Taman Negara - Day 1

Fast forward a few days and I'm still in Kuala Lumpur.

I'm sure some of you may think spending anything more than a few days here, when not working, is excessive. And you're probably right. However, I've been quite content to relax most days, try different foods and just soak up the way of life here. Call it easing myself back into travelling, if you will. 

My first few days were spent being a good tourist - getting up early and spending most of the day out and about; taking pictures, wandering around, doing a little shopping. I've been perusing some of the bookshops, where there's quite a decent selection. I've read Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' and have got a Salman Rushdie - 'Midnight's Children', that I've just started.
I have gotten used to the humidity, more or less accepting that my t-shirt is going to stick to my skin most of the day with sweat. I'm also getting less laughter from the locals when I eat with chopsticks - practice pays off!

So, to break up being a lazy so-and-so I ventured out to Taman Negara (translated as National Park), which is apparently the world's oldest rainforest. I went on a recommendation by the hostel owner, who was probably keen to get me our of her sight for a few days!

Normally I'm not at all one for package tours, where everything is organised for you and all you have to do is get on the bus in the first place. I usually find it can be more rewarding (and give you a smug feeling) to organise it all yourself, to wander past all the large pockets of tourists gazing absently at the tour-guide, to pick and choose what you want to see, do, hear. And go at your own pace.

I decided to have a break from that mentality, give it the benefit of the doubt and see if I'm not just being overly sceptical(sp) of organised tours.

And so the hostel owner, Suzie, booked everything for me over the phone one evening and I was picked up the next day from the hostel at 7.30am on a Tuesday morning. From there I was taken to Central Market, where a full-size, air conditioned coach was waiting.

I paid in cash at the office (RM350 / £70~ / AU$115~) for the basic '3 days 2 nights' package. Dorm room with fan, 7 meals and a string of activities. I packed light - mp3 player, book, camera and batteries, one change of clothes and some water.

Refreshingly I was the only English person on the bus, so that was a good start. The rest were Belgian, Norwegian, Spanish, Austrian, a French-Canadian and a Czech. I got a seat near the back, plugged music into my ears and gazed out of the window as we left the hustle and bustle of the city.

The coach leg of the trip was about 3 hours, with breaks here and there. The scenery along the way was a mixture of hilly landscapes, blankets of treetops and small towns and villages.

We had a change of transport and a wait of almost an hour at the Kuala Tembeling Jetty (paying for a camera + park license while we were there). I'm not sure what the kind of boat we changed to was called, but it was long, was two seats wide and had a noisy engine at the back. The river seemed to me a little 'Apocalypse Now'-esque.

We were in the boat for a solid 3 hours, taking in the beautifully lush green and dense trees that lined the river's edge, drifting in and out of sleep. The persistent noise of the engine soon became a distant hum in the background. I can't imagine how long this same trip must've taken before the propeller engines came along.
The ride was pretty uncomfortable after a while, but thankfully I wasn't sharing my seat with others so I could spread out and change my position.

At long last we reached our destination. We were given a brief greeting and explanation of the activities and  were issued with a book of vouchers and leaflets. We were then taxied off to our respective hostels and hotels. Our's, Persona Resort, was a mere 2 klicks from the jetty. I was fortunate enough to have an empty dorm room to myself, with the exception of a couple of geckos, and a swarm of as yet out-of-sight mosquitoes. I showered in the grim, under-lit, shared bathroom at the end of the corridor, where such luxuries as mirrors and toilet paper... even a hook to hang your clothes on were unheard of. I wasn't too fazed though, we were on the doorstep of the jungle in any case! We had less than an hour to gather ourselves before getting driven back down the hill again for dinner.

Dinner was at the company HQ, where we'd arrived earlier, which also doubled as a floating restaurant. It was an acceptable, but mundane meal of rice, chicken thighs, veg and salad. We were later to discover that we'd be having this exact same meal for the coming days. It turned out to be one of a few things that didn't go in the company's favour.

That evening's activity was the 'Night Jungle Walk'.  

We met our guide, Amal, at the floating restaurant after dinner and had our first look inside the rainforest, on the other side of the river. Despite a few words of advice about wearing trousers to avoid leeches and a coat to keep off the rain I went in what I'd worn all day - shorts, shoes and t-shirt.

Rainfall was pretty sporadic as the trees acted as an umberella for the most part. Still, you either got wet from the rain or from the humidity.

Guided by torchlight we made our way along the wooden walkways, Amal keeping ahead with a watchful eye for any snakes and the like dangling from trees. Amal was a good, friendly guide, who had plenty to talk about. It was just unfortunate for him that there wasn't much wildlife for him to point out during our walk. The sum total was a couple of stick insects, a scorpion, a brief appearance of a porcupine and some deer. Then there were various trees and vines, both with and without thorns. Of the slim pickings, the scorpion was the most impressive as Amal showed it to us in ultra-violet light, where it glowed a illuminous green. Using a twig he mimicked an insect walking infront of the scorpions lair, and the scorpion would run out, claws grabbing. No doubt this poor scorpion would be subjected to this on a nightly basis. Who knows, maybe it's on the payroll.

We continued on our way, hoping for something more substantial, but it never came. Our night walk ended at around 10 pm, when we were driven back to our rooms for the night. It was a pretty tiring day of mainly being moved about, but still we were all quite tired. I remained optimistic and looked forward to tomorrow's ventures.

First few days in K.L.

My first photographed meal. Spicy Chicken and rice. I ate one of the red chillies and had watering eyes, nose and forehead in a matter of seconds. It did taste fantastic though, once the burning had subsided.

The entrance to Chinatown. Busy during the day, absolutely insane at night when the shop owners block the road with their shelves on wheels, leaving only a narrow gap for you to squeeze through. Makes it easier for them to show you their stuff. You can get cheap clothes, shoes, watches and all sorts of food and drink here.

The Twin Towers. Home to a shopping mall, a theater and an underwater aquarium amongst other things. The skybridge was featured in the film 'Entrapment'. You can pay 40MYR to get the lift to the tip of one of the towers, or 10MYR for the bridge. Not tried either yet.

The world's tallest Murugan statue (at just over 140ft) at the foot of the 272 steps leading upto the Batu Caves.

A favourite shot of one of the monkeys that inhabit the area. I was surprised they weren't all shaped like footballs given the amount of tourists who must be feeding them. 

A small shrine by the side of the road. These are dotted around the city. Sometimes there are burning incense sticks in the jar of sand as an offering to the deceased. That's why you should never leave your chopsticks pointing upwards in your food.

Comedy. Just comedy.

The inside of the Batu Caves. Housing several shrines varying in size.

Onto new things...

Right, so that's Australia 'out of the way', if anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to leave a message.

I flew from Perth to Kuala Lumpur in the small hours of October 15th, 7 days more and it would've been exactly a year since I got that visa stamp in Sydney airport. I really cannot comprehend where that year has gone - it's all passed so quickly!

It was a pretty unspectacular 6 hour flight with Malaysian Airlines. I did get a window seat and was pleasantly surprised by a full-blown meal at 2am though. Lemon chicken curry which was strangely rather nice. They even happily obliged my persistent requests for more red wine. Well, why not?!

I made sure to get some AU$500 worth of Malaysian Ringitts before leaving Oz to avoid having to faff around in any currency exchanges in the airport. Not really being one for taxis unless I have no other choice I made my way through the KL transit system (which is actually really good - punctual, simple and CHEAP). Going through immigration was hitch-free, just had to think for a moment when it came to the box labelled "Normal Occupation" on the form.

I took the KLIA Ekspres from the airport to KL Sentral station, costing 35MYR (Malaysian Ringitt, which is about £7 as £1 = 4.90MYR at the moment), took about half an hour, and as I'm finding with just about every metro train, tram and monorail is lovingly fitted with air-conditioning.

From the KL Sentral station I took the Kelana Jaya line for one stop to Pasar Seni (Central Market in English). Once out of train and onto street I began following the directions I'd jotted down from hostelworld.com, politely shaking my head and smiling at all the people calling "Taxi". Luckily I didn't have to go far and only had to backtrack the once before I found my hostel in a quiet area, just walking distance from everything.

So - first impressions of Kuala Lumpur are positive! It reminds me of Istanbul in a few ways, one being how you can buy pretty much anything your imagination allows from the street markets.
 
Straightaway I notice the humidity and it doesn't take long to get used to and enjoy it for the most part, especially when carrying my bags around with sweat dribbling down my face. Mmm. Also it's a welcome change from Perth, which, though beginning to heat up steadily, was still uncomfortably cold at night.

I had some much needed power winks in my nice air-conditioned room (never get much kip on a plane) for a few hours, then headed into the deep-end to get some food. I was still half-shattered so I went for the first place that pushed a menu into my gaze, bang in the middle of Chinatown.

It was a nice enough plate of fried rice and fish. That and a bottle of water was 9-something MYR. I wasn't so comfortable eating there as it was very crowded with people walking up and down the narrow streets doing their shopping / sightseeing. Also, looking around, it seemed there weren't many other than Westerners eating there. I passed on beer (3 times!) as it is relatively expensive here, in part due to the predominately Muslim population (according to Wikipedia).   

After paying the waiter chap, I went off for a little wander in this new and thriving place. The next day I was toting the camera once again (after wiping off the dust). I'll get round to uploading some pictures soon.

For now though, it's dinner time. Most meals I'm getting now are around the £1 mark, with the most expensive so far being a bank-breaking 17MYR (£3.50)!!

Australia in a handful of pictures

One of about 3 attractions of Kalgoorlie - the Super Pit. It's hard to imagine the scale - half a mile deep don'tcha know!

Ayer's Rock, one of the favourite pictures I took of it.

The Grampians, Victoria.

A giant wax sculpture in the Ron Mueck exhibition in the National Gallery of Victoria.

Breathtaking sunset in Albany.

St. Kilda, Melbourne.

New Year's Eve, Sydney 2009.

...Surprise?!

The huge Australian flag on display infront of one of the numerous vineyard cellar doors in Margaret River, Western Australia.

How does someone pick up the pieces from a long neglected blog? I'm not sure... but I'm about to try.
At the time of writing it has been 14 months / 61 weeks / 426 days since I set off from Sheffield and It's been near enough a year since my last post. A lot has happened since then (obviously!) so I'll have to go for a kind of summary of some of the highlights. So without further ado...

I finished my year in Australia...

I had some truly spectacular experiences and met some amazing people, lots of whom I'll be sure to visit in their own towns and cities around Europe and the UK.

Well, when I'd left Melbourne, where I'd spent most of my time destroying my savings and drinking most nights I became "Dan the man with the plan"; deciding to spend the rest of my time in Australia knuckling down and working. Earning money to fund my next leg of travel - South East Asia.

A quick recap of my time in Australia as there's no way in hell I'd be able to retell everything: 

• Spent Christmas and New Year's Eve in Sydney 
• Went on a 40 day road trip from Melbourne to Perth (and back again, including 'nipping upto' Ayer's Rock)
• Worked for over 3 months at a golfcourse in Kalgoorlie
• Worked at vineyards in Margaret River 
• Spent my last 3 nights in Australia camping in Perth, with two Germans I'd met in Kalgoorlie  

I completed regional work for over 3 months at the golfcourse in Kalgoorlie (what a place!) and have therefore qualified for my Second Working Holiday Working Visa. The idea is to make use of that second visa in a few years, when I have a driving license and a good plan for work. You don't have to use it straight away.

One of the bonuses of working at the 'course was that I learnt to drive, and not just on the Workmen / golf buggies - an actual tractor and an actual pickup. So now I'm looking forward to getting my license at the next available opportunity.

My idea to get into construction or mining fell short when I realised I would have no chance of getting my foot in the door with only a handful of months left on my visa. The other thing was that not having a driving license was a huge disadvantage. Next time I'll get serious with work as soon as I touch down off the plane!

As the remaining few months ticked by I was getting really itchy feet and slumped into a kind of limbo, wishing I was anywhere else. My mind turned to home and I started to have a few pangs of homesickness.
I've come to understand that I am indeed a 'city boy' and not made out for these rural towns for extended periods of time. My sanity just can't take it!

Rather than attempt a mammoth post bringing everything upto date, I'll just get this one out of the way then it'll be easier to get going again. Quite a few times I've tried to restart writing but always put it off.

So chew on this for a little while!


Some pictures. The golfcourse photos aren't mine, and I hope no one minds if I slap them on here.

A typical vineyard (didn't work on this one)

Some weirdo, forgot his name

Front - back (Falk, Flo, Shekar)

Pete aka Steve Irwin on one of the Workmen

Steve (left), Falk (the other left)