Chilling in Malacca

Until now the coaches had been below par, with old dirty seats and no suspension but Kit had really come through for us and we stood in front of a brand new executive coach. With leather seats, a/c and loads of leg room. Unfortunately it was only a 3 hour coach ride but we enjoyed every minute of it on our way to Malacca.
Malacca was a bit of a sleepy town with interesting historical sites but not really much else to do. The hotel we were staying in was the best one so far. We had a nice clean ensuite with a bath! And the hotel had a Jacuzzi on the rooftop. Paul, Anna, Adam and I went exploring around the town with Kit whilst the others made use of the Jacuzzi.



In the evening we had a Chinese by the river and then went looking for the local cinema. We walked though a large shopping centre and saw the signs for the cinema. However when we got to the entrance there was a sign displayed saying it was opening on the 5th of July so we were a couple of days too early. In the end we made our way back to the hotel and chilled out in the bar and listened to the local musician. The next morning Adam and some of the others hired bikes to go exploring, some people stayed at the hotel in the Jacuzzi and Anna and I decided to take a riverboat cruise. When Adam had returned from his bike ride i asked him what interesting things he saw and his response was “not a lot but we did find some swings”.



Anna and I in the meantime had a lovely time on the riverboat. The guide was brilliant informing us of how there were many changes afoot to be completed for 2010. Redevelopment was quite high on the agenda but what was nice was the fact that they weren’t trying to make it look too modern, in fact they were updating houses and buildings but to look as though they were from early 20th century. After our trip we went back to the hotel and joined some of the others in the Jacuzzi. Adam and the others had gone to the bar to grab some lunch after their bike ride and he then went to use Paul’s bathroom as i had got our room key. I was then told by Debra that Adam had got locked in the toilet and there were about half a dozen people trying to rescue him. In the end the staff managed to take the lock off the door which left a huge hole in Paul’s bathroom door (good thing he wasn’t sharing the room with anyone else). What a day! After a lovely relaxing day for me anyway we enjoyed a massive feast of a bbq. We couldn’t believe how much food was there from chicken satay to pasta, shrimp, jacket potato’s, it was all so lovely.

Caves and Capitals

Another day of travelling and as we arrived in the capital of Malaysia, it was clear this was a very large city. We had a small walk from the bus station to the hotel. We had a bit of free time so we went to explore Kuala Lumpar (KL), we found a huge shopping centre called Times Square, it was that big that it had its own theme park including a rollercoaster inside it. That evening we headed over to china town and the markets with Kit. After having a lovely Chinese meal, we went shopping in the markets, those of you who know TJ well know she likes a bargain and to barter, she was in her element, again!. After lots of bargains we were tired so went back to the hotel. Kit had told us that if we wanted to go up the Petronas Towers (the 2nd tallest building in the world) then we had to get there early to get tickets. So Anna, Jenni, TJ and I arrived at the towers for 7am and stood in a queue for an hour.



The doors eventually opened and we went up a lift to the 41st floor in 41 seconds. Once we reached the sky bridge that links the two towers we got to have a wander across and looked at the fantastic views of Kuala Lumpur. We had told the others in the group to meet us at KL tower, the 5th tallest communication tower in the world. We caught the underground train and thought that we had a short walk to the tower. The short walk turned out to be a trek through a rainforest reservation. We finally managed to meet up with the others in the tower and had another fantastic view of KL.
After the towers we headed off to Little India which was quite disappointing. We had been told it would be like a mini bollywood with lots of fantastic asian shops and music playing in the streets but unfortunately it was just an area with a few market stalls and Indian eateries. We didn’t stay there long!



We were told to visit the Batu Caves which is where the hindus go to pray and have their festival. We were waiting on 2 taxis which would have cost us 30 ringgits for each taxi but luckily whilst we were waiting a bus stopped in front of us with a board displaying Batu Caves. So we caught the local bus and it only cost us 2 ringgits each. When we eventually arrived the first thing we noticed was all the steps leading up to the entrance of the caves – 272 of them to be precise, which on a very hot day did not look very enticing. However we made our way up and Jenni even managed to run up the first 100. Whilst walking up we were met by some monkeys and this time we all ensured we did not have any plastic carrier bags. The caves were incredible, it was amazing to see how large they were inside and how parts of the cave had been turned into temples and shrines. After an hour at the caves we then caught the bus back half way to KL and then got onto the monorail as it stopped nearer to our hotel. That night we all wanted some “English” food and so persuaded Kit to take us to a place that served steak etc. The food was delicious and the themed naval restaurant made it enjoyable. After our meal we went back to Paul’s room where all 10 of us squeezed in and started to drink various alcoholic mixtures. The night was young and so after an hour everyone bar Kit agreed to go to a local nightclub, so Kit sorted out our taxis and off we went. As soon as we arrived we all noticed the “ladies of the night” sitting near the entrance to the club with not very much on. The music was brilliant and we all had a boogie on the small dancefloor but then suddenly a ladyboy tried to make his/her advances towards Paul, which Paul was not too happy about. We all left the club about 3am and made our way back to the hotel.

Tea and Steamboats

The next morning we had to catch a coach to Cameron Highlands, until now we had been travelling in a private mini bus which had a/c and a DVD player. Now we were on public transport which was a little less comfortable. The coach ride was endless, but we finally made it to Cameron Highlands. As we got off the coach you could feel that the temperature had dropped, this was because we were quite high. We went to dinner with kit where he told our group of some day trips available to us for the next day. It didn’t sound that exciting a day but we had nothing else to do. After breakfast the next day we met our tour guide for the day, his name was Ravi. All 10 of us piled in to the back of his Land Rover and we headed off to the tea plantations. What a sight, fields and fields of tea bushes it looked like a green carpet. Ravi was a very informed man, telling us all sorts of facts and history about the area. We then moved on to another peak. As we climbed up the stairs of the observation tower we were in the clouds, the highest point in Cameron Highlands. The ‘Boh’ tea factory was next on the trip, where I even tried tea (it was ok with lots of sugar). We saw the equipment used to collect and process the tea and where the workers lived.



We then continued onto the butterfly farm, this was more like an insect zoo. Ravi showed us the way to pick up scorpions and how to handle loads of different insects, he was just grabbing them from the cages it was an amazing place and by this time we were all having a fab time. Just to round up a great trip Ravi took us to a strawberry farm, where we all had strawberries and ice cream. We all enjoyed the day trip out and it was definitely the best trip so far. That evening Kit told us about a dish called the steamboat, this is a soup which you have boiling on your table and then you add raw meats and vegetables to it as you like, but you get a large selection of meats from chicken and beef to jelly fish and cockles. A few of us tried the steam boat and only Paul, Lisa, Hugh and I tried the jellyfish ( never again) it was an experience as Hugh kept telling me.

Snakes and Sunsets

We had another long day of travelling, we stopped overnight in a town about 5 miles from the Malaysian border. The next morning we went and had our passports stamped and entered Malaysia, 1 hour on the other side of the border and the bus was stopped by some local police who decided to check everyone’s passports, we were told to keep an eye on our passports even when the police had them. We travelled for another 2 hours before we reached our destination of Penang an island 3Km away from the mainland at its closest point, we had to go over the Penang bridge which is 13Km long.



After lunch we took a wander around Georgetown, the capital of Penang, it is a mix of colonial and shanty buildings. Kit had given us a list of places to visit, we decided to visit most of them the next day. We did visit ‘Fort Cornwallis’ which was the fort of Penang when the British colonised it. As we entered the fort we were met by a lady dressed in a period costume and told we could get our photo taken wearing colonial hats and holding a rifle. We headed back to the hotel after looking around the museum in the fort. After freshening up Kit told us he knew of a great Indian restaurant, which served food on banana leaves instead of plates.



Afterwards kit took us to a night club which was ok but in Malaysia they add 40% tax on alcohol so it’s not cheap to drink, we ended up getting a few bottles of spirits and sitting on the roof of the hotel playing poker until 2am. Whilst on the way back to the hotel Paul bought a tub of Durian, which is a local fruit which is supposed to be very tasty but smells absolutely disgusting (to me it smelt of gone off mango). He took a small piece and put it into his mouth next thing we know he spits it back out. We could smell the Durian on him and so made him go wash his hands and buy some extra strong mints to mask the smell. One of the locals saw what happened and was very happy to take the tub away from Paul and eat it himself.



The next morning Paul, Lisa, Anna, Tj and I headed out quite early for a packed day of sightseeing. To start with we made our way to the snake temple which believe it or not had lots of snakes in it. We decided to visit the botanical gardens, as we pulled up in the taxis we saw signs telling us not to feed the monkeys. As we entered the park the monkeys were all around us, we started taking pictures of the ‘cute’ Monkeys but then they turned evil. Anna had bought some syrup and ash trays as souvenirs and was carrying them in a plastic bag, in a flash one of the monkeys jumped at Anna and grabbed the bag, we tried to get it back but the monkey just hissed at us and showed his teeth. Then the monkey opened the bottle of syrup and drank it. We managed in the end to get the ash trays back, and now understand why so many people in the park carry sticks. After all the excitement we headed over to the peak, the highest point in Penang. We wanted to watch the sun set over Penang and were told this was the place to do it, but we didn’t realise how high and scary it was to get there. We had to get 2 cable cars which went up a very steep incline. It was worth it though.