang (where I'm headed next) or Langkawi for about 15GBP one way!
Will keep you posted. Hope everyone's having fun wherever you are, and are enjoying the winter.
Sx
# posted by Sue Lambert @ 2:06 AM 
